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Author: Elisabeth Naughton
Title: Enslaved
Release: November 5, 2012
Series: Eternal Guardians #5
Reviewer: Lil
Source: Publisher
Purchase: | Book Depository

After being rescued from the Underworld, Gryphon is plagued by strange voices and an evil foreboding. He believes that his only hope for salvation is to track down the goddess who cursed him…until he meets Maelea.

A prisoner with no bars, Maelea encounters Gryphon on her quest to find Olympus. He’s about to test her loyalty to the gods, and she’s ready to find out if he still has a heart worth saving…

Where do I even begin? Sometimes for me when I really love a book it’s extremely hard to write a review. I want to be objective, I want other readers to learn about the book (minus spoilers of course) and be able to decide for themselves through my review if the book I’m raving about is worth their time and money. Then sometimes there is an author that simply pulls me into every single book she writes and I have to insist on everyone to read her. Elisabeth Naughton is one of those authors. I have yet to be disappointed by anything she has offered up. As a matter of fact right now I’m in the middle of Stolen Fury, her first book of her very first series. I’m going to throw out a review of that when I’m done but let’s be honest, I’m mentioning it now so yeah it’s worth it.

Now on to Enslaved. This is a book I simply couldn’t put down. I was so thoroughly wrapped up in the story and the characters. I actually missed them when I had to do anything else! This series is enthralling, the stories are easy to follow yet will keep you turning the page well passed your bedtime. The world Naughton has created is rich and full of likable female leads and super hot Alpha males whom you will find yourself falling in love with. I’m not a huge reader of paranormal, urban fantasy, or mythology so it takes a very good story and a world I can believe in to snag my loyalty. Intricate world building can often cause me to get bored with a series because it’s so involved you lose the story. Naughton is able to balance the need for discovery without loosing pacing or momentum.

Gryphon, is our featured Argonaut in Enslaved. He is the fifth warrior we have been introduced to since Marked brought us into the world of the seven warriors fighting to protect their world from destruction. For me, Gryphon has been the most tormented, he spent months on the verge of insanity and did things he feels were vial and unforgivable to survive and retain his sanity. The great thing about Naughton’s writing is she hasn’t made him sappy or whiny. I can’t tell you how many times I have read a book and completely been turned off by the hero’s constant poor me status. On top of everything he’s trying to process he also has to deal with the evil Atalanta is constantly in his head calling to him. (Can I please tell you I absolutely HATE that evil #$!$#%!!!! I want to gouge her eyes out after I punch her in the throat.) Yes Gryphon has his issues and damn they are pretty intense but as he works through them you want to keep reading to see how he gets through to the other side. I absolutely loved his journey.

Maelea is one of the most well written heroine’s I’ve read this year. I read about 2-3 books a week so that is a lot of women who have the potential to annoy me. Maelea is 3,000 years old and her parents, Zeus and Persephone have either ignored her or used her for their own gains. Hades wants her dead and she has spent most of her life hiding from his hell hounds. We first met Maelea in Enraptured and I really like her introduction into the series. I was hoping she would be one of the Argonaut’s love interest and I so got my wish.

The pairing of Gryphon and Maelea had me all over the emotional spectrum, I laughed, I felt their pain, and they totally had super hot chemistry. Naughton created a love story that I wanted to read. It was full of suspense, emotion, and in the end we were left with burning questions that I can’t wait to be answered in the next book in this series. I’m not big on cliff hangers but I do love a continuation of a story and the thread that pulls each of these remarkable books together remains strong throughout Enslaved. I think one of my favorite things about the series is you still get page time with the characters from previous books, they all play a significant part in the series and continue to support the story in a believable manner instead of making halfhearted cameos. I’m strongly recommending everyone to start from the beginning and pick up or download Marked. Each book gets better and better. And Enslaved just proves once again that Elisabeth Naughton is a fantastic story teller.

Lil is an avid reader who gave up TV so she could greedily read every book she could get her hands on. In the process she discovered a love for contemporary romance heavily laden with humor. Lil is formerly a True Blood blogger who discovered there is more to the world than her annoying love/hate one-sided relationship with the writers of TB. She credits JR Ward for pulling her from the two dimensional world of TV viewing.

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