Fated by Rebecca Zanetti

 

MARRY ME

Cara Paulsen does not give up easily. A scientist and a single mother, she’s used to fighting for what she wants, keeping a cool head, and doing whatever it takes to protect her daughter Janie. But “whatever it takes” has never before included a shotgun wedding to a dangerous-looking stranger with an attitude problem…

OR ELSE

Sure, the mysterious Talen says that he’s there to protect Cara and Janie. He also says he’s a three-hundred-year-old vampire. Of course, the way he touches her, Cara might actually believe he’s had that long to practice…

 

Fated (Dark Protectors, book one) by Rebecca Zanetti

Start date: August 30, 2021

End date: September 1, 2021

Rating: 2 ½ out of 5 stars

Trigger warning: unhealthy representation of BDSM

I knew from the first scene that I wasn’t going to like this book very much. The story opens with Cara Paulsen being forced to flee her home by a stranger. Janie, Cara’s four-year-old daughter, wakes her up crying that “the bad men” are coming, and Cara’s reaction is to comfort her daughter who clearly had a nightmare. Then Cara hears noises in her house and immediately believes it’s the evil people. For being a scientist, Cara doesn’t think like one. If you hear hooves, think horses, not zebras. She doesn’t believe she’s being robbed or any other explanation for why someone might be in her house. Her immediate reaction is to run into the bathroom and try to escape through the window, which is at least logical. When the intruder bursts into the bathroom, what she has to say isn’t logical:

“You have the wrong house.” (Zanetti 3)

            I’ll let that reaction rub you, dear reader, the wrong way like it did me.

Janie is psychic (and so is Cara but she ignores her powers for reasons we’ll get into later), and she reveals that she’s had dreams of this stranger, Talen, before. Her recognition of Talen persuades Cara to believe him when he tells her he needs to get them out of their house and away from danger. I’m not a mother, so I can’t begin to understand parental motivation when their children are in danger; however, I don’t buy Cara’s agreement to do what Talen says simply because her child has dreamt of him. Janie is four years old; she’s probably dreamt of as many real people as she has imaginary people. As an adult, Cara should be rational about this. The book description literally says, “Cara Paulsen does not give up easily.” Yet she provides very little resistance to the situation. This sets the tone for the rest of the book.

Cara and Janie are whisked away by Talen based on his word that evil people are after them. These evil people turn out to be gang members working as foot soldiers for a group called the Kurjans. The Kurjans kidnap women with “enhanced abilities” (read: psychic) and Cara and Janie are on their radar for yet-unknown reasons. Talen is a member of the Sanguisuga race, which is Latin for vampire according to Talen (it really means “leech” but who’s keeping track?), a sworn enemy of the Kurjans.

We’re only in the first 16 pages of the book when this is first explained. I’m not a big fan of stories where heavy lore is dropped on the reader unexpectedly because it often overwhelms me. I’m patient and willing to wait for the lore to be explained as the story unfolds. Chalk this up to personal preference when I say I hated how this was done. It’s all thrown out there right in the beginning and then trickles of more information are revealed later in the story.

Talen is a vampire and so are the Kurjans. I’d say it’s like warring races except that Talen clearly thinks of the Kurjans as separate creatures from himself, even though they act and behave more like vampires than the Sanguisugas do.

“The sun only bothers the Kurjans, Cara. We’re fine with a day at the beach.”

“They’re vampires, too?”

Talen shrugged. “No. They’re monsters.” His canines retracted.

“But they have fangs and drink blood?”

“Yes.”

“And you drink blood?”

“Only in extreme situations.” (Zanetti 19)

The Kurjans are described as having pale skin; red, purple, or black eyes; and red hair whereas the Sanguisugas have gold or silver eyes and black hair. They both have fangs and drink blood (even if the Sanguisugas only drink blood during battle or sex). Both are always born male.

“In humans, the woman always passes an X chromosome, and if the man passes an X, you create a girl, XX. If he passes a Y, you get a baby boy, XY.” Talen took another bite. “Chromosome-wise, vampires have a V and an X.”

“You have a different chromosome?” Cara thought for a moment. “So a human female will pass on an X chromosome to a baby, and you either pass a V or an X?”

