Tempted by a Rogue Prince (Eternal Mates Book 3) by Felicity Heaton Review

Wow! Just, wow! The Eternal Mates series is one of my favorites and each book just makes me love it more. I was hooked by Kissed by a Dark Prince then after reading Claimed by a Demon King I thought that Heaton couldn't possibly create a better story, but I was wrong folks! Tempted by a Rogue Prince is now at the top of my favorite paranormal/fantasy book list. Vail, aptly known as the "Mad Elf Prince", tore my heart to shreds. I had to consistently tell myself to suck those tears back in. Be strong. It's a story. It's not really happening. Let me tell you, none of that helped. If you are sensitive to the suffering, torture, and self loathing of a strong male character, Vail just may leave you a quivering and blubbering mess. Oh my heavens, Heaton got me good with this one. I loved every one of the tear dabbing, snot sniffing scenes with Vail. I loved this book so much that I don't even know where to begin or how to properly convey just how much I appreciated the journey Heaton took me on.

Both Vail and Rosalind are confused by and fighting against prophecies dictated to them regarding their mates. Vail knows that his mate was to be a witch and after what he suffered at the hands of Kordula he wants nothing more than to destroy anyone who embodies the same magic that was used against him. Rosalind on the other hand is living with the knowledge that when she finds her mate it will lead to her death. Neither is looking for or wanting a mate and under the circumstances that they find themselves love is the last thing on their minds.

You get a strong engrossing story way before you get the sexiness with this one. There isn't a real sex scene until after the 60% mark and I assure you that you won't miss it. Keeping Vail and Rosalind from coming together physically until later is especially important to the realism of their story. There simply is no way that Vail could have been open to a real relationship with Rosalind after suffering through over 4,000 years of being controlled and tortured by a dark witch. Rosalind was a perfect blend of compassion with a strong sense of morality and strength, intelligence, and perseverance. 

We are also introduced to an incubus by the name of Fenix, a new secondary character that I now need to read more about because his story will revolve around a horrible curse that could also be another awesome ride. Heaton is good at throwing these little firecrackers into her story that peaks your interest, leaves you wanting to know more, but somehow still doesn't take away from the main story at hand. Yes, Felicity Heaton is a tease of a writer, but I love her for it. If you are a paranormal romance fan do yourself a favor and start this series now. The stories are engaging, both the male and female characters are dynamic, interesting, and multi-layered, and best of all the series is still at the beginning and there are set ups for many more stories to come. I'm am now anxiously awaiting stories for Bleu, Grave, and now Fenix. Oh, the sweet, sweet, pain of waiting for a favorite character's featured story. The next book in the Eternal Mates series is Hunted by a Jaguar it will be Kyter/Iolanthe's story and is due January 2015 so you have plenty of time to read the first three books and be all caught up for it's release.

Happy Reading!

Monica

**I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

Amazon US 

Synopsis:

An elf prince on the verge of losing himself to the darkness, Vail is maddened by the forty-two centuries he was under the control of a witch and forced to war with his brother. Now, he roams Hell seeking an escape from his terrible past and the heads of all who bear magic. When demons of the Fifth Realm capture him, he sees a chance to end his existence, but when he wakes in a cell to a beautiful female, he finds not death but his only shot at salvation—his true fated mate.

Captured by the enemy of the Third Realm when the war ended, Rosalind has spent months in the cells of the Fifth Realm with her magic bound, forced to heal the new king’s demon warriors, and haunted by the lives she has taken. When she’s brought to heal an unconscious man, she discovers her only hope of escape has come in the form of her worst nightmare and the first part of a prediction that might spell her doom—a devastatingly handsome and dangerous dark elf prince.

Unwilling to fall under the control of anyone ever again, Vail must escape before the Fifth King can use him as a pawn in a deadly game of revenge, but he cannot leave without Rosalind, the woman who looks at him with dark desire in her stunning eyes and awakens a fierce hunger in his heart. A witch who drives him mad with need even as the darkness within whispers she will enslave him too.

