Early Book Review: Forged: The World of Nightwalkers by Jacquelyn Frank

Forged: The World of Nightwalkers by Jacquelyn Frank is the most recent entry in the World of the Nightwalker series. It is currently scheduled for publication on April 29, 2014.  The main characters in this book have not been major players in previous books, so you can start off here and not be too far behind in character development, however there might be a steep learning curve with the world building. Thankfully the series is really good, so it will be no hardship to catch up.

When Katrina Haynes finds an injured man lying in the snow she fears he is at death’s door. he has an irresistible Scottish brogue and a strange ability to harden his chiseled body like a statue. That huge man is Ahnvil, a Gargoyle who must safeguard the Nightwalker to whom he’s sworn fealty. While Kat nurses him back to health, he is possessed with a fierce impulse to protect her as well. Kat has placed herself in the middle of a supernatural war by saving Ahnvil and exposed herself to a dark and dangerous world.

Forged is a great addition to the larger storyline of the World of the Nightwalkers series. I enjoyed the amount of information and movement that this book added to the story arch, and am very interested to see the confrontation that the series is leading us to. I did like the characters of Kat and Ahnvil. I found Kat to be strong and interesting and Ahnvil to be more complicated that he seemed to consider himself. I was a little annoyed with the instant attraction and the tossing out of common sense that occasionally occurred. however, to keep everything moving I suppose it was necessary to a degree, and the character's seem to know when they were crossing those lines and acknowledged it. I think I had more interest in the action that moved the story arch along than I had in the romance, mainly because I knew they would figure it out somehow. I did enjoy the little twist to Kat's character, but have to say that I called it to some degree as soon as one fact about her was shared with Ahnvil. But it was still a fun read.

I enjoyed Forged, and would recommend it to all fans of the World of the Nightwalkers series and Frank in general. I do not recommend starting the series here, although you could easily read it for the romance aspect without missing out on much. I think the first three books in the series (Forbidden, Forever, and Forsaken) are a little better and do the world building necessary to get the bigger picture.