5 Wine Glass #Review of Dangerously Divine by Deborah Blake

Title: Dangerously Divine
Series: Broken Riders #2
Author: Deborah Blake
Format: Kindle, 302 pages
Published: Published November 28th 2017 by Berkley
ISBN: ASIN: B06XFJ6M6Y
Links:  Goodreads | Amazon | B&N
Reviewer: Linda
Source: NetGalley
Rating: 5 out of 5 Wine Glasses

The author of the “wonderful” (Tamora Pierce) Baba Yaga novels and Dangerously Charming is back with a magically mesmerizing new tale about the dashing and daring Broken Riders...

The Riders: Three immortal brothers who kept the Baba Yagas safe, now stripped of their summons to protect. But fate is not finished with them—and their new callings are even more powerful...

Though his physical wounds have healed, Gregori Sun, the eldest of the Riders, remains in spiritual turmoil. His search for his mother, the one person able to heal his soul and save his life, is failing—until he crosses paths with a beautiful and fascinating librarian who might be the key to his salvation...

Ciera Evans’s bookish ways are just a guise. The product of a difficult past, she has dedicated her life to saving lost teens—by any means necessary. She works alone, but when a dark, brooding stranger proposes they team up to solve both their problems, she is tempted—in more ways than one...

After Ciera and Sun’s plans are derailed by dangerous enemies, they find themselves entangled in an ungodly affair—one that will force them to either find new strength together or be forever haunted by their pasts alone.

Linda's Thoughts:
“A witch, a Rider, a dragon, and a god walk into a monastery…”

Dangerously Divine by Deborah Blake is the second ingeniously amazing installment in Deborah’s Broken Riders series. This series is a spin-off from and set in the same world as the author’s Baba Yaga series, a highly imaginative fractured retelling of the Russian Baba Yaga folk tales. This tale features Gregori Sun, the eldest Rider, who is struggling to control new powers gained when he lost his immortality. Fans of Deborah’s Baba Yaga series will be delighted to find characters from that series appear and play strong supporting roles in her Broken Riders series. Sharing the spotlight with Gregori in this story is a new character, Ciera Evans, a university librarian by day and a vigilante by night.

While you could enjoy Dangerously Divine as a stand alone, my recommendation is to start at the beginning with the Baba Yaga series and then the Riders. They work best that way and, truly, you won’t want to miss one spellbinding moment!

Gregori’s always been the unflappable Rider, but since losing his immortality, he’s lost his way. He used to be able to effortlessly connect to the universe’s energy with a single thought. Now, he’s beset by disturbing visions, precognition that he doesn’t trust nor know what to do with, and a healing gift that he can’t control. Seeking elusive inner peace, he enters a Buddhist monastery to pursue becoming a monk while using his free time to search for his mother, a female Mongolian shaman, who may be able to help him. With limited options, he doggedly continues his search for her even though his mother has probably been dead for hundreds of years. Still, driven to follow every possibility, he enlists the aid of Ciera, the librarian at the university to assist his research as to where his mother may be found. Ciera is curious as to why this sexy monk-in-training is interested in a Mongolian shamaness, but Ciera holds close her own secrets. She is not who she appears to be - intent on a clandestine mission of her own.

I loved both of these characters! My heart went out to both of them as they’d both suffered such terrible trauma and sorrow. Would they ever learn to trust and follow their hearts? Their story kept me riveted from the first to the last…

Following please find a few of my favorite quotes from Dangerously Divine:

The taxi driver dropped them off back at the Wabasha Street Caves and drove off clutching a huge tip and muttering under his breath about dog drool on his upholstery. In return, Chudo-Yudo muttered something about taxi drivers tasting good with ketchup.
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Only one kiss. That was what he had intended. But Ciera’s lips were sweet like the juice of a pomegranate, and her skin under his hands felt like velvet. When she put her arms around him, he deepened the kiss, pulling the pins out of her hair until it cascaded over her shoulders. The tiny jingle of the bits of metal falling to the floor was almost lost in the moan she let out when he moved his lips down her neck, and then he was lost too.
--- 

“I also juggle,” he said in a grave tone, “and am quite adept with a deck of cards.”

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every Baba Yaga book and the first Rider book, but Dangerously Divine is my favorite of them all with wonderful characters, steamy times, action and danger galore, laugh-out loud moments and unexpected twists at every turn. I can’t wait to return to Barbara’s Baba Yaga/Rider world with Alexei’s story. It will be Deborah’s final Rider book. I fervently hope that that it won’t be the final book written in Deborah’s Baba Yagas’ universe!



Suggested Reading Order: 
Dangerously Charming (Book #1) – Mikhail’s story
Dangerously Divine (Book #2) – Gregori’s story
Untitled (Book #3 and the series finale) – Alexei’s story