Did you hear that sound? That sound, right there? Okay, well, it's either the sound of my heart forsaking Mead for all eternity, or there's a murderer whose broken into your house and is SNEAKING UP BEHIND YOU!!!!!




Look over your shoulder just to check that I'm wrong. You know you want to do it!

Storm Born, the tragic tale of a woman forced by cruel fate to be hit on by ALL the men. Yes. That's what this story is about. Okay, there are fairies and she has to recover some damsel in distress but bas More...

This was a pretty average first book in a series. It wasn't bad and it wasn't really good, it was just...there. The world building wasn't particularly developed, which was rather disappointing. Because I found Eugenie irritating and her love triangle boring, I was hoping for an intricate world to capture my attention. No such luck.

The beginning of this book seemed to crawl by. Maybe it just felt tedious as the author set up the story and world? I don't know, all I know is that it dragged until a More...

Dare I say I loved this more than the Georgina Kincaid series?
Well at least, compared to Succubus Heat, Storm Born is better written, more exciting and most of all: funnier.

Meet Eugenie Markham aka Odile Dark Swan, a powerful shaman who protects the human world from Fay, spirits and other Otherworldly creatures. Due to a series of unfortunate incidents, attacks for her life, a conspiracy and indecent proposals from just about every male Fay creature, Eugenie finds out some pretty interesting t More...

I love Mead's Vampire Academy series, like Succubus books as well; naturally I expected to enjoy Storm Born too. Unfortunately, I was wrong. In fact, I couldn't believe how bad it was. Did Richelle actually write this?

First of all, the plot itself was very weak. There was no point to the story, no climax, just a few things thrown together with no purpose. Events seemed to have been made up just to fill in the space between the sex scenes. Characters were unrelatable, unlikable, acted irrationall More...

I knew it was going to be a different sort of book when the first couple pages talked about a haunted shoe. I can’t say that I have ever read a book with haunted clothing before. One of the things I appreciate in the over-crowded world of urban fantasy is when an author makes an attempt to build a world with interesting and unique creatures. If the only thing you read about is vampires, that can be very boring. I liked Richelle Mead’s world building in this book with elementals, water spirits, g More...

Fascinating! I couldn't put "Storm Born" by Richelle Mead down! I read her 'succubus' series, but this is so much more. More fantasy, more characters, more worlds, and WAY hot fae, humans, and shifters (kitsune).

Eugenie, Odile, Dark Swan...she's all these, and now she's about to find out that she's also so much more she never knew. Eugenie is a powerful shaman who banishes spirits and fey out of the mortal world into either hell or back to their world, depending on their crime. She's never actua More...

This is the first in the new Dark Swan series by Richelle Mead, author of the incredibly successful Vampire Academy and Succubus novels.

Eugenie Markham (aka Odile) is a head-strong and independent character who is instantly likable. The opening few pages quickly sucked me into Eugenie's life as a Shaman with humour and combat as she fights to banish a spirit from a haunted running shoe! This book is full of action and for the most part the plot is fast-paced and when one fight ends another one More...

This is a decent start to a series. Solid world building and interesting charcters are introduced. It is a very sexy book - shockingly sexy almost. But for me, something kept it from being great. I did not connect with the heroine and I almost didn't care what happened. I enjoyed her interactions with Kiyo and Dorian and then her interactions with her imprisoned spirits, those were the highlights for me. I listened to the audio and the narration is decent.

I may just be all Meaded out as I just f More...

Good God this book was horrid!

Having read and liked Mead’s Vampire Academy and Succubus series, I find this one to be shockingly bad. I had to force myself to finish it.

The main character/narrator is personality-less. She could have died and I wouldn't have known the difference (which is saying something, as this is a first person narration) or cared for that matter. Furthermore, Eugine's world is severly underdeveloped and lacks intrigue. Wait, I take that back, if I was interesting is BSDM wit More...

