A Review for Emanare (Destined #1) by Taryn Browning

Posted by Guest Reviewer Melanie
Release Date: July 23rd, 2012

Finished Date: January 2nd, 2013

Publishers: Self-Published
Source: For Review

Format: Kindle

Pages: Unknown
Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US 

Samantha Campbell is born into an extraordinary family of females. Only she is different from her ancestors... 

Sam wakes in a Baltimore bar missing memories of her college life. Now the target of a demonic presence, she learns she is a weapon designed by evil to destroy her family’s divine fate. The demon royalty will do anything to ensure Sam’s loyalty to their cause. But Sam is tough. She refuses to give in without a fight and partners with a secret group of students to regain her memories and rewrite her destiny.

The Review: Samantha Campbell comes to in a bar full of people not able to remember having arrived or the nights events…. She feels a familiar presence behind her and a huge man attempts to remove her from the club claiming to be her boyfriend, but is he? How would she know? Even though he feels familiar, she doesn’t remember him but he seems to know her so she goes with him… once outside though, things start to become more confusing as another man- dark in every way - shows up knowing her and she feels compelled to go with him…. Then a pitbull with familiar eyes turns up and she’s had enough! They start fighting and she makes a break for it and nearly gets run over by a taxi but is rescued by a ‘familiar eyed’ half naked man who knows her but guess what? She has no recollection of him either… after a frantic phone call to her friends for rescue, she discovers that apart from the dark man outside of the club, everyone is who they say they are – the huge man – Evrik is actually her boyfriend and her half naked rescuer is her best friend Chase – so why on earth can she not remember them? One thing is for sure, someone has been messing with her mind and all leads point to the mysterious dark stranger who keeps appearing out of nowhere to tempt Sam into his arms, which Sam feels very compelled to do… thing is her best friend has professed his love for her too and she already has a boyfriend even though she can’t remember him…. With three men in her life her emotions and memories are tangled more than ever but which can she trust, who does she really love? and why would someone want to tamper with her memory? What Sam is about to discover is going to change everything she believes in, even about herself.

This book was really lovely to read, it brought a new angle to its subject (which I will let you discover) and really lifted the genre for me. It had a certain uniqueness in some ways too and I think that’s why I enjoyed it so much. I loved the different kinds of supernaturals, we have the usual kind but then we have a new kind in Evrik and I like what that brings to the story and how they all co-exist together. The characters are all great especially the main three, Sam, Chase & Evrik…. I really connected with them and for all I usually hate love triangles, this wasn’t so bad and done well. To be honest I really was routing for Chase even though he isn’t her boyfriend but I’m a sucker for best friend who becomes the boyfriend, even still - Evrik was an amazing person too so I’d be happy for her to be with either overall. The whole set of characters had a great rapport with each other though and jelled really well together, even the bad guys had a certain allure that made them appealing in the way that left you wanting to know more about them.

The storyline was very intriguing, when someone loses their memory it’s a clean slate so as Sam was learning about some aspects of her life, so were we, so we were experiencing it along with her which meant we weren’t always getting an internal monologue about her thoughts but reading of actual events as she remembered things at opportune moments and I liked that because they came about when needed and relating to what she needed to know in the story. As they begin to unravel what has happened to Sam we are introduced to their supernatural world and learn what and who are the players, where they stand in the scheme of things and it was really good, I like the idea and where it could go. I particularly loved the revelations at the end show-down, they are the best kind of secrets to me and has left me dying for book two. This is the start of a series that has potential in spades and I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen next.