Desire in His Blood

Brides of the Kylorr, Book 1

By: Zoey Draven

Narrated by: Marcio Catalano, Stella Hunter

Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

A monster wants her as his bride...and he will stop at nothing to claim her.

Gemma Hara is drowning under the weight of her father’s debts. Working herself to the bone, she knows that if she doesn’t pay them off in time, the sadistic creditors will take everything: their home, their respected name, and, worst of all, her two beautiful sisters.

To save her family, Gemma agrees to do something reckless: marry a wealthy and mysterious stranger, who offers her a wicked bargain she can’t afford to refuse.

However, his bargain comes with one terrifying catch. Because her husband-to-be is a Kylorr.

One of the most fearsome alien races in the Four Quadrants, the Kylorr are beastly monsters, all muscle and menace, with powerful wings, depraved cravings, and berserker-like rages. The worst part?

They survive on blood.

Cold and cruel, Azur of House Kaalium, the High Lord of Laras, demands Gemma as his blood bride. To feed from her. To use her body in whatever way he wishes. For paying off her family’s debts, he expects her complete submission.

What neither of them predicts is how his bite doesn’t bring pain—it fills Gemma with more exquisite pleasure than she’s ever known. And as she finds her footing on a strange new planet, the one thing Gemma thought she’d never surrender might be at risk after all.

Her heart.

Too bad her new husband can’t seem to decide if he wants to break it...or keep it forever.

©2022 Zoey Draven (P)2023 Zoey Draven

Great narration!

Story: I found the world building to be pretty rich and fun. Initially I was a little lost with all the names but, after a few chapters, I got invested. A bit of a “strangers to lovers”/“enemies to lovers” mix going on which quickly turned to just love (and lots of it 🌶️🌶️🌶️) due to to a different trope that gets introduced pretty early on. Not complaining though!

Narration: I loved both narrators in this so much. Marcio Catalano is particularly good in his role as Azur. His voice is so deep and silky. The way he delivered some of his lines made me feel…so many things. 🥵 Stella Hunter is marvelous! She really helped paint a picture of a strong female lead in Gemma. Also, the duet narration! ❤️ I love duets so much since it makes the story feel more immersive.

Overall: Highly recommended! Narration doesn’t disappoint, the romance is compelling, and the world building lays great ground work for more to come. I’m forward to jumping into the next one in the series now!

Great first book!

I am so excited for this series.. I’ve read the first 2 books and can’t wait for the next. I’m glad I read the physical books first, because there are a lot of names which can make it confusing to follow if you’re just listening to the audio version. The narration is great, Marcio has such a calming voice and Stella did a phenomenal job. Off to purchase book 2!

another hit series for Zoey

I am a tremendous fan of Zoey's Horde Kings series, so I was very happy to see this new series, and I'm hoping it will be a several book series. It's a complicated world to build but she's done a masterful job. I relate to both main characters and the things that happened in their pasts that formed their personalities. Stella did an awesome job narrating the female voices, but I felt that Marcio fell a little short on narrating the lead male, giving a too mellow read during times when Azur was angry.

I smiled at the quick little nod to Drakkar, and if you haven't read that series yet, I encourage you to do so right away.

Steamy paranormal arranged marriage!

Story Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (0-5)
Audiobook Rating: 🎧🎧🎧🎧 (0-5)
Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥 (0-5)

What I’m Starry-Eyed Over:
🤩 Stella Hunter is the queen of breathy arousal. She does a fantastic job of showing Gemma’s unwavering strength, commitment, and submission until that unwanted eroticism comes.
🤩 I love Marcio Catalano’s deep, seductive voice as Azur.
🤩 I guess I needed some steamy vampire romance in my life.
🤩 Paranormal arranged marriage.
🤩 The world building imagery seemed like Star Wars or Black Panther combined with Scottish Highland setting vibes.
🤩 Captivating from the beginning—that need to know the history.
🤩 Fated/blood mate tension, attraction, and steam that’s so hot (albeit on the dark side of intimacy).
🤩 Zoey Draven is deliciously descriptive (about the scenery too). 🤭
🤩 Gemma and Azur trying to outsmart each other when they are both controlled by the mating bond.
🤩 Gemma is so brave to put her family before herself.
🤩 When Azur starts to appreciate, admire, and adore Gemma, not just for his sexual pleasure. I was so unsure for a bit, but it really did work on me.
🤩 When Gemma realizes she isn’t playing a role any more.
🤩 Great side characters you just kind of want to keep up with . . .

What I’m Wishing/Dizzy About:
💫 I really wish Marcio Catalano would have growled. He might have been a little too nice in this narration.
💫 I didn’t love that, before the fated mate attraction came, Azur described Gemma as not being attractive and fixated on her ugly dresses. He wasn’t impressed by her at all. It made me question their love at first because it all came after being fated mates.

Really good!

I liked this book from beginning to end. The characters were interesting and the world building was imaginative. The narration was really good too! A credit well spent.

Love me a broody man

I thoroughly enjoyed this listen. The plot was really well written, the tension between the main characters was fantastic, and the wait for spice was worth it! The narrators did a great job, I'm going to devour this series.

One of my faves

I fell in love w the book so when I noticed the audio had been released I was excited to see who voiced the characters. Stella and Marcio did an absolute amazing job. Stella was able to handle the emotions and soft voice of Gemma wo sounding annoying or cloy. She is now officially one of my fave vo actors.
Marcio has a velvet voice. And was also able to change his voice really well for the other male characters. That paired with dual narration-well let’s just say this will be on repeat for many years for me.

The story itself is so good. Strangers to enemies to lovers. The spice is just right. The world building was so interesting to me. I love this couple and their story.

Arranged Marriage, Enemies to Lovers!

It has been a while since I liked an alien romance as much as this one. I love Zoey Draven's Horde Kings of Drakar series so I am not surprised that this one was so good. The heroine's family is in debt and the hero offers marriage to pay off everything for them. The hero is set on revenge against the heroine's father and we get an enemies-to-lovers situation.
The chemistry between the hero and heroine was so good! We get so much tension and the hero reluctantly falls for his wife despite his hatred of her family. The audio performance was so well done. This is a new to me male narrator and I was impressed with his performance. Stella Hunter is one of my favorite female narrators and she did an incredible job with this book.I had so much fun with this and will definitely be picking up the next one in the series.

Great Story!

. The narrators did a good job telling the story and giving the characters a voice emotions and all that made it entertaining to listen to it. The FMC is struggling paying off her father's debt, staff, workers and house bills while trying to hide it from her sisters. When she has no other choice she agrees to marry the MC not knowing he has an agenda of his own. This was a great story the chemistry between the two is hot , when they get together steamy, when everything unfolds heavy.

Story predictable

The narrators did a fantastic job, but the female character was so boring at times. Had to fast forward a few times because the story was just slow and not moving repeatedly at times. Loved the male voice he was fantastic! Story was just boring at times, but gave it a four for narrative because they were just fantastic!