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authorofthings's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
heabooknerd's review
5.0
It's ok...I'm ok....just crying over BREAKER OF CHAINS and how emotional this book was. My heart is breaking for Caleb and Gray after everything they've gone through and all the people who have hurt them just for being different. And that cliffhanger is not helping!
So many story lines came together in the last 10% and it was a serious roller-coaster of a ride! I don't know how this is all going to end but it's going to be emotional I'm sure.
Content Warning: workplace harassment
So many story lines came together in the last 10% and it was a serious roller-coaster of a ride! I don't know how this is all going to end but it's going to be emotional I'm sure.
Content Warning: workplace harassment
teresab78's review
5.0
Arg!!! Warning - if you hate cliffhangers, buy this book but do t read it until the next one is out!!!!
I love, love, love this series. It is gritty, dark, and full of action, and yet there is also love and loyalty. Our main (couple?) are on rocky ground with the discovery of a second drakul and the goings on at work.
I love Gray and his unique view of the world. I felt for all three with the mess everything seemed to be in.
But the end!!! I CANNOT wait for the next instalment!!!! (Please write faster!)
I love, love, love this series. It is gritty, dark, and full of action, and yet there is also love and loyalty. Our main (couple?) are on rocky ground with the discovery of a second drakul and the goings on at work.
I love Gray and his unique view of the world. I felt for all three with the mess everything seemed to be in.
But the end!!! I CANNOT wait for the next instalment!!!! (Please write faster!)
tetiana's review
5.0
I was legit sweating toward the end. This series is full of amazing characters and will give you plenty of feels, but oh man, the action. I’m absolutely in love.
Also, that cliffhanger. September 14th can’t come fast enough – my soul is SCREECHING for the finale.
Also, that cliffhanger. September 14th can’t come fast enough – my soul is SCREECHING for the finale.
amyiw's review against another edition
3.0
Took a while to get to the point you knew was coming There was a slight surprise and twist, one of Caleb's new partners was part of the Drakul's minions. They were totally biased and bullies but I guess that was the whole alienating Caleb. I did not see that coming. So I ended up not reading straight through as it was just not keeping my attention through all of the speciest biases towards Caleb and the head of SPECTR at the facility being a total a*hole. I had read the two in front straight through and loved them with no real notice of drag. This one dragged for me and then add that it ended in a cliffhanger... well. It was good but just.
Spoiler
the other Drakul was either summoning or having someone summon. I always though it was him as there were just too many demons and this was it.ciannait76's review against another edition
4.0
I got this as an ARC and as usual...CLIFFHANGER!!! But it was goooood. The only reason I gave it 4 stars is because I felt like it was just a tad bit rushed and could have used another 50 pages or so...
paperbackstash's review against another edition
4.0
I've always loved this series - but we still don't need cliffhangers. Unfortunately we get one. And, unfortunately it looks like the next book is the last of this revamped series. John is a bit too untrusting at the end and there is a rift, but there's a big change with Gray and Caleb's new friend that becomes a large change on some of the places I thought this might be going. And SPECTR is such an annoying place to work, how can either of them stand it? Ugh. Full review to come.
the_novel_approach's review against another edition
5.0
Big changes are afoot everywhere! There’s an I don’t even know what to do with all of these feelings right now moment at the end of Breaker of Chains. We’ve all been there, that best kind of book hangover stage where you stare into space so hard and so long you can almost see the fourth dimension. I love when a book leaves me so shook that I can’t find the words to express it. This is one big hangover shook-me-to-the-core kind of read, and here’s the kicker: I can’t even tell you why. Not because I don’t know why but because I don’t want to spoil a single thing for you.
I’m not sure if I owe this to my own obtuseness or to Jordan L. Hawk’s craftiness, but I didn’t recognize, until it was staring me in the face, how much of what has come before has been building up to this crucial and heart-wrenching moment. We romance lovers tend to forget that the beginning of a relationship doesn’t spell the end of issues to overcome, and that’s especially true here. Obviously I knew there was going to be a critical arc in the storyline—this is a JLH book, after all—but here is not where I expected to be left. The emotional sucker punch Hawk delivers to readers in Breaker of Chains is on point and succeeds in exposing a single imperative in the series arc: it shows us beyond the shadow of a doubt that Caleb and Gray living an existence that straddles two such diametrically opposed realities, each of those realities leaving them more and more isolated, would be the catalyst that compels them into actions and decisions that they believe they can weigh against John and their love for him—a miscalculation that invites serious repercussions and caused me to see, from a new angle, Grayleb as the ‘other’ they truly are. Caleb and Gray have always had a certain sangfroid about them, which is why I love them as drakul and host, but there’s never been any mistaking that their passion runs right alongside it, their passion for John as well as their passion for ridding their world of paranormal entities, not on SPECTR’s behalf but on behalf of Gray’s bloodlust—the term ‘crime of passion’ exists for a reason.
Caleb and Gray are both angered by being handcuffed to SPECTR and then pulled away from John and Zahira to work with a couple of agents whose loathing of them is anything but subtle. Their discovering another host and drakul (with whom Gray has a history) might have been the answer to Grayleb’s loneliness and disgruntlement, if that meeting hadn’t instead become the pin in the hand grenade that was pulled and now leaves so much devastation in its wake. This is where this novella is spot-on; it presents Grayleb’s discontentment, offers them options, and then shows readers how the gift of choice comes with great power, and if not handled with great responsibility, it can cause utter chaos.
