I was a huge fan of Howard's Splintered series, so imagine how excited I was to see another book by her! This book was really slow to start and very hard to get into. I really struggled to read the first half of this book but the second half was much better. This is a paranormal gothic romance of sorts, with some interesting mystery as well.
I almost stopped reading this book around page 100; but I decided to stick with it a bit longer. Around 150 pages in the story actually starts getting interesting.
Our heroine, Juliet, is deaf which adds an interesting dynamic to the story. A number of characters in here have disabilities; one has a clubfoot and another is colorblind. As I said it was an interesting addition to the story. I didn't really like Juliet much as a heroine, she was too gullible and too needy. She does gain some backbone as the story continued but she never really grew on me.
I really didn't like the lead character of Hawk either and despised how thoroughly our main heroine, Juliet, lets Hawk emotionally manipulate her. Hawk continually tells Juliet he loves her and constantly uses her for his own well being.
The end of the story is better. I will just say that Juliet finally feels more empowered and unravels the mysteries between Lord Nicolas Thornton and Hawk. I can't really say more without spoilers. The romance in the second half of the book is well done and sweet. I also enjoyed some of the twists and turns that happen later in the book; although they were fairly predictable.
Overall this was not Howard's best book by far, I definitely prefer her Splintered series to this book. The book just moves too slow and some of the lead characters are very unlikable and irritating (including our heroine). I do have Roseblood as well and plan on reading that book. However, if Roseblood is as slow as this book is I may be done with Howard as a writer after that. I wouldn't recommend.
I almost stopped reading this book around page 100; but I decided to stick with it a bit longer. Around 150 pages in the story actually starts getting interesting.
Our heroine, Juliet, is deaf which adds an interesting dynamic to the story. A number of characters in here have disabilities; one has a clubfoot and another is colorblind. As I said it was an interesting addition to the story. I didn't really like Juliet much as a heroine, she was too gullible and too needy. She does gain some backbone as the story continued but she never really grew on me.
I really didn't like the lead character of Hawk either and despised how thoroughly our main heroine, Juliet, lets Hawk emotionally manipulate her. Hawk continually tells Juliet he loves her and constantly uses her for his own well being.
The end of the story is better. I will just say that Juliet finally feels more empowered and unravels the mysteries between Lord Nicolas Thornton and Hawk. I can't really say more without spoilers. The romance in the second half of the book is well done and sweet. I also enjoyed some of the twists and turns that happen later in the book; although they were fairly predictable.
Overall this was not Howard's best book by far, I definitely prefer her Splintered series to this book. The book just moves too slow and some of the lead characters are very unlikable and irritating (including our heroine). I do have Roseblood as well and plan on reading that book. However, if Roseblood is as slow as this book is I may be done with Howard as a writer after that. I wouldn't recommend.