This is my first Richelle Mead book. It had been on my TBR pile for some time. I flagged it because of the fae element and hoped the rest would pull me in. Well, the story was many things before all was said and done.

Eugenie Markham, our heroine, is a powerful shaman who provides ghost busting type servies to those suffering with a wide variety of supernatural infestations. She is the first shaman I have read and liked. Most were wreckless or stupid. While working on several cases, she realizes More...

Eehhh. What a mess!

Here is the list of unnecessary things in this book(in no particular order):

1. Hot main character who I don't think is hot
2. Every man/faerie wants to shag her
3. Love triangle
4. Having sex with two different guys on every 70-100 pages
5. Idiotic main character
6. Having almost rape scenes at least 4 times

and so on. As you can see,my two biggest concerns were with Eugenie and her wild sex life. She jumps from Kiyo to Dorian all the freaking time. And of course everyone wants a p More...

***Series re-read with friends in preparation for final book release - December 2011***
Original review score : 3.5 stars. I think I'll be keeping this rating.

Notes upon second read :

After having my opinions muddled by reading all 3 books and finding myself with conflicting feelings regarding all of the characters in the series, it was nice to go back to the start and relive some of the original love that I felt for Kiyo before everything started to go downhill. I found myself trying to decipher More...

2.5 stars

I can't write a review about this but here are my thoughts:

Pros:
1. I liked the worlds Mead built in this one. Complex and simple at the same time and very intriguing.
2. It was fast paced, full of action and easy to read.
3. There was a love triangle, something I like lately.
4. There was a lot of chemistry and passion between the heroine and one of her potential love interests and I really liked them together although most readers disagree with me.
5. The second hero although bland at the More...

Concept: “Eugenie Markham is a powerful shaman who does a brisk trade banishing spirits and fey who cross into the mortal world. Mercenary, yes, but a girl’s got to eat. Her most recent case however, is enough o ruin her appetite. Hired to find a teenager who has been taken to the Otherworld, Eugenie come face to face with a startling prophecy – one that uncovers dark secrets about her past and claims that Eugenie’s first-born will threaten the future of the world as she knows it.

Now Eugenie is More...

I thought this was kind of slow starting. It was obvious that she was setting up the lore for a series, although the book is self contained. It didn't truly begin to get interesting to me until the last third or so of the book. Predictably, it made me want to pick up the next book right away.

The world building is quite good, as is typical of Richelle Mead. The lore and background stories of the characters is engaging.

However, also typical of Richelle Mead, I find that her heroine is unwittingly More...

This series is very different from Richelle Mead's usually series but very good! The heroine is Eugenie Markham a powerful shaman who banishes spirits, who cross into the mortal world. She's extrememly prejudiced in this books in favor of her own race but along the way she learns more about herself and her character grows in this first book of the series.
Ok so there is a love triangle in this book. who doesn't love those? Its between a hot shapeshifter and super hot fey king. The shapeshifter i More...

After reading this book a second time, I'd like to amend my original review. This is an excellent romantic paranormal. I use the term "romantic" loosely as it's more sexual than romantic. However, Eugenie is a very cool, bad-ass heroine with genuine flaws, which makes her relatable to the reader.

While the world-building and characters lure the reader in, I found some of the plot aspects not-so-believable. *SPOILER* For example, the fact that Kiyo is in love with Eugenie and vice-versa. I just do More...

Eugenie Markham is a shaman and a mercenary, but that's not all she is. In the first of the Dark Swan series, she finds out more about her origins and begins a journey to fulfill, or not, her destiny. Kiyo Marquez, a kitsune (fox) shifter, and Dorian, a fae king, play pivotal rolls in her adventures.

I enjoyed her sass and the fast paced story. However, (view spoiler)[her attraction/relationship/feelings toward Kiyo seemed too fast for me. One night, and she's gone for him--though she doesn't seem to realize it (hide spoiler)] More...

