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The Missing Heir #1
Heavens' Captive
Arabella has her life following high school all planned out. Supernatural beings kidnapping her to be their leader wasn’t supposed to be part of that plan.
Luca, seer of the Heavens Clan, has known Arabella would be the future leader of his clan—and his wife—since he was five years old. He’s spent nearly fifteen years catching glimpses of her living her life as a human, ignorant of the enchanted races. And now that it’s finally time for her to take her rightful place, his visions have revealed something new. In order to keep her safe, Heavens must allow another clan to steal her away first.
Arabella is on her way to work as a counselor at the camp she loved growing up, eager to help young kids find themselves. Instead she finds herself kidnapped by people claiming they’re supernatural beings and she’s meant to be their leader. The worst part? Her parents aren’t expecting her home all summer and have no idea she’s missing.
Dragged to some annual clan meeting between celestial guardians, the race her kidnappers claim they’re from, her every move is watched to prevent her from escaping. But there’s also the Heavens Clan, who she’s warned is unhinged from being leaderless for so long, who she swears is watching her too. Especially their supposed seer. Could they be her saviors? Or would trusting them put her in even greater danger?
Dive into this urban fantasy trilogy featuring a sweet, slow burn romance between a young woman who thinks she’s human and a seer driven half mad by his visions, and meddling clan members determined to get them together.
Luca, seer of the Heavens Clan, has known Arabella would be the future leader of his clan—and his wife—since he was five years old. He’s spent nearly fifteen years catching glimpses of her living her life as a human, ignorant of the enchanted races. And now that it’s finally time for her to take her rightful place, his visions have revealed something new. In order to keep her safe, Heavens must allow another clan to steal her away first.
Arabella is on her way to work as a counselor at the camp she loved growing up, eager to help young kids find themselves. Instead she finds herself kidnapped by people claiming they’re supernatural beings and she’s meant to be their leader. The worst part? Her parents aren’t expecting her home all summer and have no idea she’s missing.
Dragged to some annual clan meeting between celestial guardians, the race her kidnappers claim they’re from, her every move is watched to prevent her from escaping. But there’s also the Heavens Clan, who she’s warned is unhinged from being leaderless for so long, who she swears is watching her too. Especially their supposed seer. Could they be her saviors? Or would trusting them put her in even greater danger?
Dive into this urban fantasy trilogy featuring a sweet, slow burn romance between a young woman who thinks she’s human and a seer driven half mad by his visions, and meddling clan members determined to get them together.
362 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 3, 2025
168 people are currently reading
29 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
March 7, 2025
Absolutely loved!!
Must read if you love super clean fantasy. Thankful this is a rapid release series again! Ready for book 2!!
Start with her first enchanted races series and then read this!! Not necessary for the story, but so so good all together!!
Must read if you love super clean fantasy. Thankful this is a rapid release series again! Ready for book 2!!
Start with her first enchanted races series and then read this!! Not necessary for the story, but so so good all together!!
March 27, 2025
Content:
Profanity: None that I recall.
Violence: Mild. Nearly all the violence is threatened, since this deals with kidnapping. Some minor fights and death threats.
Sexual: Mild. Arabella's Dad is an EMT and is paranoid about his daughter being left alone with boys, so there are some vague references to his job having to deal with both rape and domestic abuse in him trying to protect her. There is a lot of hand-holding and stroking hair. No kisses in this yet. And one off-color moment where a character used a French term I had to look up and was surprised to see it referenced a couple living with another person who was a lover of one of the said couple. It is said for humorous purposes, not at all denoting it's happening.
Triggers: Deals with kidnapping and forced confinement, threats of physical/sexual abuse but neither happen except being roughly grabbed by the arm and dragged around, and a character leering and trying to force a kiss until stopped by someone else.
After reading The Hidden Hotel, then the short Snow Queen story featuring Annika Davit from that book, I was intrigued about this trilogy of books that would focus on the Celestial Guardians.
