Title:  Stained
Series:  Stained #1
Author:  Ella James
Genre:  Paranormal, Romance
Published:  September 14, 2011
Publisher:  Barkley’s Books
My Rating:  5 star
Source:  NetGalley
Synopsis:

Seventeen-year-old Julia is finally living the good life. She’s traded a hard cot in a Memphis orphanage for her very own room in a perfect little house, on a perfect little street, with a perfect set of parents who picked her to be their daughter.

But Julia is hiding a secret – and one fall night, she returns home from a friend’s house to find that her secret has found her. Her ‘forever home’ is ashes. Her parents are dead. And, in the sky above the flames, a winged creature hunts her.

The Nephilim King, Samyaza, has taken everything from Cayne. After struggling in the darkness for years to piece together his shattered life, Cayne is finally ready to confront his past and avenge the loss of everything he loved. He tracks Samyaza to a Memphis warehouse, where he winds up flat on his back, in the healing hands of a beautiful, dark-haired girl he doesn’t need to know.

Unbeknownst to either of them, they are already bound. Cayne’s past holds the answers to Julia’s future. But what will pose the greatest threat to her? The bounty placed on her head by the leaders of two Celestial realms, or giving her heart to a man who is bound, by birth, to break it?

Read on for my thoughts on Stained.  No true spoilers, promise.

There is more in this world and perhaps beyond, than we mere humans can ever imagine.  Yet, when we use our imagination, what wondrous creatures we can bring to life.

Ella James has given us a wonderful story, a series, that truly brings her imagination to life.  A world filled with healers, half-demons, immense power used for good and evil as well as a fascinating couple to help us explore this world.

Julia has the power to heal and perhaps more.  She has been in the foster system for years and has finally found a loving home with foster parents who love her just as she is.  Late one night, when she had slipped away from home to help out two of her friends the unthinkable happened.  Her home was destroyed by fire and her foster parents died within that inferno.  Only Julia sees the winged man flying above the wreckage of her life and in the blink of an eye flys away – but not before she saw the pure fanatical glee on his face at the destruction he had brought about.  At seventeen, Julia will not be tossed back into the foster system, she is almost old enough to not have to deal with those people ever again, but for now – she cannot let the authorities or that… thing know she is still alive.

Eventually Julia finds her way to an abandoned warehouse where she finally collapses and takes stock of her situation.  Heartbroken, scared and not sure what to do next , she’s huddled in the warehouse when the roof suddenly begins to break apart raining debris down on her.  Two winged men are in battle above her, one drops to the floor wounded, the other flees  As the wounded man lies bleeding, Julia moves over to him and begins to heal him.  She has never had any idea of how she can heal only that she can.  And since this guy was battling the thing that killed her foster parents – he needed her help because she needed him.

Cayne.  Half-demon, powerful, gorgeous and definitely the silent type.  He wants nothing to do with Julia, barely answers her questions and can make people do exactly what he wants with a thought… and he’s lost something.  Something that that thing has stolen from him and he intends to kill it in the process of regaining what is his.

The rest of Stained, the first story in this series tells the tale of how Julia and Cayne begin to track the thing, Samzayz.  There are so many clues and what-ifs scattered about to mark this as a very involved mystery, and I love a good mystery.  Since this novel ends in a cliffhanger (something I normally do not like, but will overlook for this amazing story) we will need to pick up the next part of Julia and Cayne’s story later.

I really enjoyed this first introduction to the Stained series.  I definitely cared about Julia and Cayne – enough to head over to Amazon to do some digital shopping for the rest of the series.  While this particular novel was released in 2011, and Ms James has released several great stories since then, a great story is great no matter the year it was first read.  So if you have not yet picked up Strained, do it soon, because you will find a well thought out story with characters who are intense, engaging and will have you drawn into their lives in a heartbeat.  Enjoy.

Strained, the series =  1.)  Strained   2.)  Stolen  3.)  Chosen  4.)  Exalted

*I received an e-ARC of Stained from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. That does not change what I think of this novel.*

~Any review is just one person’s opinion. You might feel the same or totally different. The only way to know for certain is for you to read it. This was my opinion of this particular book.~

Stained is available for the Kindle