Seduced by Innocence, by Kimberly Kinrade

Seduced #1

"All my life I've been told that I will kill my first love. That the dark power I harbor within myself will destroy him.

Just like it's destroyed others.

Witches take an oath to do no harm, but I broke that oath even as a child, and so I hide within the invisible walls of my strange coven, keeping everyone at a distance.

Until I meet Derek.

His magnetism draws me in even as I know I should run. But I can't run, because I need him to teach me how to defend myself and others, so I don't fall victim to the shifters out to terrorize my coven.

He can't know my secret, and I can't give in to the other need that's growing between us, the one that heats me from within whenever we're together.

But flesh is weaker than intention, and neither of us can fight the fates. If only we'd known the truth before taking that first bite of forbidden fruit.

Now it's too late."

This was actually a pretty good book. The story follows Rose, a witch with a dark gift that she hates using. A power that drains the soul out of people. And Derek, a Druid shifter whose family is under constant threat from the Coven that Rose is a part of. Nothing is ever as it seems in this book, at least to the characters, which I actually like when authors do that. From the very beginning, I had this feeling that Rose's mother was actually batshit crazy and just using people in her coven. With the way she uses her words to cut at people and her, undoubtedly, ruthlessness there was no way she wasn't evil.

At the beginning of the book, Rose is forced to use her power to stop an attack on her mother, which to me didn't make sense, considering that her mother is supposed to be a very powerful witch. For me, that was the first clue into what her mother, who I believed is named Rainbow... Okay, I need to take a moment to comment on  some of the names of characters in this book. A couple of the names used for people in the coven are extremely hippyish. Rainbow, Mist, and Ocean? I mean come on!... alright back to the story itself. Most of the book is just about Rose and Derek and their growing love for one another. While each family tries to figure out why the other is attacking the other. Rose wants to feel the intimacy with Derek but is scared that her power will unleash and wipe him of everything. Rose goes against everything her mother ever told her to spend time with Derek and eventually her mother uses it against her without Rose knowing, though Blake, a member of the coven that harbors feelings for Rose. Feelings that Rose does not return.

Each chapter is told from either Rose, Derek, or Blake's P.O.V So we get to see all sides of the story as it unfolds. Both Derek and Rose have a secret, essentially the same secret they want to share, and they both have the same fear when they eventually do share it. I would recommend this book, it's a nice quick read and entertaining enough. It's not mind-bending and exciting, there really isn't anything new about this story. But a book doesn't always have to be different to be entertaining. When I find the sequel, I will be reading it, as well as the rest of the series.