| Genre | Gay / Post-Apocalyptic / Urban Fantasy / Magic / Shifters / Wizards/Witches/Sorcerers / Romance / Action/Adventure / Mystery/Suspense/Thriller |
| Reviewed by | Christy Duke on 16-May-2024 |
The first time I meet Benton Windros, I’m shocked by his kindness, especially knowing it’s coming from a shifter. Shifters and magi don’t really mix well, at least not usually, but it seems like Benton’s determined to break away from the norm.
Before I even know what’s happening, the kind tiger shifter is paving a way into my life, and if I’m being honest with myself, I don’t want to stop him. I’ve never been on the receiving end of so much tenderness, and now that I have it, I want to keep it… no matter what challenges and dangers the world brings us.
First edition independently published in YBBB free giveaway, January 2022.
An incredible urban fantasy series filled with mages, dryads, shifters, humans, dragon-like creatures that come through veils, epic battles, and love stories that had me enthralled. ‘Our Hearts That Tie Us’ is a prequel novella which actually didn’t release to the general public until after the third book in the series had been published. Even though I’ve read the entire series, and this book, already I’m choosing to write my reviews in the series order versus publication date order.
It's been eighteen years since a group of cultist humans tore a hole between our world and the Tarago realm and monsters called Taragorians can get through to eat humans, shifters, and mages alike. They look kind of like dragons but they don’t fly although they can shoot fire. Their hide is impenetrable to anything except shifter claws and teeth. Not even mages can kill them. But mages can create spells to trap them behind force fields so that teams of shifters can attack and kill them. Magi who are very strong magically “work” for the Taragorian Response Department, aka TRD, with a team of shifters to help take down breaches and then seal the tear in the fabric between worlds.
In this world humans reign on the top, with shifters beneath them and magi at the very bottom. You’d think that since it’s the mages and shifters who keep the humans safe it’d be different but we all know how hatred and discrimination can take hold. Mages have almost no rights. They can’t own a home, a car, they work where their skills will be the most effective and nobody cares if they’re not happy about it. Shifters and magi wear color-coded ear tags to identify them. Much like cattle. Magi children are “created”, so to speak, in that mage women are force bred to mage men to create the strongest magical children possible. The children are taken from their mothers at a young age and put into “schools” or prisons in my opinion. They suffer horrible abuse from human guards and shifters look down on them, too. It’s not a world with a lot of hope.
This novella is a wonderful introduction to this world and two characters who do appear in the series off and on. Rylen is a mage who works at the medicinal gardens and Benton is a shifter who works for TRD. Their coming together and falling in love is insanely sweet and adorable. Because I read this prequel after having read several books in the series, I was most excited getting Ry and Benton’s love story having already found them to be wonderful characters. However, if this is your introduction to the series and the world, enjoy, as it gives you a glimpse at the thrills upcoming.
Thank you, Michele Notaro, for this fantastic beginning!
DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the publisher or author. This book has been purchased by the reviewer.
| Format | ebook |
| Length | Novella, 107 pages/27K words |
| Heat Level | |
| Publication Date | 18-April-2023 |
| Price | $3.99 ebook |
| Buy Link | https://www.amazon.com/Our-Hearts-That-Tie-Companion-ebook/dp/B0C296VW9F |