Can Rosalind escape her fate as they embark on a journey fraught with danger and resist the temptation of her rogue elf prince? And can Vail overcome the memories that madden him in order to seize his chance for salvation and the heart of his fated female forever?

Books in the Eternal Mates paranormal romance series:

Book 1: Kissed by a Dark Prince
Book 2: Claimed by a Demon King
Book 3: Tempted by a Rogue Prince
Book 4: Hunted by a Jaguar – coming in 2015

About the Author:

Felicity Heaton is a New York Times and USA Today international best-selling author writing passionate paranormal romance books. In her books, she creates detailed worlds, twisting plots, mind-blowing action, intense emotion and heart-stopping romances with leading men that vary from dark deadly vampires to sexy shape-shifters and wicked werewolves, to sinful angels and hot demons! If you're a fan of paranormal romance authors Lara Adrian, J R Ward, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Gena Showalter and Christine Feehan then you will enjoy her books too.

If you love your angels a little dark and wicked, the best-selling Her Angel series is for you. If you like strong, powerful, and dark vampires then try the Vampires Realm series or any of her stand-alone vampire romance books. If you’re looking for vampire romances that are sinful, passionate and erotic then try the best-selling Vampire Erotic Theatre series. Or if you prefer huge detailed worlds filled with hot-blooded alpha males in every species, from elves to demons to dragons to shifters and angels, then take a look at the new Eternal Mates series.

If you want to know more about Felicity, or want to get in touch, you can find her at the following places:

Website  Blog  Facebook  Twitter  Goodreads

Read an Excerpt!

Tempted by a Rogue Prince – Excerpt

The man on the cold stone slab before her twitched and moaned, the sound strained and filled with agony that tore at her and compelled her to help him.

“I don’t have power over this man’s life,” Rosalind whispered to him in reply to the incubus, her eyes fixed on his face, taking in the dark circles beneath his eyes and the hollows of his cheeks. “I don’t have the right to choose whether he lives or dies.”

“Because the demons told you to heal him?” the incubus said.

“No.” Rosalind shook her head and looked across at him. “Because it isn’t in my nature to do such a thing. I will heal him.”

The man scoffed. “And you will live to regret it, Little Girl.”

“I’m not a girl. I’m over one hundred years old… and do I look like a girl to you?” Rosalind stood and ran her hands down her tattered black dress, the traditional garb of a witch on duty.

The incubus’s eyes followed them, the blue and gold in his irises increasing, and he muttered, “No.”

He turned away, pressing his bare back against the bars of his cell and revealing the twin lines of markings where they joined between his shoulders and formed a line down his back that ended in a diamond above the waist of his low-slung black jeans. 

At least he would be quiet now. She hoped. Healing always required focus, and something told her that this time it would need the highest level of concentration she could manage.

Something else told her that the incubus might be right. She might regret healing this man. If he was as dangerous as he felt, he might well kill her upon waking.

But maybe that would be what she deserved after the things she had done.

She had vowed to protect lives, to do all in her power to tend to people’s needs, and she had been protecting lives in the war between the Third and Fifth Realms, but she had also been taking them. 

If this man was a killer and deserved death because of it, then surely she deserved the same fate in order to maintain the balance and order of the world?

She closed her eyes against the memories that welled up, lashing at her. She hated that she now knew how to kill. She hated knowing she was capable of that darkness. It scared her.

She feared becoming like her sister, a dark witch drawing on the shadowy other side for her power—the realm of death.

But worse than that, she feared that now she knew how to kill, she could do it again if she had to, and next time it would be easier.

Rosalind opened her eyes and focused on the man in front of her, on the present rather than the past or what might lay ahead in her future.

The aura of danger clinging to him was growing stronger. He was healing himself. Was he one of the warriors from the war? If he was, what side had he fought on and what species was he?

The only way to find out the answers to those questions was to complete the task she had been sent here to do.

