The battle between brains and brawn is as old as time yet Jayla Jasso manages to significantly raise the bar in Untamed Barbarian, a suspenseful time travel romance, and the second book in her Visigoth Barbarians series.
Handsome barbarian, Andaric, Son of Braga, is about to be executed but manages to escape and goes in search of his brother Valamir, only to discover that his brother has been sent to the present day by a Druid priestess who happens to be his former lover. When Andaric demands that she send him to the future to find his brother, she agrees but tricks him by giving him poison instead of the promised potion, before abandoning him to die. Andaric is saved by a priest who has a potion of his own to send Andaric to the future. After drinking the potion, Andaric finds himself in the ocean before struggling his way to shore, drawn to a dark bundle that lies in the sand. As Andaric pulls back the blanket to uncover the body of a mutilated young woman, two guards attack him before knocking him unconscious.
Blessed with a sixth sense, gorgeous psychologist, Kaiya Martinez, along with the rest of the Huntington Beach Police Department, is in the midst of trying to stop the Meadowlark Killer, a psychopath who savagely beats and mutilates his women victims. To complicate matters, she learns that there’s been a contract put out on her life by a ruthless gangster, against whom she’d testified months earlier. Kaiya’s life is further thrown into a tailspin when a giant of a man is arrested hovering over the mutilated remains of the city’s newest victim and she’s tasked with assessing whether he’s the Meadowlark Killer. While the suspect is certainly destructive, hostile and fits the bill physically, he’s also hotter than hell, leaving Kaiya uncharacteristically conflicted.
Writing dual story lines is no easy task yet Jasso is more than up to the task in this delightful work of romantic fantasy. With Andaric’s story beginning with him escaping his own execution and Kaiya’s beginning with a possible lead in the Meadowlark killings, each story line draws the reader in, picking up speed as the bursts of action are tempered with a compelling narrative and effective dialogue. The constant changes in alternating story lines are done exceptionally well, flowing seamlessly – the hallmark of a talented writer, as these perspective shifts can often be frustrating in the wrong hands.
A really good love story requires two compelling protagonists and plenty of sexual tension, and this novel has both: Andaric is a giant hulk of an attractive man who reacts instinctively, thinking nothing of cracking open a man’s skull in order to stay alive yet it’s this primal instinct upon which he’s based his survival that enables him to express himself to Kaiya. Kaiya, while very much the intellectual, relies on her instincts when it comes to human nature, finding a vulnerability in Andaric that makes him irresistible to her, leading to satisfying heights of sexual tension throughout the book. Each character is as magnetic for the reader as the characters’ attraction for each other.
Liberal doses of action and suspense heighten the romance, making Untamed Barbarian an all-round satisfying read that will appeal to readers of urban fantasy and romance alike.
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