Release Day Review: Hollen the Soulless by Denali Day



Series: Dokiri Brides #1
Genre: Fantasy Romance


He’ll mark her flesh. She’ll claim his heart.

Always the dutiful daughter, Lady Joselyn is weeks away from marrying a rival lord in order to secure the future of her father’s house. However, she suddenly finds herself in the clutches of an ancient beast she’s only ever heard of in legends. More terrifying than that is the beast’s master, a wild man who insists Joselyn is his bride by right, and plans to seal his claim in blood.

Wyvern-rider, Hollen, has finally captured the woman of his dreams, though he quickly learns that waiting for her was less than half the battle. His new bride wants nothing to do with him and Hollen knows he only has one chance to change her mind. To win her over, he’ll do whatever he must, even if it means keeping secrets.

Their wills pitted against each other, Joselyn will go to any lengths to free herself from this savage and fulfill her marital contract. Her father’s life depends upon it. But even as she plots her escape, Joselyn begins to wonder if one can also be bound by a duty to their own heart.




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Release Date: August 13, 2020
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**ARC provided in exchange for an honest review**

I love fantasy romance, even though I don't read it as often as I would like to. I like it even more if the book is long, because the world-building takes time and I don't want the author to rush through the story. This book focuses on Hollen the Soulless and Lady Joselyn. Hollen is Dokiri and their tradition is to take captive and claim their brides. Of course you can imagine how the ladies would feel about this practice. So I was more than ready for Joselyn to resist and not be very happy about the situation where she was kidnapped by Hollen. Even though she wanted to continue to hate and resist him, which in my opinion she did a great job, the wall around her heart went down brick by brick. Hollen is a very honorable and strong leader of his clan, and he was also very patient with Joselyn. The interaction between Joselyn and other members of the clan was great, I especially loved the special bond she had with Hollen's youngest brother.

I have to admit the pace of the story felt a bit slow at times, but I was invested in the relationship of the characters. I really feel like I know what takes place in this clan and have knowledge of their traditions. I was connected to the characters and looked forward to seeing how it would develop. I am intrigued by Hollen's brothers and I'm really happy they are getting their own stories next. There was great banter in this book, I also enjoyed the slow-burn romance, and it had some action-packed scenes. I would've loved for the intimate scenes to be more explicit, but at the end it didn't bother me as much. Hollen the Soulles is in my opinion a great first book in the Dokiri Brides series, but if you like a little bit of a background then I would recommend you to read Sven the Collector first (it is free for newsletter subscribers!), because it focuses on how Hollen's parents met. It will give you a feel for what to expect in this book.



About the Author:


When Denali Day was trying to figure out “what to be when she grew up” she noticed all her written stories featured a scene where the beautiful heroine patched up the wounds of a gallant hero. So she decided to become a nurse. Twelve years and two degrees later, she realized all she ever really wanted was to be a writer.

Now she lives in the midwest with her adoring husband, a real life gallant hero, and their two wicked goblins (children). When she isn’t writing she’s reading and when she’s not doing either of those things she’s probably plundering the fridge for something she can smother in whipped cream.

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