“No. We can only pass on a V, thus creating an XV baby, which is a male vampire. Nobody knows why.” (Zanetti 44)

And they both take humans as mates to propagate. They seem like different races of the same species to me.

            Talen springs it on Cara that she is his mate. For clarification purposes, I’m going to say soulmate from here on out because that is what I think is closest to what they’re talking about, and the word “mate” can be confusing for various reasons. He knows this because when he first touches Cara (when he’s grabbing her arm to get her to leave her house), his hand burns and afterwards it has an intricate marking on it where their skin touched. Logic would dictate that her arm would carry a similar mark as his but that’s not how it works apparently—Cara’s mark appears on her hip/butt area after she and Talen have sex for the first time. He tells her this after informing her that gang members were coming to kidnap her and her daughter and then says that to protect her from the Kurjans, she needs to marry and mate with him (to seal the deal, I guess). She answers in the only way that would make sense by telling him no, but Talen won’t take no for an answer. He says not only will they be married by the end of the day, but they’ll also consummate the marriage.

It’s at this time that I would like to state that this is domestic abuse. When authors create “fake dom” characters who don’t listen to the word no or force themselves on other characters, it sets a bad precedent. Consent is vital. Valuing your partner’s input is important. Forcing someone to do something you want them to do is bullying at best and domestic abuse at its worst. (I’ve found this happens more often with male characters than with female characters, but it isn’t gender exclusionary.) From the moment they meet, Talen makes Cara say and do things she doesn’t want to say or do. Talen acts like he knows what’s best for Cara more than she does from the get-go. Throughout the book, their sex scenes show Talen yanking on Cara’s hair, withholding something from her, and leveraging his larger frame to frighten her until she says what he wants her to say. This all establishes Talen as a fake dominant because in healthy BDSM relationships, couples (or potential partners) talk about their dynamics before anything else. This is to make sure everyone consents and that the boundaries and limits are known. Fake dominants expect submission, respect, and control from their submissive immediately, which is icky behavior that can lead to sexual assault.

Here is a man Cara has only just met. Talen breaks into her home and scares her from it by telling her people are after her and her young daughter. He immediately gets her on a plane to Washington, D.C. where the director of the U.S. Marshals Service (why?) informs her of what Talen has already told her, which I think would boost Cara’s fright. Then Talen alarms her further by informing her that vampires are real, and he is one. Also, she’s he’s soulmate, and the only way to secure their safety is by marrying and having sex him.

“[Y]ou have no choice when it comes to the safety of your daughter.” (Zanetti 23)

There’s so much to unpack that if I were Cara, my head would be spinning. I wouldn’t be making any life-changing decisions until I could somewhat digest what I’ve been told. But that’s not what happens. Cara agrees to marry Talen if he guarantees her and Janie’s safety, thinking she’ll work her way out of the marriage as soon as she can, which is not how marriage works. Conveniently, there’s a minster at the U.S. Marshals office, so he marries them. Then they split up so they can sign paperwork, and Cara gets kidnapped by the gang members…while inside the U.S. Marshals office…which is crawling with Marshals.

I understand that this book is a paranormal romance, but I believe even romance books need a compelling plot. This is not it. I had to diagram the plot to understand the storyline better. Bear with me while I explain it. The exposition is Cara and Talen meeting and all the information he tells her about the Kurjans, the Sanguisugas, and the Kurjans’ desire to kidnap her. The conflict is when Cara is kidnapped by the Kurjans. The rising action is Cara’s rescue by Talen, their training in the woods, the raids of Kurjan hideouts, Cara and Katie’s attempted kidnapping by the Kurjans, Katie’s kidnapping by the Kurjans, and Katie’s rescue by Talen and crew. The climax comes when Emma is kidnapped by the Kurjans, and Cara is kidnapped attempting to rescue her. The falling action is Talen rescuing them both. The resolution is Cara announcing her pregnancy. Whew.

Women are constantly being kidnapped and rescued by members of the Realm (united supernatural creatures including the Sanguisugas and shapeshifters, which Katie is). Talen rescues Cara, Cara does something stupid, Talen rescues Cara. Rinse and repeat. I felt like I was reading in a loop. On top of that, the locations change often without staying in any place for long enough to get an idea of the setting that I got whiplash bouncing across the continent.

