Last Breath

The Templar #2

by Debra Dunbar

What do a dead cosplayer and a ritual murder have in common? Plenty.

Solaria Ainsworth isn’t a paladin, she’s not even an ordained Templar Knight, but she can’t resist poking her nose into police business when magicians are found murdered in Baltimore. When the murders spread to include those of the magical group Haul Du, she rethinks her participation in the investigation. Why should she bother to assist a group that kicked her out the moment they discovered she was a Templar, the group that forbade any of their members to have contact with her?

Is the killer an angel or a demon, or both? No matter her old grudge, Aria can’t ignore the bloodbath right under her nose, and she definitely can’t ignore the practice of death magic that has stolen innocent lives and souls.

Genres: Urban Fantasy, Fantasy, Vampires, Paranormal, Audiobook, Magic, Angels

365 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 2, 2016

About the author

Debra lives in a little house in the woods in Maryland with three sons, and a Noah’s ark of four legged family members. She has a corporate job during the day, and writes novels at night, after the kids are tucked in bed.

She drives an Excursion affectionately called The Beast, couldn’t carry a tune if you duct taped it to her back, and enjoys an occasional cosmopolitan (heavy on the vodka). On a good day, she jogs and horseback rides, hopefully managing to keep the horse between herself and the ground.

Her only known super power is ‘Identify Roadkill’.

Reviews

[Runningrabbit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entire series on Kindle Unlimited.
My only complaint with this series is far too much in detail to keep up a good pace, so although I am a Dunbar fan I've skimmed on this one.

The romance sector has the chance to become annoying, and if so I'll probably ditch after the next book. So fingers crossed.

[Jeanny · Rating 4 out of 5]

This counts towards my Cliterary Genius A to Z challenge. Letter l.

Great friend help u bury the bodies.

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

~2016 A-Z reading challenge; letter L~

[Keith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring world, angsty MC, stupid supporting characters.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Templar v. Mages

Another great book in the Templar series! Aria continues to struggle with her life choices and finding her mission in life. As time goes on she's more and more convinced that it involves protecting the people of Baltimore, all of the people of Baltimore, human and supernatural. When a mage is mysteriously killed in a park, Aria decides to investigate and soon finds herself dealing with angels and demons and death magic. Her best friend from her previous magic group decides that her friendship with Aria is more important than the ban on interacting with her. Aria continues to try to do the right thing but struggles when it seems like the bad guys will get away with murder.

[Bo0kSLoth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Has much improved is the last book? No. Very little character growth for Aria. I swear I get teenage girl vibes from her character not a woman in her late 20's. When she goes on her rants about blood slaves and how it's wrong for vampires to have them, all I can think of are meth addicts. Yes, the drug is bad and I would want to help someone to get off of them, but ultimately it the addicts choice what they do to their body and their lives, not ours. Aria is a character that has very narrow views.

The story while interesting, is slow and often feels like Aria has a blase attitude about things that don't interest her. She still continues to complain about her lack of finances, though she works part-time. It's enough to have me pulling my hair

[Alfred J. Coscia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great and Satisfying Read

Aria, is an excellent character and her new pickle that she finds herself in is quite a doozy, even for a Templar. This is plotted very well, I found myself choked with emotion in a few places, because Aria has developed so well that I can feel for her. The supporting characters are well-penned and the action, magic, and creativity are blended into a very worthy read. If you are up for a kick-butt, unconventional female protagonist who gets the job done with some humor to ease the burdens she shoulders, this Un-Oathed Templar Aria is definitely going to make you happy you read her tales. I sure am.

[Mary K Zavisca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review

Aria must determine who is killing all these mages. An angel, or something much more evil.

She assists Detective Tremelay, who may be descended from a Templar.

With help from Raven and Dario, she begins to unravel the mystery.

But Aria discovers that things are not always as they seem. And suffers a great personal loss.

Who is good, and who is evil?

Fantastic!

[Melinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great addition to this series. I do love how this author writes her female leads, sassy, irreverant, ditzy, ? Sure, some of the time our MC got annoying (and a bit dumb) and some of the time it was weird that the police just accepted our heroine was a card carrying, sword carrying templar with no problems at all... but overall - a good yarn!

[Debra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Am really getting into this series.

Great characterization. There are no cliffhangers at the end. Just a need to know what happens next. No obvious sex, but the sexual attraction is hot enough. Solaria is a young lady on a mission.

[Kim Power · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dark story gets darker

Aria is touched by a demon, attracted to a vampire and hunting an angel bent on vengeance. And it all goes downhill from there. Bad things happen to good people and Aria faces demonic choices of her own.

[Linda Mount · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still working to like this series

But I find it interesting and the characters real. I find myself at odds with the heroin's ethical compass which is hard to overcome, but the storyline and action keep me hooked!

[Ann Zdunczyk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read

Aria is finding dead bodies everywhere. The detective introduces her as a consultant when he takes her to crime scenes. She has demons and an angel to contend with. Read to find out how it ends.

