I didn’t think there was any real estate left in my heart for another book boyfriend but I was wrong. It is getting a bit crowded in there but Runes by Ednah Walters has pretty much smacked me upside the noggin’ and left palpitations in my chest upon introduction with Torin St. James. Man, arrogant jackasses. There just aren’t enough of them in YA to appease my hunger.

Runes starts off with our heroine, Raine Cooper immersed in the humdrum pleasures of her everyday life. Unlike many YA leading ladies, Raine isn’t really looking for any adventure. She wants to have that humdrum. No waves are good waves, letting her best friend, Cora, have the spotlight while she and her other best friend Eirik snail pace into a romance is A-okay with her. That knock on her door from someone who defines the exception to the peace she seeks makes her cranky and boy does the hotness of her next door neighbor irritate the ever loving crap out of her.

Ednah Walters had to have been inspired by one of those more clever and diabolical muses to have thought up Torin St. James. He has bad boy charm, a snarky tongue, that alpha personality that makes the knees weak and sex appeal of some divinely blessed magical being. As if these qualities aren’t enough one more powerful aphrodisiac is laid on this heroes shoulders–baby’s got enough mystery to dose a Murder She Wrote full season and still leave you asking a few more who dun’its? Every answer he gives to Raine fills in a puzzle piece but the picture is so cloudy and murky that you can’t help but wonder the entire time if he is telling her what she wants to hear or telling her merely enough to make her want to know more.

Most of the book Raine spends with her best friends Eirik and Cora. I really like that Ednah Walters doesn’t make the mistake of centralizing the story on the enigmatic new guy. She builds a great world by focusing on the supporting characters and often uses the relationships and feelings of those characters to tell you more about the hero and heroine. This is used a great deal more in the second book, Immortal, than it is in Runes but Ednah Walters is very good at it and it builds a much richer personality for her cast.

What a phenomenal book! And even though I have really gone digital in the last few years and forgone buying physical books Runes and Immortal are two books that I would (and will be) buying in paperback format for my bookshelf. I loved them enough to want them for my own collection. I truly can’t wait for the next book.

Ednah Walters is findable on the interwebs at her webhome, Goodreads, Amazon Author Page, Twitter, Facebook, Runes Website, Guardian Legacy Blog, Book Blogs and Google+.

Immortals, book 2 in the Runes series can be purchased at Amazon.