Drink of Me

This is my first Jacquleyn Frank novel and I truly enjoyed it. It was very fast paced, engaging, and sexy overall and the characters were wonderful.Reule is the leader of the Sange, a group of peaceful empaths and telepaths who were driven from their lands because "outlanders" or other races on their planet can't stand them for their barbaric need to drink the blood of their mates while mating. Although they are not vampires, they are misunderstood and perscuted so they've relocated to a less than ideal land of cold and harsh territory, but overall have been very successful in rebuilding their world. Unfortunately, they still have an active enemy, the Jackals, and they continue to defend and protect themselves from these creatures who feed off their misery and pain. The story starts here when Reule and his "Pack" or trusted soldiers go into the hiding place of some Jackals to rescue one of their members who is being tortured mercilessly. While there, Reule feels waves and waves of sadness and despair from someone else and finds a tiny, freezing, filthy and broken woman in hiding. Although barely conscious, this woman's soul recognizes Ruele when he finds her and she whispers to him, Drink of Me, which startles him deeply.Reule brings the strange woman to his home, cleans her up, and finds himself obsessed with his curiosity about her. She makes him feel things that threatens his personal control and his stalwart behavior and the telling of his emotions is comical because he often can't hide it due to his strong link with his immediate pack and people overall. Since they're all empaths, when Reule is angry or frustrated, and especially turned on, it drives his men crazy. Traumatized by her abuse, the woman can't remember her name or her people, so Reule names her Mystique. As the story progresses, although she can't remember details of her past life, her instincts kick in and the Sange people find out that she has two unique and extremely rare abilitiles. She is telemetric and naturopathic, meaning she can read emotions through touch and she can heal. As Mystique uses these powers to help defend the Sange people and to save their lives, she earns the respect of the people and she and Reule fall deeply in love. This happiness is disturbed when not only her intentions are questioned by some, but also when her past starts to catch up on her.This is a love story through and through and I loved the fact that Mystique is a strong and caring independent woman who doesn't sit around waiting for people to protect her. Reule is also wonderful, as the, thanks heavens, baggage free, hero. Although he's initially concerned about being a Sange and seen as a monster by an outlander like Mystique, he's not the brooding hero who can't be with someone because of past pains, history, whatever. It was refreshing to read and any misunderstandings between the two essentially stem from being two different races with different customs to observe. I highly recommend it.

Summary:Reule is the Prime of the Sánge people. His people have been persecuted by the other tribes of this world and kicked out of their lush tropical paradise. Having traveled across harsh land Reule finally found a place to make a home, vowing that no one what will take what is theirs again. The Jackels have been a pain in Reule's side for many years but when they take and torture one of his Pack, Reule will get his Pack Mate back and retribution for this attack will be his. During his rescue as the most powerful telepath and empath Reule feels the presence of infinite sadness coming from a female inside the same house as his Pack Mate is being held, Reule is compelled to save the woman whose sadness is affecting him so strongly. Upon Mystique's rescue she has no idea who or what she is, she only knows that this man that rescued her is the man for her. The attraction between Reule and Mystique is instantaneous and anyone around them is also deeply affected by what is going on between the two of them and soon they are not able to keep their hands off of each other. Even Mystique's mysterious past can't keep them apart, but as more time goes by the more they discover there is more to Mystique than they first thought...Review:J. Franks creates a whole new interesting world. The Sánge are a complex and intriguing people, the telepathic and empathic twist along with the third `pathic ability adds a whole other dimension to the people. The more glimpses of Mystiques past you get the more intrigued you are by her and what she is. The chemistry between her and Reule is scorching! Add the dynamic of the Pack, Mystiques mysterious past and the dangers of the Jackels you will have enough in this novel to keep you entertained for the duration. What I am not sure I like about this novel is it read like it was going to be a first of a series following the Sánge Pack, it was certainly setting it up for one, but when I went to J. Franks website she has this novel listed as a standalone. This disappoints me, there was a set up for a second novel and it ended like it was building up to something with no conclusion on that. I liked this Sánge world and hope J. Franks changes her mind and continues on...

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I took a chance on an author I wasn't familiar with based on the reviews by amazon readers. It paid off. Very well written romance, builds tension very nice between the characters and doesn't get into the hardcore sex scenes until more than half thru the story. I could have done with about twenty pages less of the sex scenes and used more story in its place, but no major guff with her approach. (as an aside, I wonder, are editors sending books back to their authors with comments such as "must have six sex scenes minimum, one of which must be oral" etc?)I didn't know what to expect on the "paranormal" front. Again, pleasantly surprised. When I reread the synopsis before Writing this review and noticing the mentions of paranormal I was actually baffled as I didn't recall any paranormal. Then, oh yeah, the Sange characters had psychic abilities. Those abilities were just so integrated into the characters that it felt perfectly natural.I was pleased that the author made the characters deal with several major traumas. It wasn't all perfect, reflected life in a hard place more realistically. Probably my only real complaint is that I felt the story resorted to a very over-used plot device towards the end for the "bad guy" of the piece. I did greatly enjoy how the bad guy was written out of the story, very realistic touch.Finally, I evaluate whether a book truly was good by whether or not it comes to mind days after I've read it. This one does, so many in the romance genre that I've been reading lately or forgotten as soon as I close the cover. I do recommend you take a chance with this book by this author.