I admit, I had a hard time getting into the story at first, but after about 50 pages, it was easy to keep going and get into the story. Arabella's predicament was upsetting though, as she gets kidnapped by one group only to be I appreciated Arabella really asking herself if she was getting Stockholm Syndrome when she was with Heavens Clan, and how she logically dissected their actions compared to Andromeda. That made me ease up on her inevitable fate of joining Heavens Clan.
The plot reminded me a lot of K.M. Shea's Court of Midnight and Deception series, which features a half-fae girl forced to be Queen of a manipulative and power-mongering fae court, and leaving behind all her dreams for her future. This book features a partial blood human/Celestial Guardian fated to be their leader, or Matriarch, and she's less than enthused at their petty power grabs and hypocrisy in fighting the Abyss (a dark entity above the earth that wants to devour all life), and just wants to go back to her plans for her life. I'm curious to see if the similarities will continue or not.
Luca, the seer who has been seeing Arabella for more than a decade in his visions, is the most interesting character in the book. He can't always tell what's happened in reality and what has only been in visions, so he makes a few faux pas in thinking he and Arabella are closer than they are by using her nickname she never told him, and then totally forgetting she was finally there with them multiple times. Apparently the lack of a Matriarch helping him control his visions is what has made him so...spacy. I'm looking forward to seeing how Arabella helps him steady out as she aids him.
One of my favorite parts of this book was the family relationships. Arabella's Dad was great, and Luca's cousins and aunt and uncle being so protective of him made me warm-fuzzy happy. I loved seeing the family dynamics in this, both good and bad.
The groundwork for the romance was...suspicious? Luca has the benefit/encumbrance of knowing he and Arabella will one day be together and be married. But he can't tell her that. Arabella is immediately drawn to him for reasons that we don't know yet. I really hope this isn't a 'fated' type romance because I might flip a table if they don't come to love each other for reasons other than visions or inexplicable attraction. I also was a bit worried when Arabella keeps comparing Luca to the little preschoolers she worked with and comforts him like she would a toddler, then blushes when she realizes he isn't. And he pouts when she stops. It made it very...childish? And a tad uncomfortable for me to think of them being romantic at some point. Hopefully that will resolve in the next two books.
Solid start though. It was mega fun to see cameos from Dahlia, Zavian, Dante, Oliver, and Alderon.
On to book 2!
Profanity: None that I recall.
Violence: Mild. Nearly all the violence is threatened, since this deals with kidnapping. Some minor fights and death threats.
Sexual: Mild. Arabella's Dad is an EMT and is paranoid about his daughter being left alone with boys, so there are some vague references to his job having to deal with both rape and domestic abuse in him trying to protect her. There is a lot of hand-holding and stroking hair. No kisses in this yet. And one off-color moment where a character used a French term I had to look up and was surprised to see it referenced a couple living with another person who was a lover of one of the said couple. It is said for humorous purposes, not at all denoting it's happening.
Triggers: Deals with kidnapping and forced confinement, threats of physical/sexual abuse but neither happen except being roughly grabbed by the arm and dragged around, and a character leering and trying to force a kiss until stopped by someone else.
After reading The Hidden Hotel, then the short Snow Queen story featuring Annika Davit from that book, I was intrigued about this trilogy of books that would focus on the Celestial Guardians.
I admit, I had a hard time getting into the story at first, but after about 50 pages, it was easy to keep going and get into the story. Arabella's predicament was upsetting though, as she gets kidnapped by one group only to be I appreciated Arabella really asking herself if she was getting Stockholm Syndrome when she was with Heavens Clan, and how she logically dissected their actions compared to Andromeda. That made me ease up on her inevitable fate of joining Heavens Clan.
