BOOK TITLE: Never Again
AUTHOR: Marie Krepps
YEAR: 2016
GENRE: Fiction
SUBGENRE: Creature Fantasy
GRADE: Pass
In a medieval world inhabited by animalistic shape-shifters,
Lord Sable is the ruler of the Southern Territory, but he is far from a typical
politician. Instead of pushing papers behind a desk, he’s brawling with bandits
and monsters as a way of protecting his people. He’s also protective of his
little daughter, whose mother died after giving birth. Sable is crass, angry,
vulgar, and emotionally cold. When another shape-shifter named Nessa comes into
his life, the Southern Lord has to choose between keeping his trauma locked up
forever and letting someone in to ease his pain. Nessa has pain of her own and
wants to run into Sable’s cold, but strong arms. Will these two come together
or tear each other apart? Cooperation is a must considering an unknown enemy is
targeting Sable and his family.
I have to be honest here for a moment. At first I was
critical of Lord Sable’s character development. He came off as an abusive
jerk-ass who would never survive in a liberal democracy. And then I remembered
that the story’s environment is anything but a liberal democracy. This is set
in medieval times, which means literacy is at its lowest, ignorance is at its highest,
and bigotry is everywhere. Instead of scoffing at Sable’s negative attitude,
I’m praising Marie Krepps’ ability to stay true to the times. Even with a
fantasy genre label, it’s important to keep things real and believable. High
five to Ms. Krepps for doing an awesome job of that! And if you’re still not
convinced that Sable is capable of being a decent person, keep reading, you’ll
get your moment….sort of.
Another thing that deserves praise is a staple of most of
Ms. Krepps’ books, the delicious sex scenes. I won’t say who they feature
because that would count as a spoiler. But when the sex happens, you feel every
muscle twitch, you feel every drop of sweat, you feel ever orgasmic burst of
energy, and you’re hungering for more afterwards. Marie doesn’t just tell you what
kind of hot sex is going on; she puts you right there in the middle of the
action. I’ve always praised her ability to show instead of tell and these
luscious scenes are living proof. She’s been doing these kinds of scenes for a
long time now and experience has always been the best teacher. Try to remember:
this book is not meant to be pornographic. Try really, really hard to remember!
The final thing I want to comment on is this book’s
similarities with the long-running anime Inuyasha, which also takes place in
medieval times and features demonic animals. Creative fuel can come from
anywhere and Marie Krepps is a lifelong fan of anime, so that’s a lot of
inspiration to work with. I often picture what it would be like to have
Inuyasha and Lord Sable eat dinner together. There would be a lot of wolfing, a
lot of swearing, and a lot of lewd behavior. The difference between them? Sable
doesn’t have a “sit” necklace to hold him back. On the contrary, he’s made of
100% raw power with cold emotions to boot. In a way, Sable is also comparable
to Koga since they’re both wolf shifters and equally vulgar. It’s always nice
to see an author use creative fuel in such an innovative way.
This is a Marie Krepps novel in the truest sense: sex,
violence, fantasy, romance, and an invitation to a front row seat for the
action. She knows exactly what she’s doing when it comes to hooking in readers
and never letting go of her death grip until she damn well wants to. This isn’t
the last we’re going to see of Lord Sable, Nessa, and the evildoers who want to
tear their world apart. This is only the first in what will eventually be a
long series of awesome storytelling, high drama, and explosive action. I think
she deserves a passing grade for her effort, don’t you agree? Excellent work,
Marie! You’ve done it again!
