When a Moth Loved a Bee; Destini Chronicles #1
(#1 within a series)
Publication Date: February 3, 2023
Genre/Tropes: Fantasy/Star-Crossed/Forbidden Romance
Author: Pepper Winters
Review Rating: 4 Gold Stars
Review/Synopsis:
Review:
At almost 1000 pages, this is the first book I’ve read by Pepper Winters. I finished this giant saga with soooooo many feelings that I’m still trying to process them even now after sitting on them for few days, but here goes nothing.
When A Moth Loved A Bee is prettily summed up in that it’s a fantastical new world where two destined, but star-crossed souls struggle to regain what they’ve lost over and over and over again.
In the not so pretty context this saga begins with two people, a man and a woman, who are both on the brink of death and they both have no recollection of who they are, who they were, where they come from, literally nothing remains in their heads, not even clothes on their back. They are both separate as they’ve been walking alone and naked and both lead very different journey’s back to health.
The woman’s journey, who was known as Girl for quite some time until she learns that her name is Runa meaning Bee, is found by a clan known as the Nhil. They control fire, and among them is where some of the fantastical element comes into play. It also didn’t take long to feel like the world was at a stage that is very dawn of time like. No technology, larger animals, wearing animal hides, etc… From the moment Runa wakes up with the Nhil people she feels indebted to them. It’s total feminine toxicity that is bred into our culture where females are made to feel guilty when given something, whether it is a physical item or emotional comfort. Let me state: love is unconditional and as a society we need to learn the UN part of that word better. Love does not mean servitude and yet Runa feels the shackles tightening every time she returns, but she doesn’t know how to break free from the guilt. Yes, you read that right…she returns…because she does leave with her star-crossed soulmate, several times in fact, but those darn shackles….they only have so much give you know.
The man, who is known as Stranger until we learn his name is Darro which means Moth, is adopted by wolves.You didn’t read that wrong…I said wolves. His journey is very different from Runa’s, but his pull to her is strong through the entire book. From the very first moment Darro sets his eyes upon Runa he feels it in his heart that she is his home. That they belong together and he spends the rest of the 900 pages convincing her of this truth, but remember what I said above. Frankly, I was a bit exhausted of him trying to convince her, especially with Runa’s tenacity for running back to the Nhil clan that uses and abuses her. Darro should have been exhausted too, but his unconditional love for her was steadfast and his strength of character is honestly what kept me reading.
I can’t say I’ve read a story that was written quite so beautifully, because Pepper does hold a gift for great writing, but on the opposite spectrum it was a story that also frustrated me by the characters motivations that I almost stopped reading. That really never happens. I did finish this book, but I do not believe I will continue with the second. While I loved Darro and truly cared about him from the very beginning, as a reader, I felt I cared about him more than his precious Bee.
Synopsis:
New York Times Bestseller, Pepper Winters, delivers a brand new High Fantasy Romance.
“It’s taking everything I have not to touch you. Not because I want to make you mine but because every part of me screams that you already are.”
A pack of wolves hunt a girl who takes her last breath by a river’s edge.
She is found and nursed back to health by the kind-hearted Nhil people.
She has no memory.
No past.
And is given a choice that could change her forgotten life forever.
A pack of wolves adopt a man who begs for death in the grasslands.
Blood revives him. Flesh strengthens him. All while the alpha watches him as if he knows who he is.
He has no memory.
No past.
And yet…he’s drawn toward the smoke of a faraway clan.
And in that smoke, he finds a girl with the same mark on her thigh, the same empty mind, and the same forgotten language on her lips.
He’s convinced they know each other.
She’s certain they are strangers.
But the more time they spend together, the more tangled the truth becomes.
Their forgetfulness was deliberate.
To keep them apart.
To keep them lost.
To keep them from claiming their true power.
Because in that power exists a terrible choice.
A choice that could destroy the world…
…or each other.
When a Moth Loved a Bee is the first volume in the Epic Fantasy Romance Destini Chronicles.
A heavily romantic, spice-filled fantasy set in a world where life and death, shadows and stars watch over two forbidden lovers whose powers are best left forgotten.
Recommended for readers over R18 due to explicit scenes, content, and darker elements.
Author Note:
This Fantasy is 100% romance. It isn’t a quest where they spend most of the book apart. If you want a rich world, magic, intrigue, oodles and oodles of page time with the two characters together, all brimming with longing, forbiddenness, and butterfly-winging moments, then this is the book for you.
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Eve Dangerfield has loved romance novels ever since she first swiped her grandmother’s paperbacks. Now she writes her own stories about complicated women and gorgeous-but-slightly-tortured men. Her work has been described as ‘genre-defying,’ ‘insanely hot’ and ‘the defibrillator contemporary romance needs right now’…and not just by herself or those who might need bone marrow…OTHER PEOPLE! She lives in Melbourne with her boy and a bunch of semi-dead plants. She can generally be found making a mess.
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