The plot reminded me a lot of K.M. Shea's Court of Midnight and Deception series, which features a half-fae girl forced to be Queen of a manipulative and power-mongering fae court, and leaving behind all her dreams for her future. This book features a partial blood human/Celestial Guardian fated to be their leader, or Matriarch, and she's less than enthused at their petty power grabs and hypocrisy in fighting the Abyss (a dark entity above the earth that wants to devour all life), and just wants to go back to her plans for her life. I'm curious to see if the similarities will continue or not.
Luca, the seer who has been seeing Arabella for more than a decade in his visions, is the most interesting character in the book. He can't always tell what's happened in reality and what has only been in visions, so he makes a few faux pas in thinking he and Arabella are closer than they are by using her nickname she never told him, and then totally forgetting she was finally there with them multiple times. Apparently the lack of a Matriarch helping him control his visions is what has made him so...spacy. I'm looking forward to seeing how Arabella helps him steady out as she aids him.
One of my favorite parts of this book was the family relationships. Arabella's Dad was great, and Luca's cousins and aunt and uncle being so protective of him made me warm-fuzzy happy. I loved seeing the family dynamics in this, both good and bad.
The groundwork for the romance was...suspicious? Luca has the benefit/encumbrance of knowing he and Arabella will one day be together and be married. But he can't tell her that. Arabella is immediately drawn to him for reasons that we don't know yet. I really hope this isn't a 'fated' type romance because I might flip a table if they don't come to love each other for reasons other than visions or inexplicable attraction. I also was a bit worried when Arabella keeps comparing Luca to the little preschoolers she worked with and comforts him like she would a toddler, then blushes when she realizes he isn't. And he pouts when she stops. It made it very...childish? And a tad uncomfortable for me to think of them being romantic at some point. Hopefully that will resolve in the next two books.
Solid start though. It was mega fun to see cameos from Dahlia, Zavian, Dante, Oliver, and Alderon.
On to book 2!
May 13, 2025
Well, I inhaled this. It’s not perfect, but I still inhaled it. I was really looking forward to this trilogy at the end of the last one, and I really hoped it wouldn’t have the hero behaving as unforgivably badly for no good, solid believable reason like the previous trilogy. And so far, so good on the love story part. It does have a kidnapping. And you do have to suspend disbelief that the hotel staff know there’s been a kidnapping and do absolutely nothing to help the kidnapping victim. And it’s definitely problematic that the good guys don’t assist the heroine to escape and get back home, but instead simply keep her captive for themselves once she’s free of the bad guys. There’s even open mention of Stockholm Syndrome at one point, so it’s clear the author was aware of what she was dealing with.
I can deal with Stockholm Syndrome though. Maybe because I’m older and have read romance novels that were popular decades ago when all sorts of horrible things happened and were considered fine and even good, and Stockholm Syndrome never would have come up when a character is captured by the good guys in service of a plot. Or maybe because there’s a slightly realist and maybe cynical side of me that’s aware that the women and children on the losing side of many, many wars and battles over the centuries have had to make do and adapt and get along with whoever won and has taken over. For that matter every woman ever bartered in marriage across the span of history who eventually came to love her new husband and family could be argued to have Stockholm Syndrome. Stockholm Syndrome is a problem when you’re kidnapped by terrorists. In most other forms historically and evolutionarily speaking, it was probably an essential survival skill. Anyway, that’s the thought that crossed my mind at one point as Arabella is rationalizing her sympathetic feelings toward the “good guys” continuing to hold her captive.
There is a definite contrast between the behavior of the bad and good captors and the good ones are infinitely preferable to the bad in many ways. So, there’s that.
