Until the Sun Falls from the Sky - The Three #1 - Kristen Ashley

15:00:00 Victoria 0 Comments

Leah Buchanan’s family has been in service to vampires for five centuries. Even so, Leah wants nothing to do with her family’s legacy. But when she’s summoned to her Selection by the Vampire Dominion, under familial pressure, she has no choice but to go.

Lucien has been living under the strict edicts of the Vampire Dominion for centuries but he’s tired of these ancient laws stripping away everything that is the essence of the vampire.

So he’s taking it back.

And this is because Lucien has been watching and waiting for decades for Leah to become available for a Selection and he will not be limited with what he can do with her. He will have her, all of her.

Therefore, Lucien is going to tame Leah, even if he gets hunted and killed for doing it.

What neither Leah nor Lucien expects is the strong bond that will form between them, connecting them on unprecedented levels for mortals or immortals. And what will grow between them means they will challenge their ways of life and their union will begin The Prophesies which makes them one of three couples who will save humanity… or die in the effort.

Forget everything you knew about the vampires/humans stories. Kristen Ashley completely re-wrote this! In this series, humans and supernatural beings have coexisted for centuries. Some humans knew and fully live in adéquation with supernatural beings, but most of the human beings did not know other creatures lived among them. 

Centuries ago, vampires could mate with humans. But in order to protect both species from extinction, it has been forbidden for vampires and humans to have any kind of relationship besides for humans to be concubine. Concubines are willing humans who serve vampires for a certain amount of years. This helped maintain balance of power and to keep vampires from hunting humans. Willing humans attend a gathering called The Selection, where a vampire chooses his next concubine who then serves them on a contractual basis. Being a concubine is a great honor. You are cared for throughout your service and until you die. 

Leah Buchanan was born into a family of concubines. Her lineage is extremely famous for being the most desired concubines. But where her family finds pride, Leah is nothing but uninterested in serving a vampire. For her, being a concubine is close to a death sentence. When she reluctantly attends the Selection, she is surprised to know that Lucien - a very famous, powerful vampire - has been waiting for her for years and selected her. But everything goes downhill for her then. He tampered with the contract forcing her to be a concubine until he decides otherwise, agrees to having sexual intercourses with him and should she choose to run away, he is allowed to track her and punish her the way he sees fit. When she is close to refusing, Lucien compels her to sign the contract and carries her away, cutting her from her family and the outside world by taking away her wallet, passport, phone, bag... 

Leah is not the regular concubine Lucien is used to: she defies him all the time, frustrates him on every single thing he asks of her. Despite his patience, Leah is more stubborn than he anticipated. But both characters are in for a wild ride...

At first, I thought Lucien was a real a**ho*e! Yes, he is a very respected vampire and he is expecting Leah to treat him accordingly. Let me tell you that Leah cannot give two crap about what he wants and I loved that! Anyway, by the end of the story, I started liking Lucien a lot. He turned out to be caring, loving and super sweet. BUT... I am still pissed at him that he didn't explain better to Leah what the taming is exactly (see below for more explanations). The other thing he did and bugged me was he claimed loud and clear he waited for Leah for centuries, but as soon as he runs out of patience, he almost cheats on her. That was a big NO for me. But thank God, he didn't do anything reprehensible. 

I loved that Leah was a strong, stubborn character.She had a mind of her own and I found her to be super funny. I was just frustrated every time she resisted Lucien only to give in ten minutes later. I just wanted to yell "Girl, get your act together!". But she was a funny, relatable character. I just struggled with her age. It is said she was 40 years-something and I couldn't help picturing her as a teenager or in her early twenties. For example, she was expelled of Vampires Studies for passing notes, exchanging texts and writing her will. I thought it was hilarious, but not really fitting for a 40-year-old woman. 

The only reason (at the beginning of the book anyway) Lucien selected Leah is because he wants to tame her. Now, I can see the wheels of your brain turning and be like "Say whaaaaaaat?!". A guy calls me pet and tells me he wants to tame me, be sure I will run the other way screaming at the top of my lungs after spraying his face with some pepper spray. Anyway, the taming is actually the moment a concubine gives herself wholeheartedly to her vampire. She lets go of everything and relies completely on the vampire. But Lucien did not explain any of this to Leah and of course, she made (the wrong) assumptions, which he never corrected, but only replied with a "You need to feel it" stuff. Ugh... if he had told her from the beginning, a lot of things would've been much easier for the both of them. 

I was also disappointed by how Leah gave in to the taming. It is like all of a sudden she had an awakening of some sort and was super happy about the taming and understood what it was despite not having a clue for the first three quarters of the story. It kind of came out of the blue. Anyway... 

I did enjoy Kristen Ashley's writing. I am a huge fan of hers anyway, so it shouldn't be too surprising. I couldn't put the book down when I started it and like I said before, I read it at least five times. Overall, I liked the plot and the universe KA created. There is also an upcoming war that will most likely run throughout the series, so I cannot wait for more actions and you can be sure I will read the other two books.