"I have bought books from the slushpile, and Before the Storm is one of them. I started reading the manuscript and immediately knew this was something special. The book didn’t let go."

Review at Viv Arend's blog: Romance, Hot and Wild. She likes it!

"If you enjoy high fantasy, and a truly well written world to sink into, I recommend this story. I’m looking forward to seeing how Marian continues the tale in the next of the trilogy." 

"I snatched it up the day it went on sale and devoured it with great glee."

And it's always great to hear from a reader!

"I feel like I discovered a hidden gem in this new author."

Long and Short Romance Reviews says,

"The story was well written, with an undercurrent of suspense, and the feeling of tense expectation for when the trap would be sprung. Woven into this was the slow and steady growth of feelings between Robert and Alex, not as master and mare, but as a man who grows to respect and then love this woman thrust upon him."

But another reader felt differently about the romance.

"Mayerd is one of the previously mentioned magicians, but he has the intriguing trait of being hobbled from using magic. His competence without that "snowflake feature" and his "mysterious, dark past" makes him almost too interesting: the fact that he and Alex are both outsiders always made me want to see them hook up."

The first time a gay friend of mine read the manuscript, he said he wanted Robert and Mayerd to hook up. Too bad I didn't make it a menage. :)

Another friend commented  :

"While reading I found myself disliking Alex, the protagonist. She was the kind of girl I knew I wouldn`t get along with, but at the same time I was rooting for her romance and her success, because despite her failings, she seemed very real. There is nothing too stock about anyone in the book, which continues to engage in spite of my personal disagreements with the heroine, and perhaps because of my great approval concerning the hero."

I'm always delighted when someone tells me they liked Robert! Nice guys sometimes get overlooked, especially in romance when they're contrasted with the tall dark tortured type.

A wonderful review!

"Enter Dagre, the feudal fantasy scene that you think you know - but you don't. Far from being locked into a world of horse-drawn carriages and chamber pots, it's a country poised on the edge of its Industrial Revolution. Old customs and castes are ready to be blown apart like the newly-invented steam engines, and powerful aristocrats circle one another, readying themselves for war. Into all this is thrown Alex, sex slave to a cruel master, who doesn't have any ambitions grander than her own freedom. She didn't ask to be given away to his greatest rival, or turned into a deadly trap without her consent or even her knowledge. And she didn't ask to fall for the most reputedly vicious baron in the country, a baron who's more concerned with the welfare of his people than he is with her body."

Joyfully Reviewed made me joyful too.

"Ms. Perera knows how to weave a very intricate plot keeping the reader on the edge of their seat."

Maldivian Book Reviews says :

"...I loved the fantastic world that was created in this novel. Ms. Perera might just have turned me into a fan of fantasy romances with this one..."

And an interview with N. K. Kingston at Solely Fictional :

Marian Perera on publishing with Samhain

We discuss Before the Storm, my views on e-publishing and some of the promotion that Samhain and other Samhain authors have generously helped me with.