Sunday Reading - Lovers Naught
It's Sunday already, and with it comes another book I heartily recommend. Lovers Naught, the third and latest book in a delicious vampire apocalypse series. We've got your drama, we've got your lust, we've got your passion, we've got your impending end of the world, we've got your BDSM--
That's right. The first two books were pretty steamy. Vampires are rarely tame, and these were bad boys for a damn reason.
Buckle up, kids. This bedtime story has spoilers. I won't be giving everything away, but in order to tell you why this is my favorite book of the series so far, I'm going to end up spoiling a few good twists.
Caspian Declan is one of the Scipio family of vampires, a brother to Xaine and Trick from the previous two books. They're wrapped up in a world where vampires are in the open and on the verge of absolute domination over everything...or so they think. Most of them don't know about the reapers, the sin eaters, the actual angels and devils pulling the strings behind the scenes.
But, Cas knows. He's best friends with Jax Trace, my favorite archangel, and he knows more about what's going on than just about anyone. Cas and Jax know that Cas's vampire master, the one who turned him, is collecting special souls. In the previous books we've run into the Virtues, but we'd only brushed against the Vices...and Roman Scipio is playing Pokemon with them.
Enter Mirielle Reece, Xaine and Cas's ex, recovering blood doll, and just about the best sub a dom could ask for. They go off together, which we've seen in the first novel from another point of view. A point of view that can't begin to understand what's really going on. Rielle is looking for whoever murdered her parents, and she puts herself in Uriel's hands, almost forcing Cas to claim her blood, so that she can get closer to the truth.
I figured that this would go on a fun but formulaic romp through vampire lust and intrigue from this point.
I figured wrong.
We get a POV chapter from Jackson Trace, and I was bewildered. Thrown for a fucking loop. How does he fit in with their romance story? These have all been some high adrenaline action romance novels so far, with two POV characters as the romance between them unfolds.
About half way through the book, it looked like Cas and Rielle were about to hit a lovely "happily ever after" moment. So, I expected some life threatening shenanigans, more action, more sex, maybe some slow burn. The book opens with Cas getting a glimpse of his own impending expiration date, so he might have to fight that off? I had no idea. But I'm a sappy sort, and I was looking forward to that eventual happy ending.
And then Jax Trace had to go and fuck things up by fucking Rielle the minute they meet. She is lust incarnate, and his personal Kryptonite, and Cas damn well knows it. I was about to throw my tablet out a damn window at this point. I had to walk away from the book for a few weeks, because nothing drives me batshit crazy like a lover's triangle cliche. And I really like both Jax and Cas! They were best friends! How could the authors do this to me?
Well, they didn't. They turned my least favorite storyline into Christmas. I came back after my frustration break to watch Cas pull off something I did not see coming. It was perhaps the hottest thing I've ever seen, hitting my every kink, as he kidnapped Jax, tied him to Rielle, and made it work. For them all.
See, I don't do BDSM, but I'm turned on by the idea. I've done some serious looking into it to find out that it's not something I can do, so I understand. What an outsider will see is that Cas had to dominate them both into submission. What someone who knows will understand is that Cas bared his soul, extended his fullest trust, and basically begged Jax to accept him and his flaws so that they could share.
It was fucking beautiful, and the authors nailed it.
If you like BDSM, if you like relationships that are complicated because they're not just boy/girl, if you like vampires and angels and putting in some heavy stakes hurt/comfort that can't be pulled off except in a fantasy setting, do yourself a favor and pick this up.
I absolutely loved this book. Literally hit all my kinks and a few I didn't know I had. I cried. I screamed. I can't wait for more of this series.