Death’s Rival

Ok I think I need to back off this series. I hate that she is constantly manipulated and she just keeps going back to the vampires. That is such a stupid thing to do–to allow herself to keep getting manipulated and abused like this! And I have a hard time rooting for a heroine that apparently is very dumb and does not learn. This particular book has her tricked into coming to a meeting (escorted by her “friend” Bruiser) where Leo and Katie hold her down and force feed from her. To me it seemed to be the equivalent of rape! Bruiser just stands there watching. Afterwards while she is crying on the floor Leo and Katie just discuss her blood flavor. REALLY???? And she keeps going back to these people??

So to date: Leo has tried to kill her many times, he tried to pimp her out to his friends a few times, and now he and his friend force feed from her to force a link, and later he managed to chain her Beast to him! And she kind of shrugs about this? “Oh well the money is good”. No no NO. I will not read any more books in this story line because I assume now with this link she will be even more under Leo’s will and he’ll just add her to his sexual rotation etc. Nope. Jane isn’t learning from her mistakes but I sure am. I’m done.

Oh Jane I want to love you but you make it really hard sometimes. At least I always love beast.

Honestly I was the most engaged in this book for various reasons and I had probably my strongest emotional reaction to this one so I think that in ways FHs writing is getting a better but I struggle with Janes incessant need to take responsibility for abso-freaking-lutely everything. If a meteor hit near New Orleans Im sure Jane would find a way to make it her fault and her responsibility to clean up.

Ill mention the good here and then Im going to rant for awhile *clears throat*

The bad guy. We dont get a ton of time with him but his entire power play in an effort to take over various vampires territory is really different and interesting. Using illness to make the vampires so weak they need to concede to his rule to receive an antidote was a new take that I hadnt seen before in a UF book so far.

I loved seeing Sabina and her role on the vampire council. She is amazing and I really want to learn more about both her and Bethany since they are both outclan and we get a glimpse of what that means here.

There is also the addition of Eli and his brother to Janes inner circle. I like those two and it looks like Eli has no intention of getting mixed up in Janes love life so I hope he will be a good friend to her and his little brother a.k.a. The Kid will offset all the dark characters lingering in Janes life. They seem like work wise they can be a good team and be totally on Team Jane as opposed to Derek who also seems to work for Jane, himself and Leo depending on the situation.

The reveals about Janes past and what happened to the rest of the skinwalkers was also a nice addition to the story and did give her some purpose in the fight against the big bad unknown vampire in town.

Ranting in

3.

2.

1.

I have a few issues with this book and this series is general. I havent read any of the short stories in-between books and so when we go into this and Jane says that her relationship with Rick is completely over, Molly isnt her friend anymore and she has left Leos service to I seriously went back to see if I accidentally skipped a book.

But nope I was on the right book Im just missing the shorts in-between and so I have no context for most of that and it really isnt explained it is just dropped and then we are moving on.

I was actually really happy that the Rick debacle was supposedly over. Ive hated that dude from book 1. But nope he shows up later this book too and we are back to the oh he is so cute I think I love him we can find a way to be together. *throw up in my mouth a little*. No just no. Im so over the love triangle quadrangle that is this series. Pick a dick, pick a chick, pick to be celibate the rest of your life if these are your choices but decide already. Jane had thoughts that she was in love with Bruiser and Rick in this book I HATE that part of this story. I think it is time for beast to take charge and sleep with all of them and then decide. Just kidding I really hate love triangles and Jane seems to think every guy out there is sex on a stick.

Why is Jane still with Leo in New Orleans??? I dont get it she is miserable. She talks about how much she doesnt like the person she is becoming and how horrible everything is. She was a rogue vampire hunter there have to be some rogue vamps somewhere else you think that she would do that instead of taking everything as her responsibility so she must stay and help Leo (who I remind you has tried to kill her more than once). *Throws hands in the air* why are you still there.

Okay and now we come to The Thing. Look I am of the opinion you hang out with Vamps or anything long enough and stuff just becomes normal. If you put yourself in that kind of proximity to them then yes at some point you are going to get burned. I still hated what Leo did to Jane. It was wrong on so many levels especially since she had recently saved him from something similar. I dont blame Bruiser, if anything I feel so sorry for him and hope this is the wake up event he needed to see that if he is with Leo he can never have Jane. I feel bad for Jane too she played with fire and got burned but both lost trust in things they took for granted when the thing happened. Beast is smart after this happened and she knows how to win in the long run.

*** Beast lost much here. Beast lost winter food. Beast lost meat. Hissed thought, Lost to pack. Tonight Jane lost to pack. Bruiser lost to pack. But Jane is not pack. Bruiser is not pack. Jane is Jane and Bruiser is Bruiser. I batted a rib bone hard with paw. It spun into dark and landed in brush. There is no shame in losing to pack with strong alpha. Shame is from not fighting again when pack is smaller, when pack-alpha is not expecting attack. Only shame is giving up. ***

I wish that the character relationships were stronger in this series. Most of the time I think that many things can be cleared up with a simple conversation but it never happens and I wonder how long Ms Hunter plans on dragging out certain plot arcs.

I need Jane to grow up a little and take charge of her personal life. She can kill and maim and hurt but she needs to balance that with a few other life skills. Even when others are telling her that she isnt responsible for certain things she still claims them.

The ending with Rick is again something I just toss my hands up in the air and say REALLY? It needed to go down like that??? *Sigh, double sigh*. Rick is an utter jerk 90% of the time but Jane is clueless when it comes to other people. But maybe this means that we have really seen the last of him. At least that is my hope.

Since Im reading this with a group Im continuing on. Maybe just because it is so fun to argue and rant with them. But if I were reading it on my own Id probably drop it and wander off to read some Kate Daniels so my faith in the Urban Fantasy Heroine could be restored.

I noticed a trend of questionable situations for our protagonist in the previous book “Raven Cursed” when a master vampire takes advantage of Jane while healing her from near death (she wasn’t completely conscious or aware so unable to fully consent to the implied sexual interaction). But in this book it crosses over fully into “vampire rape” when she is held down by those she trusted and force fed removing her freewill.

The act alone, though horrifying, wasn’t the issue. The issue was how that assault and mental rape was handled and somewhat accepted by the main character and everyone else. It was a horrendous and unrealistic response.

At no point should it be acceptable for a character to take blame for being assaulted in such a way regardless of their prior actions. Even slightly justifying such an act made my skin crawl and though the writer tries to set up that Jane has not forgiven the act, it feels like an afterthought. Emotionally she would not be able to forgive those involved even if logically she knows some of them had no choice or control. Bruisers reaction to events seems almost more appropriate though still not enough.

For me personally as someone of Native American decent, it hit me twice as hard to witness Jane, a powerful native woman subjugated and assaulted by mostly white vampires in such a way. Especially after recently regaining her memories of witnessing her mother being raped by white soldiers after they killed her father. The author missed an opportunity to connect the atrocities that happened to her people and her mother with her current life working for beings old enough to have committed those same crimes, but instead made the act seem not that important. Then to have Jane kinda accept it so quickly made no sense when memories of her mother haunted her. It was badly handled and from an emotional trauma place, completely unrealistic.

The only reason I gave the book two stars is because of past books, the foundations of a good main character, good new characters in the form of Eli and Alex, and the hope that future books don’t make such emotionally tone death mistakes.

I would agree with the other reviewers that this is a more thoughtful, maybe darker book than the previous ones. There’s little lightness, no smiles or happiness, it starts grim and keeps on going, with an impressive body count. Add to that Jane feeling, and being, very much alone at the beginning, and you have a dark book. However, once I’d accepted that this was the case, I quickly got hauled in. DO NOT, as I did, look at the ending before you get there (I know, I know, a reeeeally bad habit I need to kick) – it could seriously mislead, and flavour how you read the rest of the book – so DON”T DO IT, ‘kay?
There’s a terrible, awful betrayal that made for uncomfortable reading and left me feeling quite disturbed and angry. It has ramifications that run through to the end, and into the next book. I now know very clearly who I rate and who I don’t.
I liked the addition of the Younger brothers; they provide Jane with two people who are hers alone, and who she can trust, and the interactions between the three of them bring a little light relief to things. Rick reappears, and his scenes with Jane (and with Beast) are lovely, but sad. Jane spends a lot of the action as part of a team run by others which is unusual for her, and the outcomes suggest she’s right to not trust to others to organise things, but she reverts to form for the end, and what a humdinger that is.
The next book is under way, and I see from the author’s website that she’s been contracted for a 9-book series, so Jane is around for a bit yet, yay! I just hope she manages a little fun and warmth and peace along the way.

Jane is up to her backside in undead politics, alligators and Bruiser betrays her by assisting Leo and Katie into binding her. Jane extends her team when she employs the younger brothers.

All out war is declared by a foreign vamp who’s enforcer was killed when he snuck into Jane’s hotel room armed with a gun and silencer.
Jane finds out more of her personal history and manages to get beast bound to Leo by accident.

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