I’m not entirely sure how I ended up with a copy of Perri Torani‘s The Wildborn. I have no memory of signing up for an ARC (that doesn’t mean I didn’t; it just means I don’t remember if I did), and the Bookfunnel link was sent to my normal email (not my blog email), which isn’t the one I would have used. It was only luck that I saw it at all. I get A LOT of newsletters and such. Things regularly get missed.
Regardless, confused as I might have been, it hit my TBR at just the right moment, grabbed my attention (partly because of the confusion), and I decided to give it a read. (I then managed to accidentally log in to review it on the same day Bookfunnel sent the “It’s time to review The Wildborn (eARC)” email, which I think might be release day.) The stars were really aligned for Torani on this one.
To walk the path of a morazir, I will exist in three states of being:
Untouched.
Untaken.
Unconquered.
Airik, a battle-scarred warrior serving the cruel intergalactic empire of the Veynari, craves silence from the nightmares tormenting his mind. But while on post to decommission a failed experiment of a planet, a rogue human spacecraft crashes, and a reckless decision leaves him stranded—entangled with a woman he never should have saved.
Nora wakes light-years from Earth, broken in body and spirit, at the mercy of an alien soldier who refuses to let her die. Devastatingly beautiful, terrifyingly competent, and bound by a warrior’s oath that permits touch only to destroy, he’s the reluctant guardian angel she neither wants nor believes she deserves.
Trapped together, they’re forced to navigate a brutal landscape, vicious beasts, and the deadly remnants of an abandoned world. Duty demands Airik’s cold indifference. Yet Nora sparks something deliciously alive—and entirely forbidden—within him. What begins as necessity ignites a primal hunger: scorching, consuming, and impossible to resist.
But even if they survive, the Veynari—ever present and ruthless—won’t allow its warriors weakness like love. For Airik and Nora to be together, they must risk everything.
I generally enjoyed this. If you like a male lead that falls first, falls hard, and PINES, The Wildborn is for you. Airik doesn’t wear his heart on his sleeve. He rips it out—all bloody and desperate—and shows it to you. I adored him.
Nora…Nora not so much. I mean, she’s sweet, kind, and takes to her unexpected situation with aplomb. But she’s also completely useless. And while Airik is fine with that, I wanted so much more from her. I didn’t dislike her. I just found her a little bit of a cardboard cutout of the emotionally scarred damsel in distress. (Predictably, the cause of her emotional scars is also ridiculously not worthy of her self-blame and hatred.)
The writing itself is clean and easy to read. However, at 600+ pages, the book is far too long. Airik and Nora spend too much time stalling before anything significant happens, and I 100% did not need the previous generation’s chapter at the beginning. All in all, however, I’d likely read book two to see where the overarching plotline goes and which of the two potential matches comes next.
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