Title: Black OrchidHeartbroken…
Adelaide Jenner feels nothing… she is completely numb inside. Her te’sorthene, her fated love, abandoned her and joined their enemy. On that day her sister turned off all Adelaide’s emotions in order to save her from a heartbreak that could push her over the edge of sanity. But great power wielded without compassion or love can only lead to pain.
Deceived…
Nate Pierce believes Adelaide used her extraordinary powers to deceive him all these years. So he destroyed a relationship he thought to be false and hungers for revenge. Now, Nate serves Maddox. He is unaware that his new leader is using him as a pawn in a bid to enslave all Svatura.
Unraveling…
The only hope of finally defeating Maddox is for Adelaide and her sisters to combine their growing powers against him. But the the key to a Svatura’s power is the heart, and Adelaide’s is still missing.
Amazon | Smashwords | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads
You really need to start with book one, Blue Violet, to follow along with everything that happens in this series and get to know the characters and the terminology.
The Darane Svatura — the good guys. Once a large clan, they were slaughtered by their enemies, the Vyusher. Both groups possess superpowers that appear with puberty and they have extended lifespans that leave them looking like teenagers for hundreds of years. They’ve battled for generations, and eventually they acknowledge they are the same people, the Svatura.
Te’sorthene — means soul mates. (“The word literally meant a friend bonded by heart or spirit.”) As the Svartura are very rare, they are left to interbreed with humans, so to find their te’sorthene is a miracle. (I can’t help thinking of the Vulcan term t’hy’la.) It’s a big deal.
“Lila!” Adelaide Jenner screamed the one panicked word into her sister’s mind.
Lila was in the middle of explaining to the High Council her part in the most recent battle with their enemies. The debriefing had been going on for the past week. Technically, Adelaide wasn’t supposed to interrupt. The purpose of the meeting was to figure out how to defeat Maddox, an incredibly powerful dragon metamorph whose main goal in life seemed to be the annihilation of any Svatura who didn’t follow him. They’d fought him more times than Adelaide cared to remember and still they’d yet to defeat him, despite all the extraordinary powers on their side. Maddox always managed to stay one step ahead.
But right now Adelaide needed Lila. To hell with the debriefing.
“What?” Lila’s telepathic response was immediate.
“Nate’s leaving. Something’s wrong. I know it,” Adelaide replied frantically. At the same time, Adelaide sprinted through the halls of the Vyusher castle to where she could feel Nate’s presence. He was trying to keep his mind closed to her but wasn’t entirely successful. And what she found in his thoughts made her sick.
“I’m coming, Delia. Where?” Lila answered after a few tense moments.
Adelaide flashed her sister images of where she was headed – a cell in the lower levels of the castle. Muscles burning, all she could hear was her harsh breathing and the slap of her shoes against the stone flooring as she sped around the final corner. There, in front of the room, were two guards unconscious on the floor. The sharp scent of blood filled the air.
Adelaide and Nate are te’sorthene, and at the beginning of Black Orchid Nate is manipulated by their enemies into thinking that Adelaide has been lying to him. He thinks that she is not really his te’sorthene, but has been using her abilities to fool him for years. He leaves to join Maddox, a psychopath intent on destroying them all.
Losing the connection to her te’sorthene sends Adelaide over the edge. She is in such torment that to save her sanity, her sister Lila shuts Adelaide’s emotions off altogether. But with no emotions, she is a danger to herself and others, so her family makes the decision that without the memory of Nate and the love they shared, she will forget her pain yet still be able to love her friends and family. Except Nate is so entwined with her identity, that she doesn’t just forget him, she forgets decades of her life.
For most of Black Orchid, Adelaide has no memory of anything after the 1920s. She has to learn how to deal with the modern world, and how to control the dragon within.
Meanwhile, Nate is living in a gray world, enthralled by Talia and manipulated by Maddox. In his mind, Adelaide and her family — his family — are the enemy he is desperate to destroy.
Black Orchid was an interesting read with a full cast of characters. It wraps up the Svatura series with plenty of romance and a satisfying ending.
If you’re a fan of YA paranormal romance, you might want to give this series a try.
Main cast/pairings:
Adelaide Jenner/Nate Pierce
Lilian “Lila” Jenner/Ramsey Pierce
Ellinore “Ellie” Aubrey/Alex Jenner
Griffin Aubrey/Selene
Lucy Jenner/Hugh Jenner
Charlotte Pierce/Dexter Pierce
Maddox — the villain
Talia — the other woman
Though the main characters appear to be teenagers, on average they’re around 160 years old.
| 
| 
Author Bio
Award-winning author, Abigail Owen was born in Greeley, Colorado and raised in Austin, Texas. She now resides in Northern California with her husband and two adorable children who are the center of her universe.
Abigail grew up consuming books and exploring the world through her writing. A fourth generation graduate of Texas A&M University, she attempted to find a practical career related to her favorite pastime by obtaining a degree in English Rhetoric/Technical Writing. However, she swiftly discovered that writing without imagination is not nearly as fun as writing with it.
