Search - Hunting Julian (Gatherers, Bk 1)

Jacquelyn Frank has quite an imagination. She creates worlds beyond anything i have ever read. This is the 3rd such world she has created. The first was the Nightwalkers, second was the Shadowdwellers (my favorite), and now the Gatherers. At first this book is a little confusing, it's hard to follow when you have no idea anything about the world it involves. But once you get the hang of it, Julian and Asia come together. They are both stubborn, willful, and in love with each other. They are just trying to figure it out (the hard way of course) while Asia is trying to understand how to live in a world no one could imagine, where she was brought without her permission. She has no way home to her Earth plane. So she must come to accept and understand all of this while they are tested over and over again, and somehow their passion for each other brings them back to the basics of loving each other. I think Frank has another hit on her hands.

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Jacqueline Frank has created an interesting and believable society, Beneath. Julian is searching Earth for women to return to his world where men outnumber women 200 to 1. A devastating plague that fed on estrogen nearly destroyed them and they need women to repopulate -- but only select few can withstand the inherent dangers of Beneath and appreciate its unique beauties. That's where Julian comes in. Working undercover as a bouncer at various exclusive clubs on Earth gives him the opportunity to screen for women who may be able to help his people. If they are willing to go to Beneath, he takes them.

Asia is searching for her missing sister, Kenya. As a bounty hunter and Jujitsu master, Asia has no doubt she can defend herself and figure out what Julian did with her sister -- with all 13 missing females, actually. He's either a serial killer or a psychopath, and she's been watching him a long time. She knows his Type, and she's going to become It. Getting him to take her from the club to his apartment was easy, and Asia quickly works to bring him to the brink, knowing that any minute he will use the same moves on her that he has used on the 13 other women who have disappeared, and she is ready.

Julian's people need women, but they are also starving, dying. His people feed on both food and psychic energy. Without enough energy, they quickly deteriorate and die. As a Gatherer, Julian is able to focus and absorb the energy Humans carelessly throw around and he can return it to his people as food. Of all the energies out there -- happiness, fear, anger, grief -- Julian specializes in passion. His culture also recognizes "kind," a once-in-a-lifetime soulmate attraction between two people. The pure, unadulterated energy produced by "kind" coming together is enough to feed thousands easily, not to mention the raw, primal emotion it stirs in the man and woman involved. When Julian first saw her in the club, he felt the pull of "kind" immediately. But now that he has her in his apartment she baffles him. Sensitive to passionate energy, Julian cannot understand why the beautiful Asia isn't truly giving off the feelings she pretends to feel.

Confronted, Asia confesses she knows his secrets, and a fight ensues. Julian defends himself, and Asia wounds him. What she discovers in an instant is that everything she assumed about the smooth, methodical psychopath is wrong . . . his blood is florescent pink. Julian knows immediately his cover is blown. The laws of his people demand that no Earth person can be left behind who knows of their world, so he does the only thing he can . . . he takes her through the Gate to his world . . .

Nothing like a mix of sci-fi and inter-species romance! Loved this book, loved the characters, can't wait for the next book in the series.

The herione has been following the man she believes has murdered her sister. But things aren't what they seem. After confronting the man, she's learned that he's not quite human. Now she knows too much and ends up being taken to another dimension to protect that dimension from discovery.

Jacquelyn Frank does an amazing job of creating a strange new world, with many unique but believable details. Add in the love story and this was a wonderful read.

I usually like Jacquelyn Frank's book, but didn't like this one all that much. I went ahead and read it, hoping it would get better as I went along. Just couldn't get into the premise of a planet with aliens who were slowly losing their life force and dying ... but could be brought back up to speed with a robust sexual encounter between the hero and heroine.

Not my favorite from JF . .. actually kind of disappointing. I just couldn't get into the characters, and didn't care for the society. I'm struggling to get through the book . . . .

Not bad...New ideas, new creatures. I hope that she continues to develop these stories a little more. It is promising. The second book is on its way. I like things to be a little sexier in the books that I read, but that's just me.