3.5 stars
Quite an enjoyable fantasy/action romance.
I really liked the character types and dynamics. Our MCs have quite opposite personalities: duty-bound Kelas and seemingly flippant Roshan, who both grow as characters over the course of the novel. The pace of the progression from dislike to reluctant trust to friends was good, but I felt the switch from that to romance happened too fast.
On the romantic front, I would've preferred to see more thought given to the abuse Kelas suffered at the hands of his previous vampire masters and the effect that it had on him and his potential relationship with Roshan, also a vampire. It's not completely brushed aside but I felt like we only get his thoughts about how they hadn't managed to ruin sex for him and, I don't know, it seems more complex to me than that.
That said, his struggle and anguish at being back in the place he was held captive, albeit no longer captive, was well-developed and I appreciated how we were also shown Roshan's difficulty with knowing how to best support Kelas. And support him he does, the conflict is completely external to their relationship and I liked how solid their bond was through it all.
A few other points I wasn't so sure about. I enjoyed the initial almost Witcher-like plot structure but IMO things got a bit scattered during the main plot element. The action conflict was well-written though. The rest of the cast was interesting though for a book this length they felt under-utilised.
Overall, there's a lot of good hurt/comfort in this, and I did really like the main characters, even though I think the pacing and structure could use some work it was a pretty decent read.