Summary
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GENRE
TROPES
AO3 TAGS
A fierce werewolf and a bewitching vampire become unlikely soul mates whose passion will test the boundaries of life and death.
After enduring years of torture from the vampire horde, Lachlain MacRieve, leader of the Lykae Clan, is enraged to find the predestined mate he’s waited millennia for is a vampire. Or partly one. Emmaline Troy is a small, ethereal half Valkyrie/half vampire, who somehow begins to soothe the fury burning within him.
Hot Takes
What We Liked
Apers
Although I didn’t finish the book (or did I… in 2007), it reminded me a lot of the books that got me started reading romance in high school. There are a lot of issues around consent during the story, but the thing I take away from that is “wow, look how far we’ve come since then” and 2006 isn’t even that long ago in human history, so imagine how much further we will go from here.
What We Didn’t Like
Jems
WHERE do I even start with this one?? Oh yeah, the entire first 15% of the book was just the MMC scaring and threatening the FMC into sexual acts (so you know, rape) and this theme only continued throughout the book. “No” never meant no and the FMC was even counseled by his best friend on how to “manage” him. I can look over a lot of things when I’m enjoying a romance, but disregard for consent—even if a book is of a different time—is not something I can get past, which is also why I don’t enjoy a lot of dark romance. If you like paranormal/fantasy romances with fated mates, there are much better options to enjoy in my opinion.
Review
Jems
This was a DNF for both me and Apers. We both ended up quitting at after 50% and for similar reasons: the plot was nonexistent (and where it did eventually go was still nowhere), the characters were not compelling, and it was cringe-ily 2006 in its tropes a la the women don’t like each other and she’s gotta Fix Him. What I did read, I’m giving 1 star because I thought her aunts were funny, some of the world building elements were interesting, and I like being the queen of things who gets to wear sparkly jewels.
Apers note: I genuinely didn’t think Jems would make it to 50% lol
Apers
It’s a little difficult to rate the spice level in this book because it’s a fantasy from 2006, so the consent is… questionable. If you’re ok with that, the spice was spicy enough that if you had asked me in high school, I might have been embarrassed to tell you what I was reading. (I… might have actually read this in high school, it feels very familiar to me and came out around the time my friend was trading me romance novels in the breezeways between classes.)
