A review by schomj
Healer's Choice by Jory Strong

4.0

The story and world are very dark, separated from bleak only by a thin ribbon of hope running through it.

Dense worldbuilding (if this is your first book in the series, you will be confused; if you've read others in the series, you still may be confused at times). Much more urban fantasy in feel than the erotic/paranormal romance tone of the first two.

The heroine, Rebekka, is a-maz-ing. Really loved her. Strong, loyal, resilient, compassionate and capable of making very difficult choices and accepting the consequences. The hero, Aryck, is very much a Jory Strong alpha-male type, torn between duty and his (fated-mate) attraction to Rebekka. He's not quite as interesting to me as some of the other characters in the series, though. In some ways, he seems like Rebekka's reward -- a symbol of everything she might have if she makes the right choices, even if she doesn't know what those choices are. In a genre-romance sense, it doesn't completely work for me, but in a genre-fantasy sense it does.

I enjoyed this more than I was expecting to (the brothel angle made me fear a baffling romanticism of prostitution or a repulsive focus on depravity, but the author managed to make it seem like a frank portrayal of trafficking without being too gratuitous -- though it came close a few times near the end).

Looking forward to/hoping for another book in the series.