I struggled through this one. On the one hand I really love the dark nature of the characters but on the other hand, Valentina is sooooooooo Mary Sue. Her Mary Sue-ness kind of pulled me out of the story on multiple occasions. She’s all powerful, ALL the men are in love with her. She’s scary, her men are scary. . .
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the book to a certain extent. The characters are damaged, dark and twisty. Dimitri, one of her harem – is wicked crazy, a serial killer soaked in blood most days. Milo is the damaged but sexy one, with badass magical talent that is alluded to but never really completely shown. Then there is Vaughn, the guard who has conveniently known her since High School and of course she is his mate. After that we’ve got another shifter, the new guy, West, he’s a thief or something, and eh. . .I could take him or leave him. And to round out the harem, you’ve got the scary incorporeal, until he meets Valentina, Francisco – a magic eater, or a death eater but red.
Honestly I would have enjoyed the guys if the author had just stuck to Dimitri and Milo. Like I said though, it’s a Mary Sue situation. They’ve all gotta have her. *eyeroll*
All that being said, I thought the book had massive potential to be super cool. Unfortunately it’s a bit confusing where her power comes from or why she is so magnificently all powerful, then there’s the snake that just appears and becomes what I would assume, her familiar. . .maybe, possibly. So much of this book was just confusing and now that I am finished with it, I’m not entirely sure what the point of the book was. . .
Eh. I might zip through the follow up to see where the author takes this series, I might not. I’m blah about the whole thing.
2.5 stars
