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alejandra_guerrero's review against another edition
3.75
I liked it. I wasn’t quite convinced, because, c’mon, the blurb makes it seem cheesy AF. But I think it was good. Tayla’s bigoted attitude toward demons was tiresome, though, and got annoying after a while, especially when she was proven, over and over, that her beliefs were incorrect. But I didn’t find her as irritating as some other characters I’ve read before.
The world is fascinating, though there are a couple of things I didn’t quite get. I guess they will be addressed in later books. The brothers are interesting, but Gem, Kynan (how the hell do you pronounce that?), and the slayers (Sorry, Guardians) in general, aren’t. I’m curious about Shade’s curse, and what the hell do you mean Wraith’s eyes are not his? I need to know. So I’ll keep reading.
Something I didn’t enjoy was the Miriad POVs present here, some of which have events that are tangential to the story at best. And, I don’t know if it was something about the version I got, but they didn’t have any separation, like we were in one character’s POV and the next paragraph was another’s, without a single space between the two to signal a change. Overall, I enjoyed it, though.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Death, Sexual violence, Medical content, Violence, Infidelity, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Addiction
Moderate: Mental illness, Grief, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, and Chronic illness
Minor: Child abuse
cluckieduck's review
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Interesting world & characters, but compared to other PNRs from the mid-2000s (BDB, IAD, Midnight Breed, etc) it’s not my favourite. I’ll still continue with the series the series, at least the next 2 books to see how the brothers fare, so we’ll see how it progresses from here!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Medical content, Murder, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Confinement, Torture, Rape, Gun violence, Death, Cursing, Drug abuse, Trafficking, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual violence, Sexism, and Infidelity
tj_park's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder and Violence
Moderate: Rape and Torture
noellelovesbooks's review
3.25
Content Warnings: Sexual content, blood/gore, violence, sexual harassment, sexual assault, murder, racism, noncon, dubcon, and ableist language.
Mention of: rape, child abuse, drug abuse/addiction, and witnessing a parent’s torture and murder.
Mention of: rape, child abuse, drug abuse/addiction, and witnessing a parent’s torture and murder.
The first time I read this book was years ago and with the cover re-issue of book 5 [Eternal Rider, also the first book in the Four Horsemen/Lords of Deliverance series] I decided I wanted to re-read this series.
When I originally read this story I thought it was such a sweet and passionate supernatural romance…after this second read though…not so much. Overall I still enjoyed the story and loved getting back into reading all the characters of Underworld General but I feel like I needed more to truly feel the connection between Tayla and Eidolon.
From the start, Tayla and Eidolon have a mutual physical attraction though they initially attempt to fight it since they should be enemies. Their first few sexual encounters aren’t completely consensual on both sides which gave me the ick.
Bit of a spoiler but something I feel is important to say…after witnessing the torture, rape, and murder of her mother Tayla has never been able to orgasm with a partner and even has difficulty reaching orgasm alone. When she tries having sex she usually has horrible flashbacks to her mother’s murder which prevents her, understandably, from reaching orgasm. Once she tells this to Eidolon he’s determined to help her reach orgasm and they have sex…in which she orgasms. I really would have loved more inner monologue from Tayla talking about how this conversation, vulnerability and trust in Eidolon to tell him, made her feel. The way it all goes down in the books it’s like…oh after years of unresolved trauma within minutes she’s now cured because of a man.
I feel that the story would have been better if more focus was spent on showing a growing connection between Tayla and Eidolon and less time spent on introducing so many other aspects of the world or they should have given us like 100 more pages or so to fully explore everything they threw at us. Getting to see so many POVs and meet so many characters is great but I feel like the main couple needed a little more focus for me to understand and feel their connection.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Racism, Gore, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Torture
Minor: Rape, Child abuse, and Drug abuse
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