G.K. DeRosa

This is clearly not written to tell a compelling story but to sell as many copies with as little effort as possible by invoking all the tropes under the sun.

Sex and violence is how you hold an audience.
The book literally opens with a hot and heavy makeout session immediately followed by the decapitation of a vampire.

Stupid vampire that dies stupidly but has just enough time to deliver a few ominous lines of dialogue.

Orphaned MC that is chosen by the gods.

Shallow, one-dimensional characters that are defined solely by their (superhero?) names like "Hunter", "Archer", and "Spark". Did I mention the MC is called Phoenix? At least she is not a literal phoenix but a wolf-shifter that (surprise!) can not shift. No, never read that one before. /s

Training to kill vampires as part of academy education with the goal of joining an elite vampire slayer military division and the MC is of course uber gifted. (chosen one/secret royal line?)

Very inconsistent and exaggerated emotional states that rapid-fire switch between opposites to squeeze maximum drama from each sentence.

The melodrama goes through the roof in general and frequently defies any and all reason.

Just replacing parts of common curses with "vamp" or "fang" doesn't make them any more fitting for a fantasy world or for younger readers. Here are a few of them so you can get a taste for the cringe-worthiness of those curses "motherfanger", "hades" instead of "fuck" or "hell", and many more I can't be bothered to look up anymore.

Establishing shot to inform us who the bad guys are by showing a traumatic childhood memory flashback.

The author has no clue how to write convincing children or doesn't care to. The only differences to normal character voices are a little less complex sentences and "mommy" and "daddy" sprinkled in for good measure. But to be fair I rarely see well-written children in UF.

Now that sex, blood, and ominous warnings are out of the way and we are past the obligatory traumatic childhood flashback. What is next? The romance of course.

Of course, we have mixed signals to the casual hookup that actually wants more.
The current plaything will probably be dropped and jilted unceremoniously and will turn out to secretly be a huge asshole.

I've actually made it almost halfway through the book before it just got too much.

There is no logic, no common sense. The entire plot is so contrived and hinges upon so much utter stupidity of so many different characters I don't think I could've come up with this even if I tried.

This is just bad.… (mer)

I wish I could say that the female lead was badass. I wish I could say that her personality was not so one dimension and that she was likable and the reader would reach a connection with her.

I would be wrong. Her entire character was lackluster. There was nothing about her that would be memorable to me or any reader who picked up this book. She lacked depth and it was really hard to form any connection with her. Her laser focus on getting revenge was the entire storyline with no real action and certainly no memorable moments that I could point out that pushed the storyline even just a little bit.

Our female lead has a tragic past. Her parents were killed. She and her sibling managed to survive. And, lo and behold, she has a power the enemy had a chance to see and now he had been hunting her...trying to find her.

All the markings of an unimpressive recycled female character in an urban fantasy genre world.

Because you forced me to be your girlfriend, and it wasn't what I really wanted.

Gurrl, you could have said no. You just went along with it. You have a voice. You could have spoken up and said you were not interested. You weren't ready. Or you could have said that he was not someone you connected to. I mean, it may hurt his feelings but he would have understood and probably gotten over it and moved on.

So, this was on you and NOT him.

I just could not with this girl. I wanted to like her so much but I could not. I could find NOTHING likable about her.

Final Thought:

While I would discourage other readers from this book, I don't feel that is fair to those who might have a different opinion on this one. I do wish to warn any future reader that this story is painfully slow and the female lead has no character growth.… (mer)