Also on the “needed to suspend disbelief” list are Arabella’s father’s attitude toward her flirting with or dating or simply having a conversation with a boy her own age. It’s so over the top it’s quasi-comedic and somewhat hard to swallow. And the notion that in 2024-ish, she’s going to leave for a summer camp job and have no access to a cell phone signal for months and won’t even be able to let her parents know she arrived safely is ludicrous. The setup is definitely in service to the plot, but is very hard to swallow - even harder to believe when the father’s over-protectiveness is so played up. It’s honestly hard to believe Arabella’s parents let her go away to camp as a camper, OR that they’re okay with letting her go for an entire summer, especially when she won’t have any contact with them for the entire time. It’s honestly a little hard to believe she’d want to go. Mostly the overprotected young people I’ve known are a bit timid when they want to break free - they don’t usually jump so far, so fast, with such complete cut off from those who love and support them.
But, whatever. It’s a plot device to allow the kidnapping to occur, and to keep Arabella isolated once she is kidnapped. Since it’s a set up sort of thing I mainly just had to accept once and then it faded into the background I could let it go fairly easily.
The only other quibble I had was the final chapter. It’s one of those non-ending, and also non-climactic “cliffhanger” chapters that I can’t stand. Since I waited for all three books to be released before starting this trilogy, it’s not a true bother to me in terms of continuing the story. I just think it’s poor writing. That’s completely a personal preference. There are cliffhangers I take a great deal of delight in, and then there are ones I think are sloppy. This is the sloppy variety.
I’m looking forward…probably to book three, to be honest. From the set up and blurb I’m a little worried that book two is going to bug me. Between Arabella’s father, who is being set up to become annoying, and Luca, who’s wonderful and delightful, but has a wrong idea in his head he’s going to run with, I feel like there’s probably going to be a lot of angst. And sometimes I love that in a book, and other times I find it annoying. I’m hoping either that I’m wrong, or that it’s not the annoying sort. I guess I will find out.
What I loved about this book: Luca. I absolutely adored him. He’s a very interesting hero. Very different from the typical trained fighter/protector type. He’s got a sweetness, and innocence, and a vulnerability to him that’s unusual in romance heroes, and I really enjoyed him in general, and his interactions with Arabella in particular. I liked seeing Dahlia again from an outside perspective. I liked Zoey and her interactions with Arabella, and I really enjoyed Wiley as well. I also liked the plot. I mean, yes, I did have to suspend disbelief on a bunch of things, and yes, there’s the Stockholm Syndrome issue that probably should have bothered me more than it did. But I still kept wanting to know what was going to happen next. And it’s a relatively simple, straightforward on the surface plot…Luca’s seen some of it happening, so the reader knows a certain amount of the plot before it happens. But I still kept wanting to know what was going to happen next. That’s a positive.
And with that, on to the next…well…on to the next starting tomorrow. It’s late!
Random other books or series this made me think of: Court of Midnight and Deception (completed trilogy by K.M. Shea that features a reluctant queen and problematic court/s) and Lady of Dreams by W.R.Gingell that features a character with visions (though not of the future).
I can deal with Stockholm Syndrome though. Maybe because I’m older and have read romance novels that were popular decades ago when all sorts of horrible things happened and were considered fine and even good, and Stockholm Syndrome never would have come up when a character is captured by the good guys in service of a plot. Or maybe because there’s a slightly realist and maybe cynical side of me that’s aware that the women and children on the losing side of many, many wars and battles over the centuries have had to make do and adapt and get along with whoever won and has taken over. For that matter every woman ever bartered in marriage across the span of history who eventually came to love her new husband and family could be argued to have Stockholm Syndrome. Stockholm Syndrome is a problem when you’re kidnapped by terrorists. In most other forms historically and evolutionarily speaking, it was probably an essential survival skill. Anyway, that’s the thought that crossed my mind at one point as Arabella is rationalizing her sympathetic feelings toward the “good guys” continuing to hold her captive.
There is a definite contrast between the behavior of the bad and good captors and the good ones are infinitely preferable to the bad in many ways. So, there’s that.
