This is the second time I've read this book and I can honestly say that I enjoyed it a lot more the second time around. I think it is because Maddy is growing on me and I have a better understanding of her character now. Maybe I had to read a bunch more books in-between the first time and this time to get a better understanding of her.
I also love Kynan, which is a given since he's been my favorite after Iskandar for a while now. I enjoyed the insight to how he thinks and seeing how he has grown from his first introduction in My Wicked Enemy. The relationship between him and Maddy has really evolved since My Forbidden Desires for sure.
I also enjoyed the new magic theories/powers/spells introduced in this book.
I can’t wait for the next installment she gives us in this world.
6/29
This series is one of those series that I read and find myself re-reading it at least 1 time a year since my dangerous pleasure was published. I just love it, despite some issues I read concerning continuity and niggling little details like how many of this or that. The hugely imaginative world inhabiting this series trumps any issues a reader might have ... though the one about who killed Magellan is a pretty big one for me. Most likely because I was going nuts thinking I misread something so I had to go find it to make sure I was indeed not going nuts.
I was expecting a lot from this book, which is probably why I didn’t like it as much as I thought I should, I had built it up too high.
I’ve been looking forward to Kynan’s book (even though I had a good idea Maddy would be in it) since I first read My Wicked Enemy/My Forbidden Desire, Kynan is one of my favorites after Iskander and Nikodemus. I’ve never really liked Maddy and now that I have a better idea of why she had acted the way she did and I understand more about what was going on I get it. My opinion of her went up some but not a lot as she seemed to be pretty freaking whiney in her head at times. I would’ve liked to learn a little bit more about how she grew up, even a rough sketch of her family or something would have been nice.
Usually Jewel writes some pretty passionate love/intimate scenes, as in scenes where it doesn’t have to be sexual, just a closeness of mind that shows another way that demons differ from humans. they feel closer by just touching or drinking blood ... her sex scenes are usually so ... very riveting and we were finally going to get a peek @ kynan, which we only got a little peek at in the last book, but they were lack luster in comparison to what I’ve read in this series before. She is so very good at ramping up the tension of the characters and putting a massive chokehold on the reader’s attention before delivering the final blow. It just kinda felt like someone else finished it up for her.
I know that there could be more to the scenes; hell everything up to them actually fitting their pieces together was massively intense. When they got down to the tab B going into Slot A is where it kind of went ... and ... werrrrrrr’re done.
Wait? That was it, they’re done?
Sheesh, I sound like a total perv with that little bit of analysis.
As to what happened regarding the street witches ... seriously mage kind’s view on the kin really irritates the hell out of me. I sometimes wish death scenes for them were a bit bloodier or violent at times. One thing I was wondering though, Paisley said that Leonidas wasn’t a “screamer” so how did he get to be as old as he is? Or even Maddy, though a bit more of a clue about her age would be nice.
The thing that I didn’t get was in the breeding operation they sent the girls away. Why? In the first book there were a female warlord and a female kin (who was guarding outside near the end of the book), and Iskander’s blood twin, Fen, was female. So, do they manifest differently? Did they just think they weren’t valuable or something? Tao’s ability was a nice surprise, but it easily being taught to the others, after so long? Why didn’t they learn it before? Also, how did some of them fly back to Tiburon? I only remember reading about one demon having wings and I believe they were more vestigial than anything. Guess I need to do another re-read!