First I want to voice that I do not like the progression of the rating system. 4 stars "really liked", 5 stars should be "Loved it" "It was amazing" is reserved for very few books - in my opinion. I am not saying that there are not amazing books out there but the sentiment is too gushy for me.

OK that said - I loved this book. I had not read this series because I had issues with the Succubus series. This book has enough humor to work through the darker points. I enjoyed the world building and the More...

I really liked this and I'm not sure I can say precisely why I did.
It could be that I read this immediately after Vampire Academy and I had a hard time getting through that book? Possibly.
A lot happened to keep me going to the end where I didn't feel like I was bored with the storyline. I never catch on to the aspect of love triangles. I liked both Kiyo and Dorian and could have cared less who she chose. I just knew there would be ramifications of choosing one over the other and she would have More...

It took me awhile to get into the story but once I was in, I couldn't put it down for long.

I'm usually a sucker for the hero and if there are two, I'm always picking a favourite. This time I'm not too sure either one are up to any good. Although Dorian the bondage Oak King is quite sexy and that one scene melted my pedicure. Let's face it, I think any book with a hot sexy bondage scene is going to rock.

Eugenie Markham is my kind of heroine. She really is. She has no idea what she's doing but she More...

This book didn't take long to get right into the sex, and thereafter you basically find out it's about sex sex rapity rape pregnancy. It reminded me a little bit of the Meredith Gentry series by Laurel K Hamilton, except that Merry likes to bang all those people that want to bang her and enjoys doing it as it is her nature. I also get the feeling that with the magic power, this series is going to have a lot more addiction stuff along with all those people wanting to bang and rape and impregnate More...

I've wanted to read the Georgia Kincaid series for awhile; however, this book ended up in my hands first. Having no experience with Mead before this, I cannot compare Storm Born to the other series. A lot of reviews online say that something was lost between the Kincaid series and this one. Unfortunately, I cannot address that. That being said, I did enjoy this book.

Even though the plot was an old tried-and-true storyline, I felt that Mead was able to give it her own voice. The land of the Other More...

For once, could it be possible to have a female lead NOT afraid of her own power?? I get it. Eugenie has been raised to hate the Shining Ones and anything related to them. But still. I would have liked to have read about a woman discovering her power and using it for HER benefit- not become power-hungry and horrible mind you, but enjoy her power. sigh. I doubt i shall ever read such a book. HOWEVER if anyone knows of any let me knoww yess?

Anyways back to my review. SO Eugenie kills the Gentr More...

Nachdem ich ja von der Vampire-Academy-Reihe so begeistert war, musste ich noch andere Bücher von Richelle Mead lesen. Und so bin ich auf die Dark-Swan-Reihe gestoßen. Ich habe ein Buch erwartet, das im Stil von Vampire Academy geschrieben wurde. Ich musste dann aber feststelle, dass Richelle Mead diesmal an ihre erwachsenen Fans gedacht hat.

Ich muss gestehen, dass ich auf den ersten Seiten Eugenie immer noch mit der sehr charismatischen Rose aus der Vampire-Academy-Reihe verglichen habe, aber z More...

[Re the first two books in the series] Enjoyed them! Okay first of all, I'm not sure how to categorize these books. I don't think they qualify as Paranormal Romance because this series isn't yet about the heroine's relationship with one other being. And I hesitate to call them Urban Fantasy because they are in a more suburban setting, not in a city. So is there such a thing as Suburban Fantasy? LOL! In any case, this is a third series by Richelle Mead. I didn't quite get into the first book the More...

Because I have enjoyed Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy books so much, I thought I would give the Dark Swan series a try, as well. With Storm Born, I loved some aspects and really didn't care for others.

I should have realized when I bought this book that it would probably be more sexually graphic than I cared to read. Somehow that point went right over my head, though. I opted to skip over those parts and focus on the meat of the story, which is more interesting in its own right, anyway. In readi More...