The Glimmer Falls series has offered coziness alongside found family and paranormal romance and heaps of emotion with some tougher themes addressed. I liked book 1, skipped book 2, and this last book in the series focuses on Ben (H), a werewolf with a penchant for sweater vests, high levels of anxiety, and constantly placing others' needs before his own. After Mariel and Oz's wedding (the couple from book 1), Ben is feeling lonely and he drunkenly orders a rock off eBay that is marketed as having a vampire succubus companion inside it. He thinks it's a joke, which he promptly forgets about, until delivery day arrives and poor Ben's confused and then overwhelmed because Eleanora (h) is a very real and not happy (rightfully), ancient vampire succubus assassin, whose ownership has now changed unexpectedly. Eleanora's been held captive for centuries, but only brought out at an evil witch's whim. She doesn't know right away that Ben's the sweetest and he doesn't know right away that she has way more depth than just violent reaction.
What follows are scenes that somehow mix humor with many mentions of murderous escapades, lots of mental health rep from anxiety to PTSD, support of a small town mayoral campaign, a budding experimental theatre career, tracking down of an evil witch to break a curse, loads of Star Trek references, bringing a not-really-immortal into the present day, and romance. Written in third person, dual POV. No ow/om drama and both are experienced but haven't been active for a long time (H's been celibate for at least a decade and h had some experiences during times she was free, small mentions of both of their histories).
While a lot of what I have listed sounds amazing, I did feel like this story spent a lot of time plodding along. The pacing just felt off and I found myself putting the book down and walking away to do whatever many times. This is particularly true regarding breaking Eleanora's curse, there just wasn't a sense of urgency to the investigation and I felt like that was a shame. Even though there are profound discussions surrounding mental health, including anxiety, catastrophizing, and negative thoughts, there's also significant repetition of some of those mental health related characterizations. Additionally, there's a mention of therapy being helpful, but no therapy was sought during the book and again, that's a shame.
The book also highlights positive examples of masculinity, expression of feelings (Ben cries several times and Eleanora reacts strongly to touch), and lots of mention of consent. I valued the inclusion of these important elements, I just felt sometimes like they were presented in a heavy-handed way. For example, Ben came across to me as kind of "not like other men" in a way that didn't feel as well-nuanced as he could have been. Part of his anxiety stems from feeling so different than other werewolves and I don't want to discount that feeling though and it's not what I'm referring to here.
The foundation that Eleanora and Ben lay from the uneasy start of their connection to becoming friends to exploring deeper feelings for each other was delightful. The flow of that relationship truly hinged on the trust that they had to build. Eleanora had been betrayed and used without her consent so the empowerment that she was able to experience with having choices and control of herself was perfect. Sometimes her choices resulted in unusual consequences or uncomfortable situations but they were hers. Connected to that would be the development of the steamy scenes and how Ben feeds both supernatural sides of Eleanora's and how their dynamic plays a part in their spiciness (for example, they decide to wait on penetrative sex until the curse has been addressed). Ben is called a "good wolf", which was fun, and Eleanora gets a taste of him in more than one way from down below *nudge, nudge, wink, wink*. I liked them as a couple and there are some excellent scenes of them together. Eleanora wraps him in a burrito for comfort, Ben gifts her flowers, she packs a werewolf care kit for the full moon, and so on.
Another aspect that I think the author could have focused less on was the side characters. I love seeing former main characters as side characters in later books. But the side characters in this story overwhelmed Ben and Eleanora's story at times. Ben's sister's campaign to be mayor was a huge part of the book and the work that they did on the campaign also involved lots of time with Ben's friend group. The opposing candidate, an antagonistic character from the prior two books, also gets a good amount of mentions. The evil witch is mentioned frequently, but not on page much because of the slow movement on figuring out what to do for the curse. I'm kind of bummed that there wasn't a scene of Eleanora with Ben's wolf side because I eat those scenes up in werewolf/shifter romances.
In writing this review, I think this book simply felt unbalanced to me. I enjoyed the main characters and their relationship development. I liked the setting and the premise. The execution just wasn't even for me personally. The third act is interesting but also moves quickly, which is a contrast to the slowness of the rest of the book. I did like that though there's a misunderstanding, both of them felt bad once they had time to realize the full implications of what occurred and consider the other's perspective. How the witch is handled worked for me actually, but I think might let down some other readers. The epilogue is Eleanora and Ben living their HEA, together, with prospects for Eleanora in the future and them basking in time with their friends, so a cute way to close out the story. The author has a preview of a new series at the end of this book too. I'm curious how she'll grow in her writing with a genre change since the next series is fantasy.