            The only interesting thing about the plot is a subplot involving Janie. The reader learns that Janie has a friend named Zane who visits her in her dreams, and while they’ve hung out there, someone has been trying to enter that space. This person is someone that Janie recognizes but won’t tell Zane about for fear he’ll leave and never return to her—we’re not privy to why she thinks that yet. That someone is Kalin, a teenaged Kurjan, who’s a serial rapist and killer and believes Janie is his soulmate. Yay. There are only about two small sections told from Kalin’s point of view. I honestly thought the subplot would have an ending, but it’s left open-ended. Hopefully it gets a resolution in the next book.

Supposedly, everything Cara does is to protect her daughter, but it seems like often, Cara leaves Janie behind while she and Talen are globetrotting. It starts with Janie getting separated from Cara at the U.S. Marshals office while Talen discusses their fates. After Cara’s kidnapped by the gang members and Talen rescues her, she asks about Janie and is told that Talen’s brothers are taking care of her. Then she and Talen spend a long time (roughly five weeks) in a cabin in the woods supposedly evading the Kurjans. They meet up with Janie at a safe house and stay there for an unspecified amount of time. Talen then takes Cara with him to find Katie, who Cara befriends during their time in the cabin, who has been kidnapped by the Kurjans, leaving Janie behind at the safe house. They bring Katie with them back in the safe house, and then Cara leaves Janie behind to find her sister, Emma, who’s been kidnapped by the Kurjans. In the span of about two months, Cara has spent a handful of days with her daughter. It’s great that she has reliable babysitters in her new in-laws, but would someone please tell her that Janie needs her? And before anyone thinks I’m begrudging working mothers, I’m not. Cara doesn’t have to leave Janie except during the times she’s kidnapped.

There’s a brief section about the genetics of vampires, which strengthens my belief that the Kurjans and the Sanguisugas are different races of the same species. Talen asks Cara to look over some genetic research that his team has stolen from the Kurjans despite Cara being a botanist, not a geneticist. It’s briefly mentioned that Emma is a geneticist. Foreshadowing. Vampires have thirty chromosomal pairs versus the twenty-three pairs that humans have. When humans mate with vampires, it changes their DNA, adding four additional chromosomal pairs. This is an example of bad genetics. It’s not stated when this story is taking place, but the book was written in 2010, so it’s probably safe to assume it’s the same year in the story. Even in the current year, adding artificial genes to someone’s DNA is something only a scientist can do. Somehow vampire sperm is supposed to do the same thing in this story. (I can’t help but draw parallels to the idea that some people have that having sex with a man physically changes a woman.) There’s a throw away comment that “shifters have twenty-eight” chromosomal pairs, which raises more questions than answers (Zanetti 162). I would have preferred more explanations of how vampire DNA works since it was mentioned.

As previously mentioned, vampires only mate with psychic women to produce offspring. Cara is psychic, or more likely empathic, but she denies her powers. Emma is psychic too. Their religious, alcoholic father used to beat them and their mother when they showed signs of being psychic. It appears like Cara has internalized this and suppresses her powers as a result.

“The devil’s in you as much as your sister.” Daddy had shouted, his ruddy cheeks puffed in a round indignant face. “If I could beat Satan out of her, I can beat him out of you.” (Zanetti 120)

            With Talen’s forceful persistence, Cara unblocks her powers and uses them to find where Katie is (somehow being empathic means she can sense where someone is, possibly from their emotions) and to have mind-blowing sex with Talen. If you could only see the side-eye I gave the book at that moment, then you would understand. It takes a man pushing Cara to undo the trauma caused by another man. Feminism weeps. As a side note, most of the female characters only talk to each other about the male characters so this book doesn’t even pass the low bar set by the Bechdel test.

            I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the funny way Zanetti named her paranormal characters. I think it’s like if you were trying to think of exotic names, but you could only think of boring, Midwestern-sounding names. So, to make them seem more exotic, you changed a couple of letters. I'll close with some examples: Dage (Dave), Chalton (Dalton), Jastin (Justin), Brack (Brock), and Baye (Ray).