Stars: 4 out of 5.
This was a surprisingly good book by an author I have never read before, since she writes mostly paranormal romance, and I don’t read PNR. It has been languishing on my TBR list since 2018, and I finally got around to it. I’m glad I did.
On the surface, the world is the usual urban fantasy fair – with humans living mostly oblivious of the nasties that live alongside them. And the nasties are also the usual fair – vampires and werewolves.
Those are not the sparkly vampires and noble soulmate werewolves that you will encounter in other urban fantasy books. These are monsters, and there is nothing noble or beautiful about them. And I liked that. These monsters are ruthless and downright cruel. Their societies are violent and bloody, and humans are just food or playthings to them. This is honestly refreshing.
I also really loved Pearle. She is what a strong character should be – self-reliant, smart, resourceful, and she always manages to get back up no matter how many times she gets knocked down. She just doesn’t give up, despite the fact that her life sucks. I mean she is homeless, working a thankless job for a boss that hates her guts. Every night is a battle for survival against vampires that keep coming for her.
She learned to rely only on herself, and the one time when she let that rule drop and chose to become close to someone, that person betrayed her. That was rather messed up. Shows you that even the meekest of the monsters are still monsters. And sometimes the meekest monsters are the most cunning and ruthless.
The ending was also rather sad, because even though Pearle defeated the vampire that had been after her since her childhood, she is still homeless and she made powerful enemies in the werewolf clan. Oh, and the vampires are still after her. So is she really better off than she was at the beginning of the book? At least she knows why the vampires are attracted to her now, or what happened to her father.
I would have loved to read about her adventures with the vampire hunters, but it seems like this book is a standalone and no continuation is planned.