He wears a mask… and an aura of danger.
Amethyst
The violet-eyed male catches my attention.
Not with words, but with his energy.
His gaze follows my every move.
And not because I’m a dancer.
When the mysterious stranger realizes I’ve stolen from him, I’m in trouble.
Instead of taking the item back, he wants me to do what I do best: perform.
Only this mission is filled with such high stakes that I’m scared.
However, I soon realize I’m more at risk of losing my heart than my life.
In the end he could be the one who’s stolen from me.
The Master Meets His Match
The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 💙💛💚
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Chemistry: 🧪🧪🧪🧪
Story/Plot: 📕📗📘
World building: 🌏🌍🌎
Character development: 😋🙂😁😎
Narrator(s): 🎙🎙🎙🎙🎙
Narration type: Duet Narration
Character Backgrounds and Plot Summary
Amethyst wraps up the series by finally giving the spotlight to the character I’d been side-eyeing since book two. Ashryn is the masked “Master” who ran the alien zoo that held Blaze and who captured Maxim in Terra. Here we learn he leads the Aetherbloods, comes from a family that sat on Koraxia’s council for generations, and is the nephew of the villain, Eldar Xennith. He was blamed for Tresdul’s assassination, and everything he does now bends toward restoring his people and making Xennith pay.
Cora is a human taken from Earth long before the other heroines. A former circus acrobat, she now dances at an alien nightclub, saving credits for a safe place to land, and she doesn’t hand out her real name. When she lifts Ash’s lighter, he doesn’t take it back. He blackmails her into helping him break into the lab of Evren Tully, a scientist who is obsessed with her and who built the androids Xennith sent to kill Ash’s people. Ash needs those blueprints so Blaze can hack them before the final fight. Then he realizes Cora is his fated mate, which is the last thing he wants.
Highlights and Limitations
My favorite thing was watching Ash get taken apart, slowly. Early on he’s dismissive of the work Cora did to survive, and she doesn’t let it slide. By the time they’re sorting out their bond, he’s a man who respects her instead of a martyr running on ego and revenge. I loved that Cora refuses to let him sacrifice alone, and that she matters to the plot. In the final battle she gives her life force to Kai, ends up in a coma, and has to be pulled back by Ash’s cousin and aunt. That stretch got to me.
The Tully scenes worked too. His fixation turns dangerous, Ash reaches her just in time, and suddenly the protectiveness feels earned. I also surprised myself by how much I enjoyed Ash being a virgin before Cora. Their first time, right around the halfway mark, felt tender, and the payoff of Cora taking on his hair color and markings, plus air powers and immortality, was a fun twist. Seeing the other couples show up for the war was a treat as well.
Now the part that bugged me. The first third is slow, and the romance moves fast once it gets going. Worse, we wait seven books for the showdown with Xennith and it’s over quickly. The commanders seem to fall in the battle, yet Maxim turns up in the sick bay afterward, and nobody explains who actually died, including whose mates were pregnant. I kept waiting for someone to bring it up while Cora and Ash talked in that sick bay scene. There’s no epilogue at all, and I wanted a few years later peek at the couples and Koraxia. I would have happily traded one love scene for that page.
Narration
Lynn Devereux voices Cora and Drake Edwards voices Ash across about seven hours, and since the book is in first person, those voices carry a lot. Edwards moves between Ash’s icy command and the lower, softer tone he uses once Cora gets under his skin, and that shift sells the character’s change. Devereux gives Cora real range, from a wary dancer guarding her name to a fierce mate who won’t be left behind. They’ve paired through the whole series, and the chemistry shows.
Final Opinion
If you’ve come this far with Elemental Mates, listen to this one. It redeems the Master in a way I didn’t see coming, and Cora and Ash feel like equals by the end. Just know the war wraps too fast and the loose ends stay loose. Newcomers should start with Glacier, because the finale leans hard on the earlier couples.
3.75 stars.
