New and COMPLETE! Heku : Book 1 of the Heku Series by T.M. Nielsen
Please welcome T.M. Nielsen to the site as we release the serialized audiobook version of her vampire tale, Heku : Book 1 of the Heku Series:
Chevalier has never been told no. For thousands of years he’s sat on the Equites Council, ruling body of his heku faction, and for thousands of years his every order has been followed immediately and without question, until now.
One of the most important rules of the heku, is that no one is to feed from unwilling donors. Following a tip that a young mortal woman is being brutally attacked by his own kind, he seeks her out and immediately begins to experience unnatural feelings for the woman.
Emily, a beautiful rancher from Montana, has spent her entire life being violently attacked by beings she assumed were vampires. It isn’t until she meets Chevalier that she learns of her startling family history, a history that immediately throws her into the volatile world of the heku.
In a bid to protect her, Chevalier moves Emily into his isolated coven, which marks her as a prime target for the Valle and the Encala, enemy factions of the heku. Emily fights to fit into the militaristic world of the heku as her head-strong personality and independent ways turn their perfectly balanced world on end. She immediately befriends Kyle, a heku from Chevalier’s coven, and together they find Emily a niche among the immortal.
Emily’s violent past interferes with Chevalier’s plans, and he must first undo what her abusive ex-husband did before he can convince her how much he cares about her, and how much she’s worth to his faction. Chevalier’s growing feelings for Emily are unnatural to his kind, and must be hidden from the rest of the Equites Faction if he’s to remain a formidable part of their Council.
His jealous tendencies rage as Emily gets closer to Kyle, and both heku struggle to make her realize how important she is to the faction and how endangered she now is.
August 11th, 2011 at 2:36 am
I’m almost through with this and have enjoyed it very much. The story is interesting and entertaining, but it does move forward a little too fast, and at times the characters seem a little flat, but it it not disturbing when listening to the entire story, since there is a lot going on and plenty of action.
The only thing that disturbed me is how the relationship between the main characters is taken for granted from the beginning and does not seem to evolve throughout the largest part of the book, but rather jumps forward with no warning.
There are many interesting details, and I suspect that they will continue to be explained in the next novels. The audio is fine. The author is not the greatest actor, but she does a good job and manages to let her creation come to life in a way that did not take from the story at all.
Absolutely worth a listen, especially if you like your vampire romance without the whimps. Thank you very much, T.M. Nielsen, for a few hours of indulging my guilty vamp fascination with a good story!
August 26th, 2011 at 4:06 pm
great story, great writing. I was almost discouraged by the speed reading narration, but after getting into the story, it either got better, or just became unnoticeable because of my being so engrossed in the world of Heku. I’m glad i listened and can’t wait to hear the rest of the books in this series!
September 1st, 2011 at 10:05 pm
I agree with the ‘jumpy’ comments and the inconsistency of the characters. The language use also tends to float from college level to junior high school level within the same character from one page to another. Very odd. But it is a compelling story and romantic, though the romantic scenes also suffer from the swings from adult to almost pre-teen. I suspect the next installment will be more consistent. Try to find an unbiased editing partner.
September 9th, 2011 at 8:57 am
I can’t believe this book is finished already! While it took me awhile to get into it, I’m very eager to know what will happen next, espically with the revealation at the end.
I have to agree that the characters *did* seem a little one-note and Emily did fall for Chevallier awfully fast, but still the story was miles ahead of a Harlequinn novel and I’m already looking forward to the next book.
September 13th, 2011 at 1:48 am
The narration speed is awfully fast and sometimes hard to follow, but so far the story is interesting.