*I received an ecopy of this book from the authors. This has not influenced my review.*

Alan is someone I always appreciated as a character but didn’t really like much at first. Then I got a little glimpse into his life in one of the previous books and realized I’d been harsh in my judgment of him, and I felt for him. So I was really curious to know more about him and was looking forward to this book. Thankfully, it didn’t disappoint! I enjoyed learning more about him, and I feel for him even more now. It was also just a great book.

I feel like the authors really are always aware of whose POV they’re in. Characters don’t sound drastically different, but they notice different things, see other characters in different ways. So it was interesting to see how Alan saw things, especially how he saw Crimson.

The relationship in the last book… I wouldn’t say it bothered me, but I had a hard time getting into it, feeling it. Whereas I was fine with Alan and Crimson sleeping together, because I felt and understood the feelings between them more.

Well, I understood in the sense that I’ve seen them interact a lot over the series, but I don’t know how I would describe it. Not exactly friends. More than just sex though. Not just a sex worker and his client. They’ve known each other a while. They have fondness for each other. Sometimes they have annoyance for each other. Crimson feels protective toward Alan. He records shows for him that he (Crimson) doesn’t even like. Alan enjoys the time he spends with Crimson. I don’t know, it’s weirdly sorta sweet. But I think Crimson is one of the only people who treats Alan like a person, and that makes it sorta sad.

This book wasn’t about Crimson (though he was in it quite a bit), and yet, I still have more things to say about him because I was just thinking, all his relationships are kind of unusual and complex. But it makes sense when he’s old, immortal, and seems somehow both easy to get along with yet also not the easiest person to get along with (what can I say, the man contains multitudes), and everyone he knows is also supernatural. He and Alcander have had some road bumps, but they’ve been friends too long and been through too much shit together to give that up. He and Ret don’t always see eye-to-eye, but he’s Ret’s sire and tries to be a good one. He and Alan have their thing that I just described.

Poor Jasper though, why does no one like him?? Well, Alcander and Max do. But Ret and Alan don’t. Alan only had like one thought about him in this whole book, and it was a negative one. What did he ever do to them?? He’s a nice guy!

I was pleasantly surprised to learn Alan is nonbinary! He didn’t use a label, but he didn’t really care how he was referred to and changed how he presented sometimes.

The ending!!! I read the last few paragraphs like five times. I’m so excited for the next book. I’m also very curious about how things are going to go since *SPOILER* Crimson and Jasper obviously still love each other, but people change over five years or however long it was, so they might need some adjustment time, and Jasper maybe has another boyfriend now, and Crimson is practically living with Alan. *END SPOILER*

Anyway, this has been more rambling than review, but hopefully it has all come off as positive rambling about a series I love. This was another great book, and I enjoyed getting to know an interesting side character more!

*Rating: 4.5 Stars // Read Date: 2024 // Format: Ebook via TTS*