Martyr's Promise (Elemental Covenant Book 2) by Elizabeth Hunter
Martyr's Promise
Elemental Covenant Book 2
Paranormal & Urban Thrillers, Vampire Thrillers, New Adult
Recurve Press, LLC
October 25, 2021
Kindle
292
Sometimes it takes a monster to hunt a monster.
When Summer Mackenzie and her boyfriend disappear in the fog-shrouded forests of Northern California, it sets off more than one alarm. The sheriff’s department is looking for them, the state rangers are on their trail, and even private security companies have gotten involved.
But Summer wasn’t an ordinary college student; she was a human born into the immortal Mackenzie clan, a line of powerful vampires from the Great Smoky Mountains. Now Carwyn ap Bryn and Brigid Connor are getting messages from allies across the world, old rivals, and new friends, all wanting to know where Summer is and why hikers along the Lost Coast keep going missing.
If Brigid and Carwyn can’t find Summer, tensions between vampire clans might snap, leaving more than just the immortal world bloody.
They might know how to search the wilderness, but the Northern California woods hold more than the average share of mysteries. Secretive immortals, suspicious humans, and ancient myths are all at home in a land where human highways come to a dead end and dense forests meet a rugged coast.
The second book in the new Elemental Covenant series, Martyr’s Promise, is an expansion of Elizabeth Hunter’s vibrant and richly populated Elemental world. Brigid Connor and Carwyn ap Bryn have been on a extended “sabbatical” in the US from their responsibilities in the UK. Brigid’s former position in private security and her abilities as a young fire vampire are tempered by her free-spirited mate Carwyn, an ancient earth vampire and former priest. They are a formidable duo in tacking down and stopping mortal and immortal criminal activity. A recent mission where they stopped a human trafficking operation and rescued a kidnapped teenager has brought them to southern California where immortal connections enlist their help in finding Summer Mackenzie, a mortal member of the power Smoky Mountain vampire clan, and her boyfriend. Summer, experienced in the outdoors, and her boyfriend Dani, son of a wealthy and powerful Mexican family, were hiking the lost coast of northern California when they mysteriously disappeared. When it becomes evident that there is more far reaching deviant activity going on, Brigid and Carwyn know they must help bring Summer and any other victim home before it’s too late.
One thing you can always be assured of when reading an Elizabeth Hunter book is that there will be a full cast of solid and unique characters acting in a world that is vibrant, exotic even, and teeming with wonderfully rich details. Martyr’s Promise is no different but an expansion of Elizabeth’s already proven skill as a writer. Brigid and Carwyn are two of Elizabeth’s most popular characters and anchor the story with their wonderfully passionate and entertaining relationship.
“I love you quite madly, Carwyn ap Bryn.” “That’s good,” Carwyn said. “Because I’m definitely going to fuck up something you’ve planned in the next few days.” She closed her eyes. “I’d like to say you’re exaggerating, but you just never are.”
The Elemental Covenant seems to be a slight shift in her tried and true formula of prioritizing the main characters and the growth of their relationship. As we saw in Saint’s Passage and now Martyr’s Promise the focus is more on the storyline and introducing new characters to the copious line-up of mortals and elemental vampires, those having control of one of the four elements; earth, water, wind, and fire. It’s also an actioned-packed, tension filled drama that is told not only from Brigid and Carwyn’s perspective but a significant portion is played out from Summer’s POV, a new character who begins to take a more active roll in the vampire world. While the story is brought to a great ending, it also leaves the door open and teases you with the possibility of future mysteries and adventures involving any number of characters. You can definitely read this as a stand alone, but I highly encourage you if you haven’t already, take the plunge into the Elemental world!!
Tanya’s love for books has been a lifelong passion that she likes sharing with others. Reading is also the thing that relaxes her after a day of juggling the many responsibilities that come with being being wife to an amazing man, mother to four great kids spread around the world, business manager, and farm hand on their place in southwest Missouri; home to Akaushi cattle and a menagerie of pygmy goats, horses, chickens, dogs and cats.