She blew out her breath and held her hands over his bare chest. As she lowered them, bringing them almost into contact with his skin, she channelled the only power available to her into him, seeking out his wounds and fixing them as best she could. There were so many. 

Her power drained quickly and she had to take regular breaks to avoid overtaxing herself and passing out. She didn’t want to lose consciousness in a cell with this dangerous stranger, not when she didn’t have the power to protect herself.

The fast drain on her power confirmed something for her though. This man’s injuries and wounds ran deeper than those of the flesh that she could see. He was weak for a reason, whether that was a sickness of the body or of the mind.

His eyelids fluttered and she withdrew her hands again, her breath lodging in her throat as she waited. His long black lashes lifted, revealing steel-blue eyes. His dilated pupils swiftly narrowed and his hands shot up above his head. He snarled at the cuffs and pulled his wrists apart, tugging the chain between them taut. He heaved harder, his muscles tensing and rippling beneath his bloodstained pale skin, and growled when the chain didn’t break.

“They dampen our powers,” she said.

His gaze darted to her and narrowed, steel blue-grey that burned into her, sending a fierce shiver of awareness through her that drew every drop of her focus to him. What species was he? Vampire? Werewolf? Both of them had a human appearance and she had met many of their kind in the past, but none had affected her as this man did.

He struggled harder against his bonds and the metal sliced into his wrists, spilling blood down his arms. It didn’t stop him from fighting the restraints.

“Stop!” Rosalind snapped, her voice echoing around the stone cells.

He turned a murderous glare on her and flexed his fingers. His demeanour changed instantly, becoming distraught as his eyes went to his wrists and he flexed his fingers again. Over and over. He did it at least ten times before he began to growl and try harder, struggling against his bonds at the same time. Was something supposed to happen whenever he flexed his fingers? 

He kept trying, clearly convinced that if he just kept doing it, whatever he was expecting would happen.

It wouldn’t.

She could sympathise. After the demons of the Fifth Realm had captured her during the battle and she had awoken in her cell, she had tried for hours to blast the bars and every demon who had strolled along the corridor and smirked at her.

She had been convinced that she could find the trick to get around the spell embedded into the metal.

This man was too.

His eyes went glassy and he sagged against the stone bench, his cuffed wrists dropping and slamming hard into his heaving chest.

Rosalind inched closer.

The man managed to slide his gaze her way, and passed out.

She sighed, carefully moved his hands back down to his stomach, and went back to work. She held one hand over his forehead and the other above his heart, closed her eyes, and shut the world out as she channelled as much energy as she could spare into him.

“Let him die,” the incubus whispered, a seductive proposition when healing the man was weakening her, leaving her more vulnerable than ever.

She lifted her head and gave the incubus a sorrowful smile. “I cannot. I must heal him. I took a vow.”

His expression turned solemn. “I understand the power of a vow, but if he wakes and kills you, I will say I told you so.”

She smiled properly for the first time in weeks. “I can take that.”

The incubus smiled too and muttered in the fae tongue. “We’re all fucked if he wakes up.”

Rosalind ignored that, sure that he knew she could understand the fae tongue since most witches could speak the language as they worked closely with his kind. He was doing it on purpose to distract her from her work. One tiny mistake and she could kill her patient.

She had to maintain rigid control over her healing spell. They were dangerous, with a tendency to go awry if the controlling witch’s link to it broke.

Awry being a polite way of saying inflicting crippling pain on the patient by attempting to heal anything and everything, even functioning organs and joints, before it fizzled out.

When she had no more energy to expend, she sat back on her heels and her shoulders sagged as she wiped the sweat from her brow with the back of her hand. He was looking better, but was nowhere close to being healed. She couldn’t do anything more for him right now. She needed to rest until her strength returned, and then she would begin again.

She stared at him, the incubus’s warning ringing in her tired mind.

Who was this dangerous and deadly male?

She willed him to wake and tell her.

She wanted to know him.