Gibson, Bringer of
the De La Vega werejaguar Jamboree, has no time or patience for representatives
of a much smaller Jamboree violating his territory and makes this very very
clear
And then is shot with
silver bullets
Thankfully, Mia is
close when he is shot and able to get him to safety; a wonderful foundation for
a new friendship… but not so much when Mia and Gibson’s families have been at
odds for generations. And Mia herself is still recovering from a brutal crime and
trying to figure out what to do with her life: getting involved in Jamboree
politics in the face of attempted murder was not on the agenda.
I’m going to say I
was torn when I first picked up this book. I knew Lauren
Dane as an author focuses
on Paranormal Romance
which I’m just not a huge fan of. This isn’t a criticism of her or the genre by
any means, merely an expression of different taste. So that leads me to think
“not for me” and back off - except she also wrote the Rowan
Summerwaite Series which I love and I consider it to be a deep and terrible crime that
there are not more books in this series. So I approach this from a complicated
position of high and low expectations.
And so we have this
book - which is a paranormal romance with an interesting world, some great
characters and generally something I really enjoyed which means in the future
I’m going to be even more confused
Oh to add to the ways
I unnecessarily complicate what should be a simple review - I managed to pick up
book 3 of a series. Yes, so this is me deleting my review complaining “I feel
like I jumped half way in to a series and have a missed a whole lot of back
story!” It turns out that’s because I jumped half way into a series and have
indeed missed a whole lot of back story. Go me. So let me add some praise for
this book both giving me enough information about the characters and world
setting for me to actually enjoy and understand this book but not trying to
dump so much back story into this book as to make it unwieldy. Oh and this
series is a spin off from an even larger series. Yes this has not been my best
decision.
I often dislike the
tropes that are common in most of the paranormal romances I read as they seem
to be summed up by “unreasonable people turning minor issues into ridiculous
convoluted obstacles”. I generally think all these people should stay away from
each other because no relationship that has two people this inclined to drama
could possibly work except for the neighbours if they have a big enough supply
of popcorn
But this book takes
so many of these Issues and then… behaves quite reasonably? Like Gibson and
Mia’s families have a long grudge after some seriously Not Ok shit Gibson’s
granddad pulled on Mia’s grandmother. This has clearly left long wounds on
Mia’s families and is a barrier between them. But one that is resolved because
everyone is truly shockingly sensible and realises that maybe holding a grudge
for 2 generations may not be that fair?
Or there’s the time
Mia is angered because Gibson suggests that maybe she needs protection and she
pushes back at the idea but doesn’t turn it into more than a moment they need
to address - and doesn’t run off on her own or something equally ridiculous to
prove her strength and courage
Or there’s the time
Mia’s mother is furious because Mia’s relationship with Gibson appears to have
put her at risk. Yes that’s a barrier but equally it’s recognised that Mia
doesn’t want to derail her future for it nor will doing so make the threat
disappear
It’s not that the
conflicts that we so often see in Paranormal Romance aren’t present; it’s that
the characters deal with these conflicts like actual human beings who respect
each other and have half an ounce of sense and it’s amazing how that really does
make these storylines so much easier to follow.
And it gave me much
more chance to like Gibson and Mia, their history, their experiences, their
clearly powerful connections to their families who are so very important to
them without them having to dominate the story. (I suspect, now, that these
characters will receive)
There is a lot of sex
in this book which didn’t overly thrill me and I did think I’d like to see more
of the actual investigation of the people trying to kill them. The actual
motives and the plans of the attackers are somewhat shaky - but it works
because people ARE shaky. They over-estimate themselves, they assume their
opponents will do everything they expect them to, they don’t have a plan B -
this works because, like the romance conflicts, it isn’t ridiculous. It feels
real; I like it.
Mia is a disabled
woman, a veteran, yet not defined entirely by her physical prowess: while still
being more than capable (her military experience isn’t used to turn her
into an Action Girl or Weapon). She’s a victim of a horrendous crime and coming to terms with how
that has changed her future and her dreams, deals with ongoing physical and
mental pain from that in a very well portrayed fashion. Gibson is Black along
with his family - made up of his brothers, their latina wives and their mother,
influential matriarch all of which have clear characters, relationships and
history (which I think was probably explored in different books) making for a
cast of interesting, diverse characters who are powerful, sensible and
developed.
One of Gibson’s
brothers is in a triad relationship with a woman and another man, but in the
brief moments they appear it’s really not clear if this is anything but
straight (two men in a relationship with a woman) or bisexual (the men in a
relationship with each other as well as a woman).
So despite absolutely
failing at reviewing, this worked out really now. Of course, my obsessive
nature now means I need to read the previous books in this series and the
series it spun off from. The good news is, from this book, this is going to be
a good thing
