B.O.R.I.N.G. = DNF

3.5 stars. I'm always so excited when one of these books comes out then I read it and I get disappointed. ( )

It took so long for the romance to happen that the first sex scene felt shockingly out of place. And the sex language felt crude because of how courteous everyone is in the first 3/4's. And seriously, I swear like a sailor, so that's really saying something. I do get that it was supposed to show how how strong emotions were running but because I wasn't convinced by the love story, an f-bomb certainly wasn't going to do the job. I would have been more satisfied had Tess and Xavier stopped at "is it safe to fall in love with you" rather than actual "I love you"'s. ( )

3.75 of 5 stars
Listened to audio narrated well by Sophie Eastlake. There's a variety of characters and accents and Eastlake did a great job breathing life into them.

Xavier del Torro is the Nightkind King's right hand man, a vampire known for exacting revenge on the Church after they killed his sister and her husband. When he see's the defiant Tess at the Vampyre Ball he's intrigued.

Tess is on the run from a pariah Djinn and hopes to hide amongst the vampires. When she attracts Xavier's attention at the Vampyre Ball, she's terrified but determined. Tess offers her services as an attendant and Xavier accepts for a one year trial period.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this installment, there's lots of information being given that I think will be important in future books, while we watch Tess progress from a woman terrified of the vampires to a woman who is an asset and eventually falls in love with one.

As a romance I'd give this story lower marks but as another installment in the series I rate it a bit higher because we're seeing more layers and characters that will affect the future which I liked, but the story does tend to plod along the first two thirds of the book and ends just as things get interesting.

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( )

Well, the author ran out of main characters to pair off with each other, so this one is about two people we've never heard of before getting together. It wasn't bad, it just doesn't feel connected to the series, even though it is set in the same world. It does set up the next one, featuring a character we have seen before now, at least. ( )