[Anita Rheinhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love that she is still staying strong and not giving in to take the vows. However, she is risking her life and doing the duties of the Templar, she should take her vows, make her family happy and get paid for constantly risking her life.
I can't believe she took his life. I wondered what she was going to do, and she did it. It was for the best, he would have walked away and just killed more. Now, if she can deal with what she had done.

Getting ready to start the next one to see what happens next.

[Ms. Cyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story was a dangerous and sad moment in Aria's life. I liked that her and Raven were speaking again. Her and Dario have a on again off again friendship and I learned more about the mages. I like that she is assisting the police but it's kind of weird that they are allowing her to help.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing Read

This book was much more fast oaced and hooked me right from the first chapter. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and while I enjoyed the first one, this one was much better. I am very excited for book 3!

[Delia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice quick read!

[Mary Logan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quirky heroes are the best!

I can always depend on Dunbar series to keep me reading, kill off a few lovable characters, and bleed then imperfection of the human spirit.

[Conny · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading the imp series I miss the humor in this serie

[Jaclyn Svincek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another page turner

Can’t wait to see what our favorite Templar gets into next!! Another enjoyable read by Deb! Onto book 3 now

[Anthea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another good continuation in the series. Maybe it’s just me though, but is definitely lacking in the romance. That’s probably my only gripe thus far.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aria has crossed a line, lost a friend and strengthened her bond with Dario. She’s got some good allies and made new enemies along the way. Gripping story full of twists.

[Zemmiphobe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book as much as the last and I am very sad that I do not have the third sitting around waiting for me to open it.

That being said, I missed Dario in this book. I think the getting themselves to a relationship where they stick together and no one dies is awesome, but there is something so page turning about dangerous attractions. Hopefully that makes an appearance in the third, which I do plan to get as soon as my finances catch up to my book addiction.

Anyway, besides that this book was as great as the first. The characters were well developed and funny. I have to say I really liked the ending when she stabbed him. I find it very annoying when you read a series and the bad guy makes numerous appearances because the good guy is too good to finish it. There was a moral dilemma she had the argument with herself and she did it. She still seems like a good person and a hero, but she also killed the callous asshole. I think too often people like to keep the good and evil on a black and white divider in their stories, but this world is full of grey and this book (and the first) touched on that quite a bit in a great way.

Curious to see what all those people were so keen to kill to prevent. Looking forward to book 3.

<\spoiler>

[Sarah Leenart · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the second even more than the first book, as is often the case with a series. The world has been set, the characters are at least a little known, and also for me, the vampires didn't take centre stage. The story was a lot more complicated and Aria's past crept into play with her previous involvement with the Haul Du, a group of magical practitioners specialising in demon summoning. The magic was very intriguing and there is a much larger supernatural world out there than I had previously thought, in fact this book felt more rounded and had a much slicker, faster pace that I loved. Aria's friend Raven was great and I got quite emotionally attached to her and Aria.

The whole situation with the Demons was great and I can't help but wonder what the greater story arc is here and I know that I have been well and truly hooked in and am on board for the ride. I have become invested in Aria and her world to have to know what is going to happen to her next.

[Is · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was tricky to rate. It went from a 3 down to 2 then 1 and up up to 4.
The story starts out good and then just got unbearable by endless seeming dialogues explaining every aspect of certain demons, angels to the point were I just started flipping through pages trying to decide if I should just quit.
Thankfully the from one page to the other the story was suddenly in full swing, gripping and interesting.
4 stars because for me it's all about how I feel after reading the last page and I loved it.
What is a surprise for me is that even though we have mages, demons and vampires in the story it doesn't feel like reading one of the normal pn stories. It's richer, deeper.

[Wendy Schindler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great, well-told story!
Wonderful character build-ups, suspenseful and fun all at the same time!
I love the family dynamics and the way Aria's circle of friends and allies are building! The Evil seems to be building as well...
Loving the history lessons and am considering a class in Latin to make following along even more fun..

2 problems I encountered - serious time-line discrepancies and needs more proofreading or BETA readers. Otherwise a very well done book

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great as alwaysc

I've come to realize that anything this author has written is going to be good. This series actually seems to be better than the imp series, and I loved those books. I was disappointed in only one thing with this book and that was to find that the next book in the series wasn't done yet.

[Gina Eldred · Rating 5 out of 5]

True to your skill you have done it again. BRAVO! I can't wait for the next.I have the next book pre-ordered.

If anyone wants to read a VERY good series. Book yourselves up with this. Also any oh Debras other books ,she has not disappointed me in anything she has written so far. Excellent writer and one shell of an imagination. Please keep writing.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though I love these books so far, I'm a little miffed that there are little things that seems to be getting missed. Though, I am hoping that all will come together by the last book! I love this series. I know I've said this of other series too, but the whole supernatural and Sherlock aspects of these books are awesome!

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ratings - abandoned series:
#1 Dead Rising: ★★★☆☆
#2 Last Breath (this book): ★★★☆☆
#3 Bare Bones: ★☆☆☆☆ / DNF