I am going to start off by saying that I loved Emma! She didn't cause me to want to pull my hair out like her sister Cara (the heroine in book 1). Claimed starts off with Dage rescuing Emma from the Kurjans. Emma has been on the run for 5 weeks and the Kurjans has finally caught up to her. Like Cara, Emma has extra abilities; she's a psychic. Emma has been dreaming about Dage since she was a teenager so there is no surprise when she is face-to-face with him. Dage is psychic also and he has known for centuries that Emma is his destined mate. Emma has known this as well but she does not want to become his mate because she had a vision of her eventual death and how it destroys Dage.The sexual tension between Dage and Emma is so believable. Emma does not make it easy for Dage. She knows all about the mating and the branding but she is not going to give in. Her goal is to find a cure for the drug that the Kurjans had her working on and then moving on with her life. She has no plans on becoming the Kind of the Realm's mate, destiny or no destiny. Dage has other plans for Emma. He has been dreaming about her for centuries and there's no way he is going to let her slip away easily.I felt that Dage and Emma's relationship had more heat and tension that made the romance between them more believable. In the first book, Fated, Cara gave in too early to Talen and Talen didn't come off as the alpha male that we are supposed to believe him to be. Emma is a geneticist so when she is trying to find a way to counteract the virus that the Kurjans injected into Cara and Katie, there is a lot of scientific jargon throughout the book. Some of it made my eyes glaze over and I felt that at times, it was too detailed.I enjoyed reading Claimed and I look forward to reading the next installment in the series. We got a peak at Conn and Moira's interaction and relationship in this book and it looks like Moira will be another woman who won't easily give into a Kayr man.I suggest checking out this series if you're looking for a different take on vampires. The series, for me, continues to get better with each book.C+
