Laura Kaye – East of Ecstasy

The fourth book in the Hearts of the Anemoi series, published April 22, 2014.
Genre: paranormal romance
Cover: stormy weather



Annalise Fallston made peace with postponing her big-city dreams to care for her ill father, but lately she's been filled with a restlessness not even her beloved painting dispels. Worse, the colors don't speak to her as they always have, and all her efforts produce dark, foreboding images of a dangerous man and a terrifying future.
Devlin Eston, black-souled son of the evil Anemoi Eurus, is the only one who can thwart his father's plan to overthrow the Supreme God of Wind and Storms. But first, Dev must master the unstable powers he's been given. Distrusted and shunned by his own divine family, he never expected to find kindness and passion in the arms of a mortal.
But Devlin's love puts Annalise in the path of a catastrophic storm, and in the final Armageddon showdown between the Anemoi and Eurus, sacrifices will be made, hearts broken, and lives changed forever...or lost.


Devlin Eston is hiding from his family, and his own feelings of failure in a deserted barn.
Only the barn isn’t really deserted, it is Annalise Fallston’s place to paint. Even though she is colorblind in her daily life, when she is painting, she is taken over by a vision, and she can play with color and light, like magic. Of course no one believes that, but Devlin sees it happening before his own eyes, while he is in his invisible form. And she is painting him! Or is it his evil father? And it is not the first painting she has done, so what does it mean? The scenes she has painted are not familiar, except for one, where Boreas died recently.

When Devlin confronts her, Annalise panicks and runs away. Back home, and to her father, who is suffering severely from Alzheimer. He doesn’t know her anymore, thinks she is her mother. Luckily, she has help taking care of him, so she can take some time for herself every now and then to paint. Because when the urge to paint is there, she will have to start painting of suffer severe pain. The next day, she thinks she must have imagined things, and returns to the barn, but Devlin is waiting for her. He has seen her other paintings, and he wants to know the truth.

It takes a while to convince her that he really is a god, the God of the autumn rain and heir to the East Wind. And she doesn’t know anything about her own powers, not about her painting, and also not about her ability to affect the lighting.

When Devlin finally finds out why his father hasn’t hunted him down yet, he looses control over his powers. He has just so much rage and fire inside him, since he has drunk from the rivers Styx and Phlegeton. His grandfather Aeolus hoped that if he learns to control those powers, he can beat his father. But for now, Devlin is unable to control them. When he almost burns down Annalise’s house, with her father in it, he asks for help from his family. The family that doesn’t trust him. But they do rescue him from the human hospital, taking him and Annalise back to the realm of the Gods. And there Annalise is recognized for who she is, or at least, who her mother could be.

Chrysander, Owen and Zephyros are the Gods of the South, North and West winds, and they have been fighting Eurus for months now, but with the ring he stole from their father, he is too strong for them, especially now, in his own season of fall. But with the help of Annalise, and especially the family she never knew she had, they have a chance now.

But in order to defeat Eurus, they will have to battle the biggest storm that has ever been created, and that is about to take out the whole East Coast of America.


The fourth and last book in the Anemoi series, and I really enjoyed this. The final battle was awesome. But what I liked most, was the journey Devlin made. He believes he is evil, unworthy of love, as he has done his father’s bidding for so long in order to protect his younger two brothers. His father has already killed one, and has imprisoned and tortured his youngest brother. But Devlin is honorable, and he wants to fight his father and save the rest of them. It takes a while before they stand behind him, especially Zephyros, as he suffered the most at Eurus’ hands.
I liked the heritage of Annalise as well, and all the little mythology tidbids in this series. I had never heard of the Anemoi before, the Greek Gods of the Winds, and I liked it very much. Laura Kaye has really written a winner here, and although I know this is the final book in the series, I sure hope she will revisit this realm sometimes, and write some more stories.

Laura has a knack for writing broken characters, and make them heal and become self confident again. And of course, find the love of their lives, which helps. The book is very well paced, good action scenes, some hot love scenes as well, but most importantly: it is original. And that I treasure.

Recommend if you are a fan of paranormal romance mixed with mythology.

9 stars.

© 2014 Reviews by Aurian