Also on the “needed to suspend disbelief” list are Arabella’s father’s attitude toward her flirting with or dating or simply having a conversation with a boy her own age. It’s so over the top it’s quasi-comedic and somewhat hard to swallow. And the notion that in 2024-ish, she’s going to leave for a summer camp job and have no access to a cell phone signal for months and won’t even be able to let her parents know she arrived safely is ludicrous. The setup is definitely in service to the plot, but is very hard to swallow - even harder to believe when the father’s over-protectiveness is so played up. It’s honestly hard to believe Arabella’s parents let her go away to camp as a camper, OR that they’re okay with letting her go for an entire summer, especially when she won’t have any contact with them for the entire time. It’s honestly a little hard to believe she’d want to go. Mostly the overprotected young people I’ve known are a bit timid when they want to break free - they don’t usually jump so far, so fast, with such complete cut off from those who love and support them.
But, whatever. It’s a plot device to allow the kidnapping to occur, and to keep Arabella isolated once she is kidnapped. Since it’s a set up sort of thing I mainly just had to accept once and then it faded into the background I could let it go fairly easily.
The only other quibble I had was the final chapter. It’s one of those non-ending, and also non-climactic “cliffhanger” chapters that I can’t stand. Since I waited for all three books to be released before starting this trilogy, it’s not a true bother to me in terms of continuing the story. I just think it’s poor writing. That’s completely a personal preference. There are cliffhangers I take a great deal of delight in, and then there are ones I think are sloppy. This is the sloppy variety.
I’m looking forward…probably to book three, to be honest. From the set up and blurb I’m a little worried that book two is going to bug me. Between Arabella’s father, who is being set up to become annoying, and Luca, who’s wonderful and delightful, but has a wrong idea in his head he’s going to run with, I feel like there’s probably going to be a lot of angst. And sometimes I love that in a book, and other times I find it annoying. I’m hoping either that I’m wrong, or that it’s not the annoying sort. I guess I will find out.
What I loved about this book: Luca. I absolutely adored him. He’s a very interesting hero. Very different from the typical trained fighter/protector type. He’s got a sweetness, and innocence, and a vulnerability to him that’s unusual in romance heroes, and I really enjoyed him in general, and his interactions with Arabella in particular. I liked seeing Dahlia again from an outside perspective. I liked Zoey and her interactions with Arabella, and I really enjoyed Wiley as well. I also liked the plot. I mean, yes, I did have to suspend disbelief on a bunch of things, and yes, there’s the Stockholm Syndrome issue that probably should have bothered me more than it did. But I still kept wanting to know what was going to happen next. And it’s a relatively simple, straightforward on the surface plot…Luca’s seen some of it happening, so the reader knows a certain amount of the plot before it happens. But I still kept wanting to know what was going to happen next. That’s a positive.
And with that, on to the next…well…on to the next starting tomorrow. It’s late!
Random other books or series this made me think of: Court of Midnight and Deception (completed trilogy by K.M. Shea that features a reluctant queen and problematic court/s) and Lady of Dreams by W.R.Gingell that features a character with visions (though not of the future).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 8, 2025
Can I please have a Luca? That dude was sooooo sweet!!! He was just trying to keep his girl safe and happy! Romeo and Marco were amazing! Arabella was sooo good! I love how she saw everything through the eyes of childcare.
August 21, 2025
I’ve been looking forward to this sequel to The Hidden Hotel series. Arabella is on her way to the camp where she’s working as a counselor when she’s mysteriously kidnapped by people claiming to be from an enchanted race of Celestial Guardians. They say she’s their Matriarch, but it all just seems crazy.
Luca is a seer who’s been watching out for their Matriarch for years, but it never seems safe to find her until she’s kidnapped by a rival clan.
Heaven's Captive is a fun YA urban fantasy with a slow burn (no spice) romance. I really like this world Eatough has created and I enjoyed being back at the Red Alder Hotel. I especially liked the scenes with characters from the previous trilogy. Arabella is a great FMC and while Luca is a little hard to really know since he’s a bit stunted by both his abilities and his upbringing, I hope he’ll come into his own in the next books. I’d definitely recommend reading the first trilogy before this one- because it’s terrific and gives some good background to the world.
