Veronica is a very complicated character and I came to like her although initially she did feel very abrasive. Actually the author accomplished making him a very decent human being trying to be noble amidst very difficult circumstances and Veronica whilst perhaps not bowled over by him certainly could eventually understand that his intentions were pure. So with that uncomfortable background in play Gabriel really had to step up to the mark to impress me. I couldn't get out of my mind that Veronica was being used as a brood mare and in fact her feelings and comments about her previous experiences were very distasteful.

Why ? Well the idea of someone having sex with a different stranger once a month was for me simply awful. Oh my I need to do this justice so will start by saying I honestly didn't expect to like this story very much. When she finds she’s pregnant by the rogue wizard she can never hope to control, Nic does the unthinkable: she runs. Whichever one of her suitors impregnates her will claim her as familiar and wife, and she can use her wiles to rule her wizard master, and the House she marries into.īut Gabriel throws a wrench into Nic’s careful scheming, by seducing and fascinating her. Her one hope lies in entering the Betrothal Trials-and choosing a wizard from the Convocation candidates that she can manipulate. Instead Nic is doomed to be a familiar like her mother, a second-class citizen in the Convocation, and one destined to be bonded to a wizard, serving his purposes for the rest of her life. To her bitter disappointment, she will never be the powerful wizard she and her father hoped she’d be. Lady Veronica Elal doesn’t have many choices. And to exacting his ultimate revenge on the Convocation that destroyed his family. If he can obtain a familiar to supplement his skills, ideally one who is a highborn daughter who can also be his lady wife, then he’ll be that much closer to restoring House Phel. Fortunately, through a wild chance of birth, he was born with the magic of a powerful wizard, the first in his family in generations.

Lord Gabriel Phel wants one thing: to restore his shattered House to its former station in the Convocation’s complex and arcane society.

Dark wizard by jeffe kennedy