#Review - Enlightened by Samantha Britt #YA #Fantasy

Series: Immortal Chronicles #1
Format: Kindle, 236 pages
Release Date: June 20, 2017
Publisher: CreateSpace Publishing
Source: Amazon
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy

Almost every civilization believed in immortal beings and worshiped them as gods. Little did we know, our ancestors were right…

Darcie Abernathy leads an unusual life. At seventeen, she spent the past two years living abroad while her father studied ancient cultures throughout the Mediterranean. Monotonous days filled with dusty libraries made her count the days until she returned to Maine.

Finally back at her childhood home, Darcie is eager to reconnect with friends and prepare for her future. Normalcy ends the moment she runs in to them… The Immortals.

Mistaken as the soulmate of an immortal, Darcie is taken from her home and thrown into a world of intrigue and rebellion. Forced to remain under the protection of her abductors or risk being killed by their enemies, Darcie learns of mythical beings and centuries old conflicts while the rest of the mortal world is left in the dark.

Immortals may be real, but they are not at all what the ancients described. 

Enlightened is the first installment in author Samantha Britt's Immortal Chronicles. 17-year old Darcie Abernathy spent the past 2 years overseas while her father, Professor John Abernathy who is a world renowned historian of ancient cultures. During this time, Darcie graduated early from High School and now prepares for college. After returning home to Maine, she is eager to meet her friends Marie Jameson and her brother Kevin, who has been her crush since high school. 

But, on a night out with her friends, Darcie is nearly kidnapped but rescued by brothers Thane, Lome, and Des who refuses to acknowledge that Darcie may be the One.  Darcie is taken to the brothers home in Greece where she learns of the life and history of Immortals, their quest for power, and the rebellion which has been building up against the trio. Either, she has to trust her abductors and stay with them, or question their intentions and risk her life by returning home. 

Outside of Lome, Thane, and Des, are Bella, wife to Thane, and Eshe, wife to Lome. Bella and Darcie become friends, while Eshe has some issues to deal with. In this world, the Creator made the brothers with access to only 1/2 of their powers. The brothers are impacted, gain strength from, death, destruction, and pain. To gain full access, they must find their soul mates. The One refers to a female who is destined to be soulmates to one of the brothers. The crushing part of this story is that Des has found several women over the centuries who were his soul mate. 

It caused Des to rethink things, especially when Darcie most definitely has attributes which would make her his soul mate. He even goes as far as to erase Darcie's memories of past encounters she's had with him. With rumors and threats against Darcie spreading, her life expectancy becomes that much shorter. It is dangerous being around the immortals. Some of the original 9 are apparently involved in a full scale rebellion against the brothers attempting to overpower them so that they can take control over the humans. 

The villain of this story is not kept secret. He is out in the open for all to see. He takes great pleasure in making Darcie and Des's lives miserable going as far as kidnapping her, putting her in a Sleeping Beauty type sleep, and erasing her memories so that she believes that he's actually the good guy in all of this. Other immortals like Eros, Julisanna, Faine, Charmian, and Evetta have either picked a side, or are waffling to see what the brothers and Darcie do.

Pet Peeves: The words “the teenager” and “the young woman” were repeated many, many times. Please just say “Darcie” or “she”. It got to a point where I was going to scream if it was said one more time. True Fact. One of my favorite characters in this book is Argos who is Des's dog. He's absolutely adorable and Darcie falls in love with him almost immediately. As a spoiler, Argos is named after Odysseus Dog. Could it be the same? ::wink:: 

As an FYI, I've now read the entire series and some of the same mistakes are played out over and over again by referring to Darcie as the teenager etc. One would hope the author takes criticism to heart as she moves forward with other works.

Amazon | Barnes & Noble