The book did not really work for me. I DNF'ed it. I wasn’t able to connect with any of the many characters in the book and I found myself putting down the book a lot because it was never really catching my attention.

<a href="http://booksofmyheart.net/2018/11/18/within-the-realm-by-jillian-neal/" target="_blank">This review was originally posted on Books of My Heart</a>

Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I am reviewing the oldest book on my Netgalley shelf.  On the surface, it looks like my kind of thing. New adults developing their lives in a world where the gifted have magic. My intuition was spot on when I kept putting it off since it wasn't really for me.

While it says new adult, <strong>Within the Realm </strong>starts in the final weeks of high school with two guys who are best friends and have steady girlfriends. Rainier and Logan.  Rainier's parents were a big deal in the gifted community. They were murdered 7 years ago and he came to live with his parents' friends, the Haydenshires,and also his best friend, Logan.  Rainier's girl, since a young age, is Emily Haydenshire, the only girl child.

I can't really express my issues without spoilers, so be forewarned.  The flashback kind of history is ok since it gives us a sense of Rainier, his parents who were active in the gifted government and an idea of the government structure and the talents different gifted have.  Still it didn't give me enough on either of those topics. Both Rainier and Logan are going into an elite investigative force after high school, and Emily is joining an elite team, sort of like a sports team, from what I can tell.

Here, we get those last few weeks of high school and part of the summer before they start their jobs. So the high school stuff is never my favorite thing.  <spoiler>Then we have Rainier and Emily, and Logan and Adeline, all virgins deciding to start having sex. Each couple is committed but having this as a main focus of the story, particularly when 3 of them live in the same house with their parents is just ick. </spoiler>

Adeline has a mother who is an addict and forces Adeline to earn money for her. After the one of the mother's boyfriends decides he should have both the mother and Adeline, the Haydenshires invite Adeline to live with them when she escapes. So now both couples live in the Haydenshire household.

By the end of this story, they just barely start their jobs with the two couples moving into their own place. The book about their gifts, and the investigative work is likely to be the next one in the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/series/123992-the-gifted-realm" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em><strong>Gifted Realm series</strong></em></a>,  <strong>Lessons Learned. </strong>I am sorry to say I don't care anymore.

"She'd dared him to kiss her on the cheek when he was eight years old, and he'd done so happily. This had come a year after she'd informed him that he was her boyfriend. They'd been together ever since; it was the way his world worked."

This is a book that I grabbed back in 2014 and just now got around to. My tastes have changed and developed so much since then that I asked myself what I was thinking at the time. I don't read much paranormal, sci-fi, or fantasy so this was a stretch for me. I struggled a bit trying to grasp how the whole Gift Realm worked and what many of the words I'd never heard of before meant. I'm all about reading romance and I figured love is love, right?

What I enjoyed most about this story is the family aspect. The relationship among friends and how they could decide to become blood brothers and mean it. How parents could have so many children and then collect even more by accepting their kid's friends as their own as well. I especially loved how Emily decided Rainer was her boyfriend when he was only eight years old and they formed a bond that was unbreakable.

The gifted and non-gifted is an intriguing concept and I admire the author's imagination for developing the storyline. The witty banter between friends and family was entertaining and I could really feel the emotion between the characters.

3.5 Stars

So … I stumbled upon WITHIN THE REALM without fully realizing what I would get myself into. I can’t remember the last time I’ve read a sci-fi romance – not that I’ve read that many to begin with. So imagine my surprise when I finally, finally realized where the story was headed, haha. And it’s not even sci-fi alone, with a bit of fantasy and new adult thrown in, it makes for one interesting and rare mix.

Most of the story is told from the hero’s point of view – I can’t even begin to say how much I liked that. I have always preferred stories which were at least told from both perspectives – because, as a woman, there’s just something about being in the man’s head that gets to me every time.

The characters in Jillian Neal’s Gifted Realm series live in a world with gifted and non-gifted people. The gifted are much rarer, and the best and strongest of them formed a unit that is called the Elite which helps defending the masses against those people who chose to use their gifts for evil. It kind of reminded me of the movie Equilibrium, just minus all the gifts and magic.

The central characters of this story are Rainer and Emily, who have been in love with each other for a long time. Rainer has a very strong sense of right and wrong and is seeking to avenge the brutal murder of his family – and to achieve this he has to join the ranks of the powerful. She might have been the more sheltered, having grown up within a politically powerful family, but she definitely has some spunk and makes for quite a few funny moments.

This is a great introduction to a unique series and I am looking forward to read more!