4.5 out of 5 stars
Ebook, 220 pages. Published May 6th 2013 by Dreamspinner Press
Blurb:
Blood runs soul-deep. Cormac hasn’t been the same since the night the High Moon Pack was attacked. With his magic weakened, he’s consumed by a bloodlust he hasn’t felt since he first became a vampire. His need to replenish his power makes him a danger to his last remaining family member, and his hunger makes him careless. And that’s just the beginning of his troubles. Feeding from pack beta Liam Benson was supposed to slake his appetite, not leave him craving more.
Simon Osborne and Gray Townsend are trying to fight a being history says shouldn’t exist—one with all three types of magic. The pack must use all of their resources to combat the mysterious triad, even turning to the shady Council of Mages for help. While Cormac struggles to reconcile his past failures with his current desires, Simon must attempt the impossible: an alliance between mind, body, and soul.
Likes:
- Everything that was good about the previous books was good about this one – pacing, story, familiar characters.
- Questions were finally answered and the book wrapped up nicely.
- Cormac and Liam’s relationship.
Dislikes:
- The ending felt abrupt.
- I don’t quite understand how Simon defeated the villain.
This is my favorite book in the trilogy. I read it in one day.
Cormac has been an interesting character from the beginning, and we finally get a book about him. And it is about him, thankfully. He and Liam are definitely the main characters in the book, even though Simon and Gray still get their page time. I’m really glad this book wasn’t like the previous one and that Cormac and Liam got a fully fleshed out romance.
With the appearance of the mastermind villain, who feels kind of like a final boss, the High Moon Pack is facing the most trouble yet. And not just from the villain. The Were Council members are still around, the Mage Council sends its representative, and another mixed race couple have come to the pack seeking a place to belong. Add in Cormac acting strange after the attack at the end of the last book, and there are plenty of problems to sort out.
This book has a lot going on but it’s paced so nicely that nothing feels out of place or rushed. I liked that the very start established Liam’s attraction to Cormac and that their relationship had a dramatic change in the second chapter. And even though their relationship was still new and would probably need work like Simon and Gray’s did, Cormac and Liam had a solid foundation to their romance by the end of the book.
Since I was reading the four book bundle, I didn’t expect the epilogue at the end. I thought the story of the High Moon Pack would continue well into the next book. And I have to admit, the epilogue was a little bittersweet. It’s set decades after the end of the book, and showed how happy everyone was – fitting for an epilogue. But it was all about things that I honestly would have liked to see.
I think this kind of a series, where there will undoubtedly be trials and tribulations for some time to come, would have benefitted from a number of novellas to wrap things up and also to really show what happened to everyone. It’s nice to hear about it in the epilogue, but reading about it firsthand would have been better.
My biggest complaint is that the final battle with the villain felt a little… like it needed to be dramatic without killing anyone important. So how Simon actually won and lived was a little vague. Willpower and love. It was kind of unsatisfying. As was how relatively short the fight was. Like, this was the big fight that the series has been working up towards, and they only won because Simon is special.
Overall, I’m glad I picked up this trilogy. It was my first time reading Poppy Dennison and I’d pick up a book of hers again.
Be sure to check out the reviews for Mind Magic, Body Magic, Wild Magic, and the series review.
Love is Love Reviews 