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Monday 1 June 2015

{Blog Tour} Enslaved by Fear (Inherited Damnation #7) by Claire Ashgrove

INHERITED DAMNATION  is an 8 book paranormal romance series being released as one book every three weeks between January 27th and June 23rd, 2015. Damned at birth, eight immortal children of a high priestess are compelled to kill the one that holds their heart. They can never fall in love. Driven by the need to finally destroy their evil sire and break the curse, each struggles to balance their desire for innocence against the dark needs of their conflicted souls. The series contains mythos shared between the volumes, but each book stands on its own with a newly featured couple. 

The first five volumes – Cursed to Kill, Tormented by Darkness, Destined to Die, Bound by Blood, Fated for Sacrifice and Doomed by Torment are available now!

Keep up with all things Inherited Damnation over on the Inherited Damnation Facebook page!

23523037Posted by Melanie 
Release Date: June 1st, 2015
Finished Date: May 27th, 2015
Publishers: Untamed Spirit
Genre: Paranormal, Romance, Adult
Source: For Review
Format: eBook
Buy: Amazon UK Amazon US 

For standing against her brother, Brigid McLaine is imprisoned within her home. All she wants is freedom and the ability to follow her dark nature. But captivity poses a greater threat in the form of her handsome guard, Micah Nelson. Day after day of confinement leads her down a treacherous path of desire she can no longer ignore.

When Micah befriended Brigid six years ago, he never imagined the woman who haunted his every fantasy would end up being the very same demon he's employed to guard. During the forced confinement, he comes to learn the softer, gentler side of the woman who is despised by her family--and he recognizes the fear that keeps her chained to her sire. As their bond strengthens and passion ignites, Micah struggles to convince Brigid to confront her fears and escape her incubus father's dark designs.

Yet with the sabbat of Litha so near, one of them must make a choice. Will Brigid find the ability to confront her sire once and for all and embrace the lightness in her heart--or will Micah find the courage to let go of the one thing he wants most? Brigid.

The Review: With this being the penultimate book in the series the only two siblings left are the ones who have embraced their darker nature. We met Brigid a couple of books back when she tried to interfere in her brother Fintan’s ritual where she more or less handed him over to her father and for that she has been imprisoned in her home. She has been there for four months now, being held captive by Micah Nelson who knows all about Brigid, her siblings and her demonic father. Every day he wards the house, the windows, any way that she could try to escape but Brigid is just waiting for her opportunity.
During her months of captivity, Micah notices that there is more to Brigid than meets the eye and if he thought he was attracted to her when they met -6 years ago – it’s only going to intensify in close confines with each other. He knows he should resist her, she is known for her games and manipulation but there’s something that pulls him to her and makes him want to see the good in her. Brigid hasn’t really been given many breaks, no one has really shown her love or understood her, she is a slave to her father out of fear and because of the way she has followed him – she has no one to turn to. She is totally unprepared for the way Micah makes her feel, could she possibly be worthy of someone like him or should she listen to the voice of her sire and use him for her own gains….. the balance has always been one sided with Brigid, could what she does now tip those scales in favour of her life?
I have been waiting for the books to get to the darker two because I was very curious to see how it would turn out for them. I’ve got to say that I didn’t hold out much hope for Brigid when her turn to be judged came, what we knew of her wasn’t good and it’s hard to see how she could redeem herself. I think anyone who reads this will end up with some sympathy for Brigid, as the title of the book tells us – she is enslaved by fear – so I am definitely guilty of misjudging her but it’s only when she lets her guard down that she lets people see the goodness within her. Micah is the only one to see this and it takes time, he is keeping her prisoner but instinctively knows what she needs and when he gives it to her – it’s like turning a switch on. When so many people always speak negativity about you, you believe you are that person, when you’re threatened – you do what you have to in order to be safe but when one trusts you, gives you things that mean the world and sees you in a different light…. It can have a profound effect. When these two open up to each other, it is loving, it is sensuous, and unlike anything they have given to anyone else and you can feel the depth that their little gestures have on each other.
The storyline is basically about unravelling Brigid, we get a couple of flashbacks to scenes of importance that show her in a different way, that give us an insight into her life and the choices she has made but it takes us right until the very end to see whether she will go through with the bonding even though it’s clear she has feelings for Micah. I liked that Drandar was more present here and more manipulative of Brigid, he was very much the demon on her shoulder giving her prompts and ideas on what she should do but let’s not forget Micah’s kindness and how that would feel to someone never shown any. I really enjoyed the ending, I’m a little uncertain about a couple of points but nothing major and now we are left with one, one who is even darker than Brigid and the one who hopefully put the final nail in their evils sire’s coffin – I can’t wait!
Abuse of (Super) Powers

