Summoned (Summoned #1) by Rainy Kaye
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Release Date: March 28, 2014
Buy Links:
Amazon
Book Description:
Twenty-three year old Dimitri has to do what he is told—literally. Controlled by a paranormal bond, he is forced to use his wits to fulfill unlimited deadly wishes made by multimillionaire Karl Walker Dimitri has no idea how his family line became trapped in the genie bond.
He just knows resisting has never ended well. When he meets Syd assertive, sexy, intelligent Syd—he becomes determined to make her his own. Except Karl has ensured Dimitri can’t tell anyone about the bond, and Syd isn’t the type to tolerate secrets.
Then Karl starts sending him away on back-to-back wishes. Unable to balance love and lies, Dimitri sets out to uncover Karl’s ultimate plan and put it to an end. But doing so forces him to confront the one wish he never saw coming—the wish that will destroy him. A dark twist on the genie folklore, SUMMONED follows a reluctant criminal as he unravels the mystery of the paranormal bond controlling him.
"Summoned" by Rainy Kaye is a new twist on the old genie tale. When I say “genie”, I don't want you to start conjuring images of the big blue guy from Disney's "Aladdin.” No, our genie tale is quite different. Instead of living in a lamp and giving a master three wishes, our genie and master bond is actually a blood bond that is passed down from father to son.
Our main character and genie for this story is Dimitri, and he's forced to do the bidding of Karl Walker. The Walker family has had the master bond for as long as anyone could remember, and as a result of getting unlimited wishes, they're very well off. However, to maintain the affluent lifestyle and gain further riches, the wishes Karl sends Dimitri on aren't always the most moral or easy.
The beginning of "Summoned" instantly hooks the reader as it starts off with Dim on one of his missions. He's driving to the Walker estate, and has a kidnapped girl in his backseat. Our first glance of our genie shows that he's a reluctant one. Although he has to cater to all of Karl's whims as it's ingrained in his blood, that doesn't mean he is ok with the kidnapping and murder he's forced to do.
I enjoyed
Dim's character. He was likeable, but still had flaws that still made him
relatable. Yes, he had morals and didn't want to do the killing, but he did it
and then self-medicated with alcohol and sex. He has snarky moments, thoughtful
moments, and could be a bit of a jackass, but as a reader you still root for
him to find a way out of his bond with Karl, even though it seems hopeless.
The one (somewhat) bright spot in Dimitri's life is the new girl that he's met, Syd. As a character, Syd can come off as a little nuts, but on the other hand, Dim is a killer genie, so their mutual dysfunctions are actually perfect for each other. One qualm that I did have with their relationship was that it seemed to go from zero to sixty in about two seconds. They start off with what should be a one night stand, and then after some good sex, Dim is willing to break all of his "one night only" rules for her. It seemed a bit rushed to me that he would want to go against everything he's been doing for years for a girl he's just met.
However, Dim doesn't have much time to build a romance because Karl has started to send him on back to back wishes, when before now the wishes have always been much more spaced out. They mystery lies in what all of these missions have in common, and what exactly Karl Walker is up to. Dim believes that if he knows the motive behind this change could possibly help him get out a bit from Karl's thumb.
I enjoyed how everything came together in the end. I'm always a fan of when things connect in ways you wouldn't have expected, and "Summoned" is definitely a book that does that. This was the type of book that I didn't want to put down because I wanted to read it until I could figure out Walker's motives and see what would happen to Dim. I would recommend "Summoned" to anyone who likes some action mixed with a bit a fantasy element.
Rainy Kaye is an aspiring overlord. In the mean time, she blogs at RainyoftheDark and writes paranormal novels from her lair somewhere in Phoenix, Arizona.
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