When my brother, the King, married fifteen-years ago, I welcomed his new family as my own. His wife . . . her baby girl. My niece by marriage. I left to war the savages. For years I traveled back and forth, seeing that child age. But then the last battle kept me away for almost a decade . . . I’ve returned now to take my rightful place: second-in-command to the throne. I am everything this kingdom stands for—everything it needs. The kind of pillar not even my brother can aspire to being. They all look up to me. To maintaining their code. Yet, they do not know the truth. In the grip of the shadows, she haunts me at night. During the day, she smiles and whispers, showing me traces of that sweet little girl. At night, she’s there, a vision in black. Watching, stalking . . . no words need to be said. She knows. I’m losing the battle. This thing between us is an evil spark. Thousands of years of honor are threatened—about to be shredded by the impossibility of our desire. She doesn’t care. It’s in her silence that she kills me . . . and she wields it like a blade. The savage call of her blood is more than I can handle . . . And the need to own her body might destroy us both. This post contains affiliate links you can use to purchase the book. If you buy the book using that link, I will receive a small commission from the sale.
Title: Silence
Author(s): N. Isabelle Blanco
Series: Ryze #1.5
Also in this series: Lust
Published by Self Published on October 31, 2022
Pages: 204
Genre(s): Paranormal Romance
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Format: eBook 
Purchase: Amazon
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Warning: contains themes that aren’t for everyone. Please read at your own caution. 18+. 
Silence by N. Isabelle Blanco is book 1.5 in the Ryze series. Although Lust, book 1 did not deliver as I hoped, the world intrigued me. Therefore, I chose to continue the series by reading Silence. Initially, I was at a loss as to how this installment tied in with the series as the characters featured here were not mentioned in the previous book. It was in the epilogue that the connection came to light.
The story introduces readers to Obsidian and Calamity. It began with Obsidian, a centuries old vampire returning home after being at war for for the last 5 years to take up his role as second in command to his brother, the king. Calamity is the king’s step daughter, Obsidian’s niece by marriage and heir to the throne. When Obsidian laid eyes on the twenty-one year old Calamity upon returning home the sudden attraction he had for her took him by surprise. He tried fighting his sudden attraction, as giving would spell disaster for the kingdom. However, her pull was stronger than his will.
Throughout most of the story we see Obsidian lusting after Calamity and struggling against his attraction. The angst as well as the sexy moments were off the charts. The back and forth between our protagonists will leave readers with a massive case of whiplash. With all the focus being on the angst and lusting after forbidden fruit, it took me awhile to get into the story. However at around fifty percent things started to get interesting and we see the plot starting to develop. The the cliffhanger happened, leaving me with lots of questions.
The characters were interesting, but unfortunately I had no connection to them. They are both promising characters, but lacked the development needed to connect with them. I didn’t have the opportunity to know them as much as I would like. As a result their relationship failed to resonate with me, which was further compounded by the lack of emotional connection between them. It was all about the physical for these two.
This book is definitely not for everyone. Its more suitable for readers of forbidden romance and erotica.
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About N. Isabelle Blanco
N. Isabelle Blanco is the Amazon Bestselling Author of the Allure Series, the Need Series with K.I.Lynn, and many others. At the age of three, due to an odd fascination with studying her mother’s handwriting, she began to read and write. By the time she’d reached kindergarten, she had an extensive vocabulary and her obsession with words began to bleed into every aspect of her life. That is, until coffee came a long and took over everything else. Nowadays, N. spends most of her days surviving the crazy New York rush and arguing with her characters every ten minutes or so, all in the hopes of one day getting them under control.
