DemonessTenebrae

You know that feeling when you read something and you just cannot connect with it on any level? That's how this was for me. I could not understand the characters and their changes, and yes yes, I did try, I happen to really enjoy Mandy M. Roth's writing.

Here's what didn't click for me in this book.

The characters. Simple as that. I do not understand them.

Green is a werepanther and for the first two books he was shown as a more of a cold, distant, trying-to-please-everyone, convert-everything-into-science talk and a reserved person who doesn't approach women. He had a wife who died in childbirth 60 years ago and he didn't have anyone since. All clicks so far. He meets the main female character in the beginning of the first book and lets his friend Lance have se# with her (because he is just a stand-up guy overall right) and before Lance dies Green promises Lance to look after Melanie (again, didn't make sense even then because how could Lance know he is going to die, but nevermind). In the second book Green occasionally asks about Melanie and how she is but nothing really serious all in all. And now in the third book he suddenly knows she is his mate and they were always destined for each other and he gets extremely jealous at men she used to bang (and let's face it, she banged everything that moves). I wouldn't have a problem with all of this if not for this sudden shift.

So, Green spent two books literally seeing her being fu$ked by Lance, her going through this withdrawal thing and being very ill, her trying to get it on with some of her former fu$ks... and now he suddenly had this revelation that she is his and no one will touch her and how he always knew and no one may touch her now but him.... you know, for a super smart intelligent geeky scientist guy, you are extremely slow on realising she is your mate and no one should touch her but you... how am I supposed to take this seriously? Well, in a paranormal erotic romance kind of seriously.

And then there's the female lead, Melanie, a Fae. She is even more confusing. This book is not very long and there are a lot of things cramped in there. Along with everything, there's also the fact she has another person inside of her. I am not going to go into actual spoilers here but I can say that much to explain how all of this is very confusing. So, that other person died but some of the essence was somehow preserved and was born with Melanie. That other person is like a separate personality and comes out saying things to Melanie here and there informing her about the paranormal. Okay, fine, I can somehow deal with that. But then it goes into absurd territory where a potential merger of two people might happen and everyone acts like Melanie is going to die which then means it is not a merger but taking over of that other person and killing Melanie's personality. Then that is put aside for a bit only to have that other person be somehow contaminated with evil and Melanie actually kicks her out of herself, and I mean flesh blood personality everything... how??? Suspension of disbelief only goes so far.

Plus there's a bunch of other stuff with Melanie's powers that is not explained adequately and she has powers only in what needs to serve the plot at the moment. Like how many times she was in danger and threatened (since she was a child) and then you realise she can literally call forth her father and brother whenever she wishes and her daddy seems to be kicking everyone's ass. Then when you think about it it is best you do not think about it too much.

Also, one more thing. I absolutely despised how everyone treats Wilson, the wererat. I kind of went along with it in the first book, like he is the team's joker, then they all joke about killing him all the time haha, super funny right, in the second book it started getting on my nerves because Wilson wasn't portrayed like an as&hole to deserve that treatment from everyone all the time, and I mean every single mutual I-Ops scene... and then we get to this book and it escalates out of control. Wilson is being hated by everyone for seemingly no reason, he likes to joke around apparently, even in the bad situations, and that gives everyone a reason to keep saying how they want to kill him, and stuff like oh no don't hurt him hurt Wilson instead, no, don't do that, let's throw Wilson out of the plane instead... are you kidding me? How awful do you all have to be? Some friends you are.

All in all, this book was for me, mediocre. It served a purpose and it had some strong elements like good writing of a dialogue, good humor scenes, good portrayal of the rest of the I-Ops characters (well, apart from the Wilson thing), good naughty scenes and decent action that keeps you entertained.

There are also weak elements. Characters were doing 180 turns a lot, they were confusing to me and I did not really enjoy the romance part this time around (also, that not taking her as a wife/claiming because of such a silly thing and then that long misunderstanding later was just too much).