Read if you really must
Same patterns, same MO, if not for the developing storyline you could just skip this one.
First of all, I deeply regret that the author didn't found the guts to put the Ancient in Brock's place. The Ancient should have been the one who starred in this book with Jenna. It would make things turn upside down with an unexpected and welcome original twist. But noooo... why stray from the usual well-worn pattern... so it's Brock and Jenna and yeah, they have the same problems as all the other couples before them.
Brock fell for Jenna the first moment he saw her unconscious on her cabin floor. The first bloody moment. Instant bonding. Everlasting love... aha, such an unique approach... so you can imagine that first, oh, around 150 pages was nothing but simpleminded unoriginal going-in-circles conversations. Jenna can't figure out what's going on with her body, Jenna keeps remembering how she lost her husband and daughter, Jenna feeling fear of the new, Jenna having hard time finding her place, Jenna having hard time understanding, Jenna can't let herself falling for someone... then... Brock weighted with his past, Brock feeling he can never be good enough, Brock trying to distance himself, Brock understanding Jenna's feelings, Brock never saw this could happen to him, to have these feelings...
The only differences from the previous books were that Jenna wasn't a Breedmate (but she's transforming to something similar, of course) and that she was informed about the vampires etc by her best friend Alex. The rest, you can pretty much c/p from the previous books.
I didn't like this sudden importance of the male characters (in this and the previous book), Kade and Brock. They weren't really mentioned in the early books and it seemed kind of sudden to just jump to them. I think the author should have calculated better and involve these characters earlier so we would have greater emotional connection to them.
About the sex... I believe even the author is bored with it. Dull, same, unimaginative. We have oral, missionary and cowgirl, coming at the moment of breaking skin and drinking blood. In the bedroom on the king-size bed and under the shower. No lust was pouring from those pages. It's as though all those warriors were trained in this area by the same unoriginal old man (even they could master some extra move). After a while you just wish those pages would disappear so you can get on with the story.
And like I mentioned before... generic writing with almost the same sentences...
"Desire was bad enough, but it was the odd sense of protectiveness serving as a chaser that really threw him off kilter."
"Jenna sighed as the heat from his body and the scent of him - leather and spice and strong, deadly male - enveloped her"
"He was Breed and there was none among his kind who could resist the pull of fresh human blood"
"Then again, he wasn't human. Not really a man at all - a fact she had to remind herself of when she was standing so near, the sheer size of him, the raw intensity of his dark gaze, speaking to everything that was woman inside her "
I will say that there was one thing I especially liked. A strong female character. One that can fight back. Since in the series all vampires are male without exception, it is hard for a woman to overcame that great obstacle, in strength, speed and endurance and to match one of them. I believe Jenna is on a good path to do just that. She has the strength, instinct and training that could lead to becoming a first woman that can actually stand up to a vampire. That is the sole reason I gave this book a 3 star rating, otherwise it would be lower. Even the storyline kind of stagnated here.
