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A review by the_novel_approach
Breaker of Chains by Jordan L. Hawk
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