DemonessTenebrae

So, yeah, I know I said in my last review how I'm sure that this Series will get even better with the sequels and I'm giving it a 3* as a sign of faith that the author will know how to improve her good points (great world-building) and turn bad points into good or at least moderate ones (*shitty* romance). That sadly didn't happen. 

What did happen was the exact opposite! The *shitty* romance is now taking most of the book and that awesome inventive world-building is a mere shadow of its former self. There is no more thriller, only a slight science fiction is still present.

WHY??? We have tons and tons of shitty mediocre paranormal romances, why didn't you work on your great thriller/SF blossoms that had a promise of beautiful flowers in them? NO, you had to go and ruin everything.

When will the authors understand that bland, mediocre sex isn't enough anymore? Sure, a few decades ago a hint of supernatural and some bland sex scenes might have been good enough but not today. When you have a promise of such an intriguing story on your hands you don't go and ruin it with instant stupid no chemistry love and staying for almost half of the book inside one's mind and on PsyNet....

But let me explain my five greatest objections:

1. STEREOTYPE NO.1 - HE WON'T FIT !!!

For the love of everything that is holy, please stop with that chauvinistic crap. YES, IT WILL FREAKING FIT, unless you are in the very very small percentage of the human population that has oversized penises. The rest will be just fine. Because you know, nature, biology, genealogy, evolution etc. 

"Faith found herself unable to close her fingers completely around him. How could anything so thick fit in her body?"

The only conclusion presenting itself when I'm reading sentences such as the aforementioned one for a thousandth time now is that either the author has some serious issues involving sex or lack thereof OR she is just feeding the readers what she thinks they want to read to buy her books. No one can be that stupid...

2. STEREOTYPE NO.2 - THE VIRGIN HEROINE

Oh, yeah, heroine in the second book is a virgin as well. Whereas in the first book I didn't make a big deal about it because I thought, well, it is the first sequel and the author is using the old recipe and no harm done as long as she doesn't repeat it. WELL SHE REPEATED IT! What is it with this virgin demand? How can that be so marketable? Their first time hurts as hell, they are inexperienced, we have no naughty scenes because duh, the heroine doesn't know how to act and the hero keeps turning out as a molester because he practically had to force her to overcome her fear. 

No, no, no.... stop it! For once I would like one experienced woman in such a genre, one that would behave like Cat from the "Night Huntress" series (trying many poses, in many different places, at oddest times...). Just *facepalm* on all those virgin books.

3. INSTA - LOVE

I understand how some people see that kind of romance as the most romantic and intriguing but come on. Every single book in the paranormal romance genre lately has the instant love effect. Their eyes met and BAM, love, destiny, forever my ass okay? Just for once why don't you put SOME EFFORT in bringing the heroes together slower and stronger? So we could feel their bond and cry and laugh with them? Not like this, I've read this book and I will forget about it as soon as I go to sleep. And I can guarantee you that I WILL NEVER READ IT AGAIN. Ever. Because I made no emotional connection with the characters whatsoever. None.

4. PSY MIND & PSYNET

Although I do like this world setting, I really do, this book made it really difficult for me to decide positive on whether to stay with the series or not. 

Because half of this book was made in Faith's head and her strolling through the PsyNet. You have to understand that in spite of the great concept of the PsyNet you proposed to your readers, dear author, you can't expect from us instant love for spending countless pages in one uninteresting mind and her idle talk about nothing.

What's even more bothersome, when I've said that most of the book was *wasted* on the *shitty* romance I meant wasted. Because Faith, the heroine, lived all by herself deep in the woods and there are almost no other characters in the first part of the book besides Sascha and Lucas who come to meet Faith and Vaughn (the hero) at some cabin in the woods. Boring, boring, boring. There is no real urgency, no thriller, no sense of greatness, only Faith's inability to tolerate touch from Vaughn. And their attraction was instant, of course, because it's so natural that a savage changeling and an emotionless psy fall in love. Argh... it feels so forced.

5. MYSTERY TURNS TO SHIT

The only thing that actually kept me going was the mystery of Faith's visions and a darkness descending upon her. The build-up was good despite that stupid mushy crap between her and Vaughn. And that build-up goes through 2/3 of the book only to be dealt with so anti-climatically that I had an urge to crush something. 

Want to know why? Because before they solved that mystery in such a low, unnoticeable, unimaginable and completely unimportant way, the pair had sex, they made promises and everything was right. So who gives a flying fuck about that "side-story" mystery shit, right? I mean, the pair so unbelievably wound up together (hint: irony) that we shouldn't care less about the ACTUAL STORY !!!

There is more than this, much more that I could mention but I'm tired, I have a headache and a sudden urge to write my own freaking novel just to get away from all of this stereotypical, mediocre, bland sex/"love" thing. I honestly can't tell if I'll read a book number 3 in this series because life is short and there are tons of books out there calling me so... maybe... I don't know in this moment. But I wouldn't recommend this one. I can tell you in few sentences everything that is going on with the world-building so you don't have to needlessly suffer. Spare yourself.