Magical gifts, super-human strength, power granted by the gods—insert your favorite.  Maybe it’s even mutant genes.  I’ve always been fascinated by these things, always wished I could have some sort of gift.  Frankly, I’ve always wanted to access the power of invisibility.  I think that would be the most useful.

We see this all the time in paranormal obviously.  The powers, not invisibility (rats!).  And most often the folks who abuse their powers are the villians.  Or the hero or heroine has done so in the past and is suffering some sort of doom-and-gloom, woe-is-me, shame for doing so.  That typically applies throughout all entertainment.  Loki is the bad guy, Thor is the hero.  Cat Woman (in her earliest incarnations) is vile.  Batman is celebrated.  

But how often do we see our celebrated heroes deliberately abuse their power while in the course of the current events…and still remain a hero?  That idea nagged at me while I was developing Inherited Damnation.  The series, if you’ve not been introduced to it yet, involves eight siblings, all of whom possess some magical or paranormal ability.  Some are on the side of “light”, some on “dark” and some straight down the middle, “neutral”.  I tried really hard to not make my dark folks all angsty and brooding and despising their gifts.  And I tried to incorporate what I felt would be legitimate family dynamics given their opposites.

Then what to do with the neutral folks?  They’ve got to have some self motivation, right?  Some goal that threatens which side of the playground they’re playing on.  Daire, the hero in Fated for Sacrifice, is one of those neutral siblings.  He possesses the ability to alter memories and to influence people’s actions by slipping inside their head.  Nine times out of ten, he has used this gift to undo something his other siblings have done.  But always with the intention of maintaining the balance, never to sway something deliberately one way.  Particularly never to his own personal advantage.

Until he’s so desperate for mortality, so he doesn’t outlive his twin,  that he’s challenged beyond his own strength.  And suddenly, he’s faced with the ability to control the one person he wants more than anything – Reese Hamilton, who possesses the one magical item he desperately needs. All well and good right?  He could tempt her into bed, enjoy himself thoroughly, convince her out of the item she has, and have it all.

I had a huge amount of fun playing with the twists and turns and torturing this poor man who could, so easily, get what he wants.  Particularly once he gets inside her head and doesn’t know what to do with what he finds and her thoughts knock him sideways, throwing him completely off course – it can’t be too easy for our hero, after all.  Yet, as we all know, if superpowers are abused, there must be punishment.  

His is quite fitting, I daresay.  But I’ll leave that for you to find out!

~Claire
www.claireashgrove.com
www.toristclaire.com

About the Author: Building on a background of fantasy game design, a fascination with history, and a lifetime love of books, Award-Winning Author Claire Ashgrove brings to life action-filled, passionate journeys of the heart. Her paranormal series, The Curse of the Templars, marries the history of the Knights Templar with the chilling aspirations of the most unholy--a must-read for speculative fiction fans. For romance fans, she also writes as the National Bestselling Author Tori St. Claire and historical romance as Sophia Garrett.
 In her non-writing time, she owns and operates Finish The Story, a full-scale editing house co-founded with Bryan Thomas Schmidt. She lives in Missouri and enjoys cooking, studying ancient civilizations, and spending downtime with her two sons and too-many horses, cats, and dogs. To learn more, visit her at: claireashgrove.com or toristclaire.comFor all the latest updates look for the Untamed Spirit blog, via any of her websites.

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