ROYAL CALEVA GABRIEL (Royal Caleva 1) by Nancy Herkness-a review

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About the book: Release Date April 25, 2023

Honor, passion, danger. A modern-day duke and an American computer hacker must confront all three.

Honor. Gabriel, Duke of Bencalor, allows himself to be kidnapped to save his cousin, the Prince of Caleva. He pays a price—a mutilation that damages his brilliant career as a Flamenco guitarist—yet he would not hesitate to do it again.

Passion. Quinn Pierson is hired to track down Gabriel’s abductors. As she follows the trail, she and the sexy duke spend more and more time together until a spark ignites between them. Quinn fights her feelings every inch of the way because she knows there can be no future between a royal duke and an American commoner with an ugly past.

Danger. The criminal mastermind who carried out Gabriel’s abduction travels to Caleva to threaten Quinn. Yet even he is less dangerous than the mysterious figure who set the kidnapping in motion.

Opposites attract in Caleva, where the royals are hot and the criminals are twisted.

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REVIEW: ROYAL CALEVA GABRIEL is the first instalment in Nancy Herkness’ contemporary, adult ROYAL CALEVA erotic, romance series focusing on the royal family of the fictional island country of Caleva. This is twenty-nine year old, musician/ Gabriel Medina, Duke of Bencalor, and thirty-one year old, American profiler/computer wizard Quinn Pierson’s story line.

Told from dual first person perspectives (Gabriel and Quinn) ROYAL CALEVA GABRIEL follows in the aftermath of the abduction and torture of our story line hero. A few years earlier,the Duke of Bencalor Gabriel Medina was mistaken for his cousin Raul, second in line to the throne, and found himself at the mercy of an unknown enemy who thought he was the King’s son. A classically trained musician, Gabriel would discover that the injuries he sustained no longer allowed him to perform the music the way he once did. Desperate to locate the people responsible, the King called in a private investigator who contracted American born Quinn Pierson to help profile the guilty party. From the outset Gabriel and Quinn’s palpable sexual attraction is apparent to everyone but the couple involved, and will quickly escalate when neither is able to hold back their growing love. A trip abroad brings another attempted assassination, and the deeper Quinn researches, the more she believes the person responsible is someone close. What ensues is the building romance and relationship between Gabriel and Quinn, and the potential fall-out as Gabriel continues to be the target of a desperate mind.

Quinn Pierson’s past has been kept a secret from our story line hero. As their relationship begins to unfold, Quinn knows that once the truth is revealed, she no longer will be welcomed by the Royal family. From her father and uncle’s questionable pasts, Quinn has been dragged into more family drama and activities than she is ready to admit. Duke Gabriel Medina has only ever wanted to play the guitar; to be a professional musician but the abduction and torture left Gabriel a shell of his former self. With the help of Quinn, Gabriel slowly climbs out of the depths of despair, into a working Royal who is about to discover where his talents lie.

The relationship between Gabriel and Quinn begins as an assignment when Quinn is contracted to profile a possible killer. Several people were involved in the abduction of our story line hero, and Quinn must begin to place the puzzle pieces together in an effort to take down the person responsible. Gabriel doesn’t want a babysitter or extra security; he sacrificed himself for the family he loves but a sacrifice that came at a cost. Struggling to move on from the past, Gabriel, with the help of our story line heroine, will come to terms with what was, and what will be. The $ex scenes are intimate and passionate without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.

There is a large ensemble cast of colorful and energetic secondary and supporting characters: King Luis, and his son Prince Raul: Gabriel’s parents Duke Lorenzo and his mother Helene; CEO Odette Fontaine of the Royal Family owned Archambeau Cosmetics; Quinn’s boss Mikel; her ‘uncle’ Pete Gleeson, and her father Brendan Pierson. The requisite evil has many faces.

ROYAL CALEVA GABRIEL is a story of power and control, family and relationships, royalty and greed, relationships and love. The premise is captivating and detailed but I struggled with the inordinate amount of world building, some of which read like a red herring, and nothing ever came to fruition (Iowa?) ; the romance is seductive; the characters are dynamic and determined.

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy