Review: North of Need - Laura Kaye

Her tears called a powerful snow god to life, but only her love can grant the humanity he craves...

Desperate to escape agonizing memories of Christmas past, twenty-nine-year-old widow Megan Snow builds a snow family outside the mountain cabin she once shared with her husband, realizing too late that she's recreated the very thing she'll never have.

Called to life by Megan's tears, snow god Owen Winters appears unconscious on her doorstep in the midst of a raging blizzard. As she nurses him to health, Owen finds unexpected solace in her company and unimagined pleasure in the warmth of her body, and vows to win her heart for a chance at humanity.

Megan is drawn to Owen's mismatched eyes, otherworldly masculinity, and enthusiasm for the littlest things. But this Christmas miracle comes with an expiration--before the snow melts and the temperature rises, Megan must let go of her widow's grief and learn to trust love again, or she'll lose Owen forever.

Hearts of the Anemoi Series:
North of Need
West of Want
South of Surrender
East of Ecstasy

Visit Laura Kaye's website for more information

Review:
Megan is still struggling to cope after the death of her husband so rather than face Christmas with her family and friends she follows their tradition and heads off to the isolated cabin they own in the mountains. Trying to take her mind off her grief she builds a snow family but the reminder of what will never be just makes her feel worse. When Owen appears on her doorstep in the middle of a blizzard she isn't able to leave him outside to freeze and reluctantly allows him into her cabin. What she doesn't realise is that Owen is a snow god who was brought to life by her tears and wants to help mend her broken heart. Can own win her love before the snow melts and he is forced to leave her forever?

OK I'll admit it - the main reason I wanted to read this story was the cover. Come on, I dare any woman to look at that cover and not want to get to know Owen! I hadn't read anything by Laura Kaye before but North of Need was a fantastic paranormal romance and I'll definitely be picking up the rest of this series (and I'm planning on working my way through her back list too). If you're looking for a steamy read to chase away the winter blues then North of Need is perfect but I'll warn you now it will leave you wanting to build a snowman in the hope of nabbing your very own snow god. You might want to stock up on ice cream before you get started too because I doubt you'll make it through the whole book without caving in and eating a tub full!

I'm not always a big fan of stories that only really have two characters (Megan does speak on the phone to a few people and we are introduced to a couple of others towards the end of the book for most of the book it is just Megan and Owen). It can be difficult to keep my interest without the interactions that friends and family can bring to the story and I have to really like the leads to want to spend so much time with them. In this case it worked really well though and it really allowed us to get to know Megan and Owen. Owen swept me off my feet right alongside Megan and I was desperate to see them both get a happy ending.

Megan was a great character, she is heartbroken and misses her husband desperately but at the same time she is still going about her life just getting through one day at a time. She could have been quite a depressing character to spend time with but I didn't find that at all, I felt for her but I respected her too and I wanted to see her move forwards in her life. I don't even have the words to describe Owen - he is gorgeous but also such a sweetheart, strong, sexy, dynamite in bed but at the same time a little bit innocent and infectiously enthusiastic about everyday things. He was definitely one of my favourite heroes for a while!

I loved the fact that North of Need is a bit different from your usual paranormal romance, the actual romance had more depth to it because of Megan's loss and the way Owen pulls her out of her grief. They are a fantastic couple who I would be happy to spend more time with and I'm sure I'll be re-reading the book again in the future. I enjoyed the mythology that the author has used around the different gods but I would have liked a bit more information about that side of things. As this is the first book in the series I'm confident that we'll discover more later on though and I'm looking forward to that. I can't wait to get my hands on West of Want and am pleased that the release dates for the whole series are fairly close together (the next 3 books are all due for release within the year).

Source: Received from Entangled Publishing in exchange for an honest review

Other Reviews:
If you have reviewed this book on your blog please leave a link to your review in the comments & I'll add the link here.

Paperback / Kindle: