The Gathering

Author: Jennifer Ashley
Published: August 2007 (Love Spell)
Category: Paranormal Romance
Series: Immortals #4
Rating: 8/10

Never mind what I said about the third book being my favorite; this one is definitely my favorite! The Gathering features Leda Stowe, an air witch and animal rescuer, and Hunter, the supposed "crazy one" of the Immortals. They are my favorite couple because they have had such sad lives. Hunter fell in love centuries ago, and had a family; they were killed by a demon (later revealed to be the big bad demon who's causing all the death magic imbalance in the series). Leda, a powerful witch, used death magic to save her husband's life, getting her kicked out of the Coven of Light, and losing her husband, who couldn't deal with what she'd done to save him. They both have blocks to overcome before they can have their HEA.

Hunter is transported into a lion's cage on Leda's island sanctuary by the Calling spell. Apparently, the spell drops each Immortal practically into his destined mate's lap. He's all "I live in the now, and don't think of the past, let's have sex," and acts centuries younger than his true age. However, the big bad demon tracked Hunter to the island when he used powerful magic to save Leda and her two animals (a bear and lion) from the drug dealer who wanted his lion back. Leda leaves Hunter on the island to help out a half-demon friend with her missing mother, fearing Hunter's overprotective desire to keep her on the island while demons take over the world. The one constantly annoying thing about this series is the hero's desire to take all control from the heroine and think that he knows better, and that the woman needs to be locked in a gilded cage.

Hunter follows of course, and sails to Los Angeles in Leda's sailboat.... with Mukasa (a ripoff from Mufasa from Lion King anyone?) the lion. Septimus, my favorite supporting character is back and explains the situation to Hunter and it all seems like everything's coming together when Hunter gets teleported into the demon's dungeon. It's a bit weird, as this random kidnapping of Immortals happens a bunch of times until the big battle at the end. It appears that the demon can't take on all the brothers at once, so it picks them off one by one and tortures them.

Dealing with bringing all the characters together from the first three books is handled very well, and the focus on Leda and Hunter is not lost despite so much going on at once. We finally learn of the demon's plan, as draining life magic out of the world didn't make much sense, as the whole world would be destroyed because of the imbalance, so what would the demon get out of the deal?

I thought that this was the last of the series, and was thinking several pages from the end, "What happens to Tain?" It turns out that the Immortals series isn't over. Tain's story will be told by Jennifer Ashley in the fifth Immortals book, The Redeeming, which is due out in September 2008, which picks up a year after the events in book four. The same authors who participated in the series will also return to write the books following Tain's story.