This -verse looms large with all manner of spooks and ghouls and otherworldly beings, and I remain impressed by the addition of every new creature-character summoned from the annals of mythology. Breaker of Chains ends in a massive cliffhanger, in case my vagueness didn’t make that obvious, and I’m left alternately cursing the author and cheering that this series installment left me a wreck. When an author steps aside and allows their characters the freedom to make me love them and tie me up in a tangled mess of feelings, I’m all in. If there’s anything I have faith in, it’s that Hawk will find a way to right a world that’s been turned upside and inside out. After all, there’s empirical evidence that there’s always a method to this author’s literary madness.
As every series has a transition book in the three-act-structure that bridges Act I to Act III, that very much feels like this book. Bigger things are afoot in Charleston, obstacles that seem insurmountable at the moment, but I have absolute trust that the resolution will be both deft and well worth the wait. Now, if that wait could be just a little shorter…. Breaker of Chains is yet another excellent addition to one of my favorite Urban Fantasy series, and I remain in awe of the -verse and in love with its characters. As ever, I’m #TeamGrayleb.
Reviewed by Lisa for The Novel Approach
I’m not sure if I owe this to my own obtuseness or to Jordan L. Hawk’s craftiness, but I didn’t recognize, until it was staring me in the face, how much of what has come before has been building up to this crucial and heart-wrenching moment. We romance lovers tend to forget that the beginning of a relationship doesn’t spell the end of issues to overcome, and that’s especially true here. Obviously I knew there was going to be a critical arc in the storyline—this is a JLH book, after all—but here is not where I expected to be left. The emotional sucker punch Hawk delivers to readers in Breaker of Chains is on point and succeeds in exposing a single imperative in the series arc: it shows us beyond the shadow of a doubt that Caleb and Gray living an existence that straddles two such diametrically opposed realities, each of those realities leaving them more and more isolated, would be the catalyst that compels them into actions and decisions that they believe they can weigh against John and their love for him—a miscalculation that invites serious repercussions and caused me to see, from a new angle, Grayleb as the ‘other’ they truly are. Caleb and Gray have always had a certain sangfroid about them, which is why I love them as drakul and host, but there’s never been any mistaking that their passion runs right alongside it, their passion for John as well as their passion for ridding their world of paranormal entities, not on SPECTR’s behalf but on behalf of Gray’s bloodlust—the term ‘crime of passion’ exists for a reason.
Caleb and Gray are both angered by being handcuffed to SPECTR and then pulled away from John and Zahira to work with a couple of agents whose loathing of them is anything but subtle. Their discovering another host and drakul (with whom Gray has a history) might have been the answer to Grayleb’s loneliness and disgruntlement, if that meeting hadn’t instead become the pin in the hand grenade that was pulled and now leaves so much devastation in its wake. This is where this novella is spot-on; it presents Grayleb’s discontentment, offers them options, and then shows readers how the gift of choice comes with great power, and if not handled with great responsibility, it can cause utter chaos.
This -verse looms large with all manner of spooks and ghouls and otherworldly beings, and I remain impressed by the addition of every new creature-character summoned from the annals of mythology. Breaker of Chains ends in a massive cliffhanger, in case my vagueness didn’t make that obvious, and I’m left alternately cursing the author and cheering that this series installment left me a wreck. When an author steps aside and allows their characters the freedom to make me love them and tie me up in a tangled mess of feelings, I’m all in. If there’s anything I have faith in, it’s that Hawk will find a way to right a world that’s been turned upside and inside out. After all, there’s empirical evidence that there’s always a method to this author’s literary madness.
As every series has a transition book in the three-act-structure that bridges Act I to Act III, that very much feels like this book. Bigger things are afoot in Charleston, obstacles that seem insurmountable at the moment, but I have absolute trust that the resolution will be both deft and well worth the wait. Now, if that wait could be just a little shorter…. Breaker of Chains is yet another excellent addition to one of my favorite Urban Fantasy series, and I remain in awe of the -verse and in love with its characters. As ever, I’m #TeamGrayleb.
Reviewed by Lisa for The Novel Approach
claudia_is_reading's review against another edition
5.0
Okay, I knew this was heading to a big clusterfuck, but OMFG!
So, this story begins with John pissed, Gray frustrated and Caleb really sad. Things go downhill from there.
But what a glorious downhill! There is intrigue, and suspense, and action. This is a gorgeous piece, probably my favourite in this series. Yes, even the cliffhanger (probably because I already have #5 on my phone ready for listening :P ).
The team is broken. John is doing desk-duty, Zahira in the Ghoul Squad and Caleb/Gray are dealing with their new partners, who are, surprise! surprise! real jerks. Charleston is oozing with demons, there are gruesome killings (the sirens, OMG!), and SPECTR is overwhelmed.
Caleb/Gray are getting closer and closer to Ivan/Dru, and they are so fed up with all the bullshit they are forced to deal at SPECTR (Caleb in a SUIT, wtf?) that they are seriously thinking of doing things the drakul way. Although that could come with a really high tag price.
What a terribly amazing series!
So, this story begins with John pissed, Gray frustrated and Caleb really sad. Things go downhill from there.
But what a glorious downhill! There is intrigue, and suspense, and action. This is a gorgeous piece, probably my favourite in this series. Yes, even the cliffhanger (probably because I already have #5 on my phone ready for listening :P ).
The team is broken. John is doing desk-duty, Zahira in the Ghoul Squad and Caleb/Gray are dealing with their new partners, who are, surprise! surprise! real jerks. Charleston is oozing with demons, there are gruesome killings (the sirens, OMG!), and SPECTR is overwhelmed.
Caleb/Gray are getting closer and closer to Ivan/Dru, and they are so fed up with all the bullshit they are forced to deal at SPECTR (Caleb in a SUIT, wtf?) that they are seriously thinking of doing things the drakul way. Although that could come with a really high tag price.
What a terribly amazing series!