Juliet Lyons

Ronin and Cat

Ronin is an Ancient overlord of London and Catherine is the wonder of V Date. They hate each other so much but can’t resist each other. Eventually that hate turns to tolerate then turns to more and they can’t get enough of each other. This story was action packed, intense, and fun to read. Ronin is in all the books but this is his story and I feel for his past but I’m so glad he found Cat. She didn’t have an easy past either and I think because of that they found in each of a kindred spirit to help them through their long lives together.… (mer)

I didn’t think I could love a vampire more than Logan in book one but Vincent has stole my heart. He was such a sweet, honorable vampire but seriously sexy. Mila was a cute and quirky girl who finds herself in a bit of trouble and Vincent swoops in to save her and their chemistry is off the charts. They try to fight their attraction but we all know that usually doesn’t last long and boy they got hot and steamy. This story was just as good if not better than the first book and I love the way the author has her own take on vampires. Now off to read about Ronin.… (mer)

I loved this book so much. I remember seeing this cover in a Barnes and Noble several months back and wanted to get it then but didn’t have time to get it that day and I promised myself I’d remember the name but of course I didn’t and by some miracle it popped up on my news feed and Ive never been so happy before. I loved Logan so much he was charismatic yet sweet and Silver was awesome she was a take no crap heroine but was a sweetie at heart. The storyline was different from other vampire books I’ve read and had lots of twists and turns, ups and downs. I’ve already downloaded the rest of the series because I want to know what happens to the other characters.… (mer)

I struggled with this review because the ending chapter and epilogue really soured my enjoyment of the book as a whole. As such this review will contain a lot of spoilers.
At first I really enjoyed the story - Silver is feisty, sassy and fun. She's very clear about what she wants and doesn't hold back for any reason. This was refreshing since with her life it could have very easily been different or come off as bitchy.

Logan is...harder to fullheartedly love, but since he's not above poking fun of himself it's easy enough to like him. His and Silver's relationship is partially predicated on lies (on both their parts), but later on Lyons does address that from both their perspectives so it's not that bad.

The sex is great, the supporting characters are largely unintrusive if not terribly interesting (well Vera is very interesting) and while the love came on fast & strong I was willing to overlook it in favor of continuing the banter fun.

A couple things niggled at me - Silver is quite fang happy. Not one of her sexual encounters with Logan didn't involve h biting her and to be honest while I'm cool with women stating what they want in sex, I feel like she was TOO into that aspect (to the point where she's on a date with another vampire and still finds sexual pleasure from his bite, so the author couldn't pass it off as "it's special for the because special bond") and the author makes a point of Logan observing, several times, other humans who were addicted to the sensation.

Then there was the largely pointless police division angle - if they took it out nothing would change. almost everything that comes from the plotline was handled in other ways. it was pointless and a waste of time.

For much of the book the "bad guy" isn't clear either. "Your evil former vampire sire is in town so watch out". Said evil person is so over the top it's ridiculous to think the vampire society at large didn't find her to be a horrible liability. The vague allusions to "things will change" and "some old ways aren't condoned" mean jack spit when YOU DO NOTHING ABOUT THE BEHAVIOR. "We can't pick what rules to follow" means jack spit if SHE IS PUTTING YOUR ENTIRE CULTURE IN DANGER.

And if I was Silver I would have been WAY MORE UPSET that her mom got murdered by this person basically bc the evil vampire wanted to take a pretty toy away from another vampire. But Silver barely bats an eye when the vampire says he pleaded with the evil vampire to not kill the mother. Fuck you try harder (far as I could tell he wasn't restrained by anything more than the rules he claimed were changing anyhow).

But what really got my goat was the last chapter Deus ex machina and the epilogue sledgehammer.

In Lyon's world a vampire is bonded to their site through a bloodbond. His connection to his original sire (Anastasia) is over written so she can't track nor torture nor have any sway over his life. OK sure. During the final fight, for no reason at all other then to be super petty, Anastasia insists on rebonding Logan to her. OK sure. But it's only bc she does this that a protection spell he had no idea about is activated when she tries to kill him, this kills her instead (it rebounds onto her) and turns Logan human.

Now that he's human the angst Silver DID NOT HAVE BUT HE INSISTED SHE HAD (about wanting a family and kids one day) is completely solved and they can ride off into the sunset.

Mind you Silver was okay with maybe not having kids, she was more worried about aging while he didn't, which is reasonable in my opinion. It was only because her mostly useless friend Ollie brought up the points within Logan's hearing that Logan was convinced she would regret her decision one day so maybe they shouldn't be together.

But hey who cares issue resolved he's human now so no moral quandary or hard decisions to deal with!

Which leads us to the epilogue, set three years later. Silver and Logan are married expecting their first kid. Reader I fucking hate, with every ounce of reading intent in my body, when authors show this in romances as the epilogue. I've hated it since I was a kid. It's one thing if it occurs during the story, but as an epilogue, which is supposed to reinforce the HEA of the chars, why the hell is it needed? If you did your part right that extra bit is redundant. Leave it up to the reader to imagine their happily ever after trajectory.

This is like a Hercule Poirot novel showing the bad guy getting arrested and taken off to jail...then an epilogue showing the trial just to reinforce the fact he is being punished. WE KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN.



So I'm obviously conflicted as hell. But in the end this is my review and I will state how the book made me feel. YMMV of course.… (mer)