3 out of 5 stars
E-book. 47 pages. Published October 8th 2016 by JMS Books LLC
Blurb:
Blackstone Manor is complete, and what better way to celebrate than a Halloween party? At least, that’s how Io sees it. He’s already splurged on candy and decorations. Cinder isn’t entirely on board, however, hating the look of disappointment on Io’s face when he nixes the idea.
Yet somehow Io gets his way, and the party goes ahead as planned. It can’t be all that bad, right? But throw in couples’ costumes, Daisy acting weird, real ghosts, and the secret Cinder has been harboring from Io, and it’s sure to be a night none of them forget.
Likes:
- All the key plot points wrapped up.
- Finally met other members of the pack.
- A little more world building.
- Daisy is asexual.
Dislikes:
- My least favorite so far.
- No character development.
- No smut.
- The way things were wrapped up was anticlimactic.
- Classic ‘don’t know how/why things happened.’
- Minor editing mistakes.
- Cinder knows his actions are hurting Io and does nothing about it.
This is definitely my least favorite story so far. It does wrap up all the key points that have been brought up over the past two stories. But because that’s the main focus, there’s no character development.
This story is also low on romance. Chapter one opens with Io lamenting that things between him and Cinder have “fizzled.” The two aren’t communicating and haven’t been intimate in months. Io blames himself, but I blame Cinder. Cinder knows his lack of attention is hurting Io, but he doesn’t do anything about it. His excuse for not addressing the growing rift is lame. Honestly, this story made me feel like Cinder and Io simply aren’t a good match.
I’m not even happy with how things with Ran’imy were wrapped up. It was anticlimactic, with vague outside forces stepping in at the last minute. Add in the classic ‘don’t know how/why things happened’ non-answer when asked about those outside forces, and it wasn’t particularly satisfying.
I am happy that there was a little more world building this time around. We finally get to meet other members of the pack, as well as find out how many members the pack has. But my favorite thing about the book has to be that Daisy is asexual. I love when there’s more LGBTQ+ representation in mm romance books.
Once again, there are minor editing mistakes, that seem much more obvious because of the shortness of the story. There’s even multiple instances of the first letter in a sentence not being capitalized, which struck me as a very simple mistake to catch.
I’m glad this isn’t the last story in the series. Even though everything was wrapped up, I’m hoping for a better overall ending. One that sees Io and Cinder happy throughout most of the story. There wasn’t even any on-page smut this time around. Here’s hoping the final story will end on a high note!
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