March 15, 2025
Straight forward YA fantasy.
It's really frustrating when the good guys are too good to do anything to the bad guys and the bad guys come back again to almost kill them (which would eventually destroy the world). And the shadow phantoms are supposed to get 10x revenge, so it is extra frustrating when nothing happens as a consequence of kidnapping and threatening to kill their fiance/future sister in law.
It's really frustrating when the good guys are too good to do anything to the bad guys and the bad guys come back again to almost kill them (which would eventually destroy the world). And the shadow phantoms are supposed to get 10x revenge, so it is extra frustrating when nothing happens as a consequence of kidnapping and threatening to kill their fiance/future sister in law.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 24, 2025
Loving this!
This is the first book i have read by this author and I loved it! Can't wait to dive into the next in the series. It turns out it would have been better to start with the series prior to this one (which, incidentally, they are currently putting out as audiobooks!!!). It's not necessary to read them but you can tell you are missing some background...
Nice clean romance building, good action, overall win!
This is the first book i have read by this author and I loved it! Can't wait to dive into the next in the series. It turns out it would have been better to start with the series prior to this one (which, incidentally, they are currently putting out as audiobooks!!!). It's not necessary to read them but you can tell you are missing some background...
Nice clean romance building, good action, overall win!
March 5, 2025
Great read!
I love reading Nocole Eatough's work. Her stories are engaging, and I like how other characters we've met before in the prior book series tie into this new series. I'm so excited the next book releasing in a few weeks.
I love reading Nocole Eatough's work. Her stories are engaging, and I like how other characters we've met before in the prior book series tie into this new series. I'm so excited the next book releasing in a few weeks.
March 10, 2025
LOVED IT!!!
Great story, I loved it! It’s good for KM Shea fans. And it doesn’t end in a horrible cliffhanger which is nice, though of course there are still lose ends that the other two books will need to finish. Hope the next comes out soon!
Great story, I loved it! It’s good for KM Shea fans. And it doesn’t end in a horrible cliffhanger which is nice, though of course there are still lose ends that the other two books will need to finish. Hope the next comes out soon!
April 17, 2025
I like this one I think more than the previous series. Still clean and no kissing very slow burn. Only one curse word I believe. Some violence but not much. There’s still a lot of fighting on the clans just like the first few books.
September 8, 2025
exciting
This was definitely an action packed book one. I really liked how the story played out. It was intriguing to see how Arabella‘s introduction to the celestial guardians world played out.
This was definitely an action packed book one. I really liked how the story played out. It was intriguing to see how Arabella‘s introduction to the celestial guardians world played out.
March 22, 2025
Have read one of her other series.
Have read one of her other series and wanted more. Characters and backgrounds are thought out and grab your attention.
Have read one of her other series and wanted more. Characters and backgrounds are thought out and grab your attention.
April 1, 2025
I loved this story.
Content: clean - mild violence, innuendo
Content: clean - mild violence, innuendo
April 23, 2025
I love the universe and the setting of The Red Alder, but I found this story a little slow to get going. Finally hit its stride though so I'm going to continue reading the series.
September 1, 2025
Well done
When Arabella is kidnapped she finds a whole new world. Luca is the Seer who has dreamed of her most of his life.Lots of action and grabs for power.Read this book
When Arabella is kidnapped she finds a whole new world. Luca is the Seer who has dreamed of her most of his life.Lots of action and grabs for power.Read this book
January 23, 2026
Clans
Good read good characters and lots of mysteries to unfold. Once again the celestial clans are meeting but will they actually get along.
Good read good characters and lots of mysteries to unfold. Once again the celestial clans are meeting but will they actually get along.
March 8, 2025
Excellent story.i enjoyed this novel very much.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews