Not sure what to think about this one so no rating. I'm not recommending for or against.

The elements were there. I liked the writing style. It wasn't the same old insta-lust fated mate crap some urban fantasy -- which genre maybe this was or wasn't since mostly in a parallel dimension -- substitutes for story.

The ebook I borrowed via library was actually hard to read so could factor into that. Too many words strung together without spaces kept interrupting my reading flow and slowing me down. Which isn't the fault of the story itself.

I certainly should have been invested in the desparate straits of that world's humans versus invading demons. That part kept drawing me in to read more. But, I never really connected and it never really developed the way I needed -- maybe a little because of the lustful interludes but mostly because the worldbuilding elements and the invading aliens had glimpses of a richer story. A richer story that possibly reading further in the series would develop. This would not be the first series I could enjoy once over the first-book-itis.

The romance -- while progressing at a good pace and understandable why the interest -- kept wavering on whether it wanted to edge into some of the worst elements of the fated-mate-possessive stuff where perversely I started to wish it would rather than read the lusty bits where the H and h seemed to draw some pretty arbitrary do/don't and is/isn't-taking advantage rules. Again, made me not really connect to characters that should have drawn me in.

I dunno. This clearly is not a good review of the book because I'm not sure how I feel about it or what to say.

The book would have gotten one more star perhaps if the only interesting villain were still around...it's a pet peeve of mine when an author kills those off. Interesting, unique story made this one enjoyable. The pacing was swift and easy to fall into and want to keep going. It's Paranormal romance, so there are a few out of place sex scenes there just for it to be so. Thankfully it doesn't start until after page 100 and the plot is first and foremost. Like some other romances and PAs before it, Through the Veil suffers from overuse of names in dialogue. It's unnatural and I'm not sure why it's mainly this genre that does that particular writing sin. While the last few pages feel a bit abrupt and anticlimactic, it was an enjoyable book. ( )

Like another reviewer this really sounds like a book I'd love. A woman who wakes up every morning with mysterious bruising and vague memories of battles fought and won, a strange society that's both more advanced and more fraught than ours. A romance that's quite well drawn. But somehow it didn't all work for me.
I don't know that her having to make the decision about moving from our world shouldn't have been a longer part of the story. I honestly think that she should have felt a dual sense of displacement and deja vu that never really came across in the story. Again maybe it's just me. The premise was good and the writing wasn't bad but I am left with really no solid urge to read more in this series, this isn't to say that if I came across the books I wouldn't read them! ( )

Lee wakes up every morning, battered, bruised with no idea what happened to her while she slept. Haunted by half-remembered dreams, maybe even memories, she's tried everything to find out what's happening to her. The truth is more than she expected. Born of another world, a world at war, Lee somehow manages to travel there, to fight on the battlefront in her sleep, though she can't get there when awake. Until the call of Kalen, a fellow warrior desperate for her help and her magick, pushes her through the veil between worlds during the day.

Ishtan is a buffer world, sitting between the demon realm of Anqar and our world. The demons of Anqar have nearly laid waste to Ishtan. Desperate to continue their race they kidnap women and children for use as breeders and body slaves. Women who breed powerful children with the Anqar Warlords are highly prized and well treated, but still prisoners.

Kalen is a battle leader on the front lines of the war, trying to defend the women of his world against the Anqar raids. He's worked with (and loved) Lee for years, never having an opportunity to tell her how he felt. But now she's reappeared, in the flesh, and his biggest priority is keeping her safe.

Through the Veil is mesh of a book. It's a romantic fantasy that reads like an urban fantasy, but these character also wield plasma charges and cold-firing guns (and cannons). The world setting is excellent, intriguing and reminiscent of Anne Bishop's Black Jewels books (which are a favorite of mine).

The book, however, is not without its flaws. Lee is set up to be very powerful, almost infinitely powerful, special and an all around bad-ass. However nearly the entire book she's shown as a shaken, obtuse woman. Some of this is understandable, since she's not the same person awake in Ishtan as she has been dreaming in Ishtan. It's her refusal to believe in herself, combined with everyone else's blind faith in her specialness that wears the patience thin.

Kalen is a drool-worthy, sizzling hero and had my vote of most awesome character until about halfway in, when Lee repeatedly tells him to stop touching her and instead they have sex. Set in a frame of Kalen being the hero fighting against a race that's kidnapping and raping women, keeping them as sex slaves and breeders, the multiple times Lee said no and Kalen kept going anyway until Lee finally loosened up and gave in to her own lust killed off the like I had for him. (Note: I don't consider the scene to be rape per say, but it was too close to non-consensual for m tastes.) I'm afraid I just couldn't simultaneously accept that the Anqar demons are evil for what they do to women, but when the hero does it it's supposed to be hot.

As stellar as the world building is the description gets repetitive and there's a lot of time spent repeating that could have been spent on other things, namely the missing battle scenes. After all Kalen and Lee and everyone else are in the middle of a huge war for their world, yet there aren't any battles shown “on screen” and the darker aspects of the tale are glanced over and described as little as possible. Lee and Kalen might be watching a pyre of the teen soldier that just died in a fight with the giant wyrms that the Anqar demons put on Ishtan to take out the natives, but the emotion of these moments is glanced over.

Given the power of the lust between Kalen and Lee, the vividness of the world setting and story concept, and the depths of the emotion Lee feels between what she's supposed to be and what she thinks she is, the lack of power to the darker parts makes the story feel like Walker is pulling her punches. The combination of how very much I loved the fantasy setting, Kalen in the beginning and Walker's style versus the things I was dissatisfied with leaves me feeling very conflicted about this book. Certainly it will appeal to romantic fantasy fans, and probably also to Anne Bishop fans. The uniqueness of the world and its conflict is engaging (and that's why I bought the book), I just feel unsure that this is the tale Through the Veil wanted to be.

One thing I do know is that if Ms. Walker ever turned her pen toward a true dark fantasy or urban fantasy I would be all over it. ( )

The story was unique, but it was bogged down by boring incites and info that weren't needed for the story to progress. Too many pages just stood still....couldn't finish ( )