Jacqueline Frank has created an interesting world in this novel. There are various tribes and races, some aggressive, some peaceful. The Sange are a closed group, reviled by others due to rumours of their drinking blood. They all have "pathic" abilities, whether to heal, see someone's past, feel emotions or read minds. They are plagued by a race called the Jakals, who cause trouble in order to feed on the emotions of others. The leader of the Sange, or the Prime, Reule, finds a dirty dishevelled woman who has no memory but has clearly suffered great trauma. When he finds her, she whispers "Drink of me" something that really "floats his boat" but she isn't truly concious. He takes her in and tries to help her find out her origins and discovers a deep attraction for her along the way.This is reported to be a stand-alone novel, but I can't help but feel that it would be better suited as the first novel in a series. The world of the Sange is only briefly introduced and there are lots of interesting characters that only get a small amount of time dedicated to them. Reule has a "Pack" of men that fulfil a range of roles in his court and each of them are interesting enough to warrant their own book. In fact, one of them even seems to have the beginnings of his own book laid out at the end of this one, even going so far as to have a potential mate lined up in the wings. I do think that the world Ms Frank has created could withstand a series of books. There is a lot more about the Sange that I would like to know and their problems with the Jakal are only briefly dealt with. Unfortunately the author's reponse to questions about follow on books is "Well...I have learned to never saw never, so let's just say 'not at this time' and leave it at that, shall we?". It's on her website :(This book is worth a read if you enjoy paranormal romance. The male characters make interesting reading. The female character, Mystique, is nice enough (although she seems strangely unconcerned about her past life most of the time) and their relationship feels genuine. The reason for the 3 stars is the fact that the book feels very introductory, rather than fully fleshed out plus the fact that there is rather more cheesy dialogue than I am usually willing to put up with in this genre.NB// For Kindle readers- there are no formatting problems or errors in this edition.

This is only the second book by Jacquelyn frank that i've read. I didn't really like the first one (seduce me in dreams) and to be honest I only read this one cos i bought it ages ago.The story centres around "the Sange" - a race of people isolated because of their peculiar culture (involving drinking blood). They all have "pathic" abilities like telepathy and so on and the story follows the leader of the Sange known as the Prime (Reule) and his Pack who find a dirty, traumatised woman while rescuing a pack member from their enemies - the Jakals who feed on emotion.I liked this book and it was much better than the other one i read as it did not commit the crime of not actually explaining why anything happened in the first place. The woman who comes to be known as mystique is too traumatised to remember what happened to her at first but we do find out at the end so woo hoo for that. The plot was really interesting and the characters were OK - not amazing or particularly deep but fair enough. Reule was pretty good but I wasn't all that keen on mystique - she had no depth at all and didn't seem to care that she had no idea who she was. I just didn't find her likable at all. (I actually found the minor characters much more interesting than the main two)So far JF's books are a little reminiscent of Christine Feehan's style and I don't really like her stuff too much. (Way too much big he-man male and pathetic female for my taste) JF's not quite that bad but in this book I think what is her attempt to make the sex scenes more romantic than many in this genre made them kind cheesy(and I hate to say it but Reule and Mystique's relationship made me want to gag sometimes for this reason - many times I wished that they would just stop talking to each other cos it bored me).This book also felt very introductory for a stand alone novel. By the end of the book especially it seemed like she was preparing for the next one and the next couple was obvious - but apparently this was for no purpose as there are no plans for more.Overall the book was enjoyable and if you are a fan of Jacquelyn Frank or Christine Feehan then go for it. Me personally am still undecided on JF - I wont hang on to this book as it didn't do much for me but I will try the Nightwalkers before I write her off completely.

I agree wholeheartedly with the first reviewer and it would be superfluous to try to better the comments already expressed.This was different, and I loved it. There must be more to come after this book as this felt like a taster to a series and there must be so much more mileage to be derived from this strange and fascinating world we have been introduced to.Please don't leave me like this!!This is also from the Kindle version of the book.

A well crafted story set in a very nicely realised fantasy world. Although the novel is basically a romance, the plot and characterisation give it life beyond the "ah, how sweet. NEXT!" feeling you're often left with. - I particularly liked the handling of the love scenes, - yes, LOVE scenes, as in opposed to sex scenes! They were character and emotionally driven and I didn't find myself cringing at the language used once, - definitely a refreshing change! - Well done there Ms Frank, you're officially a grown up!!!I very much hope this is going to be the start of a series. - I've just downloaded every other Jacquelyn Frank book available on Kindle to read while I wait. - I'll be done in about a week. Is that ok for you???

I love this book and have reread it a number of times. It would make a lovely series. Following the Yesu or Sange or even into the Sange past.... She created a world with much potential and wrote a book that leaves you craving more.