Thursday 6 December 2012

Birthright by Valerie Parv



Reviewed by Desere


This was a romantic suspense like no other I have read before. The character of Adam, who by the way was found floating in the sea as a baby( I kid you not),was rather remarkable considering that he has not had a too easy life and has no idea where he actually came from,but he has made himself into the kind of man anyone looks up to as did I as reader.

But then the author brought into play Shana and some top VIP's with fascinating news and the game plan changed and the book got really interesting.

Think top secret space shuttle missions, truth of unknown origins being revealed, trust being build and a race to save humanity.

Yes the book had it all. The author did brilliant characterization for all main characters and secondary ones. The author weaved a story from another world that took me as reader to the other side so to speak.

I loved how passionate and emotionally personal the author made the book, to the point that I was thinking "Is the author in the room with me?" as I can swear I can her her typing away at the this one!

The plot was at first a bit hard to get use to but I got use to it once I could pick up that the author has a few tricks up her sleeves and there is a whole lot more behind this than at first glance.

Even if your not into space,romance or suspense for that matter this is the book that will take you to a new high.

I was however expecting a bit of a different outcome but even with the one I received I was blown away,as I said the author has some interesting tricks up her sleeve and that is what will leave you with a memorable read.

Very well written and one for the keepers shelf.

5/5 star review
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Review by TashNz

How do you explain that a book "has it all"?

In this case I think Birthright has it all! Romance, action, suspense, sci-fi, mind-reading, drama, good vs bad, cars almost going off cliffs, happiness, sadness (the sadness you feel when you know the last page is coming and you don't want it to) back to happiness (knowing this is the first of three book series). My sensors were in overload, I loved it! I couldn't put Birthright down, I was almost cursing it was Christmas because I have so much to do when all I wanted to do was find a corner and keep reading. As I was reading Birthright it felt like I was there as a third party watching everything unfold. For me I think this is an incredible feat for a author.

I loved all of the characters, even the bad ones. They were all richly written. I was drawn to them all from the very beginning and it was not too long before I realised that all these people are special in an unusual way. Adam was likable from the start and as I was swiftly drawn into the vortex of the story I wanted to learn his story... his and everyone else's. I really liked how Adam was such an intelligent character. Shana is Adams match. From her first introduction in the story I knew she was someone special and to keep an eye out for her.

It's so hard to write my feelings on this story without giving anything away. I can not wait for the next two stories.

I recommend you give Birthright a try if you love this type of genre OR if you want to try something different from the mainstream, you will be richly rewarded. I feel I was :)

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Reviewed by Maria

So there I was, about the embark on the assignment of reading a science fiction novel for perhaps the first time in my adult life and I'm thinking "Valerie Parv?"  Oh, yes! Successful Australian author of romances for Silhouette and Harlequin, not to mention a particularly fine  writIng craft book!  A combination of sci fi and romance, as I live and breathe.  I wondered about the future implications for readers.  Is Harlequin about to embark on an as yet classified but admittedly thrilling mission?  Are they boldly going to go where no romance publishing company has gone before and give us a new category in romance, sci fi, at two titles a month?  Or maybe four?  What will it be?  Passion among the planets?  Get amorous among the asteroids?  Sex in a spaceship?

Perish the thought, earthlings, it was nothing like that.  I thought I was going to get a romance novel with a backdrop of Star Trek. What I got was a serious piece of contemporary literature.  Contemporary as in written today but futuristic in the sense that it's science fiction.  Serious but readable.  Scientific but accessible, even if you are almost innocent of all things scientific as I am.  A story of one man's search for his true self.  And does he find himself?  Yes he does.  And when he finds his true self, he finds his mission.  Adam Desai (I initially thought he'd be of Indian origin, the real Desais are from Gujarat, not Carramer) is not your regular alpha hero, ready to sweep you off  your feet and give you great orgasms!  But he's an enigmatic individual who will intrigue you and have you rooting for him.  Yes, Adam's love story takes place in the course of the story too, but it's as enigmatic and beautiful as he is.  There's Shana, a talented administrator, the acting governor of  Carramer, an indigenous woman in a formerly colonial nation, proud of her origins, beautiful and Adam's soul mate.  There's his working colleague and ex-lover, who walked away from their relationship with great sadness when she realized that Adam was never going to buy into the dream of a semi-detached home with a white picket fence and 2.2 children.  Yet she still loves him and is ready to support him professionally.  I loved the fact that he loved her, even if he wasn't 'in love' with her.  I also loved the fact that bitterness was absent on the ex lover's side.

There's a host of intriguing and unforgettable characters in this sci fi thriller.  Burton Hackett, the villain is an evil yet strangely fascinating character.  There are the half aliens, Garrett and Elaine, who always knew they were different but who have been supporting each other all through, having all the human characteristics but with highly deveoped psychic abilities.  What this duo need is to convince Adam to come to terms with the fact that he is not of unknown parentage but of alien origin and to combine forces with them on a mission to save their adopted planet from certain disaster.  I was holding my breath until practically the final scene.

I am in awe of Valerie Parv's talent as an author, of her versatility and creativity.  An author who has what it takes to satisfy a reader of category romance and at the same time who can come up with a novel as hard hitting as 'Birthright' is a formidable talent indeed.  The author voice was so strong, it was neither male nor female.  It was a human voice, a compassionate voice.  It did not scream 'contemporary romance author'.  It spoke with quiet reason of the dilemma which affects every human being sooner or later - who are we, where have we come from, where are we going.

Set in the fictional south Pacific nation of Carramer, a country created by the author as the setting for many of her novels, I found everything about this novel fascinating.

This is a novel which can please readers of a very different calibre than the ones who read category romance.  Not that category romance readers aren't a discerning group. But they are readers of a particular sex and age group. 'Birthright' is a novel which can please a wider spectrum of readers than those for which  Valerie Parv.has usually written.  As it is an impacting science fiction thriller, I expect male readers would certainly enjoy reading this.

Anyway, after this, I'm converted to science fiction.

BUY LINKS:  Amazon      Amazon UK

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for linking this in Nas. Cheers

    ReplyDelete
  2. This sounds really intriguing, I'll be adding it to my list of books to read :o)

    ReplyDelete