Much like the first, this had a lot of action. No shortage of combat scenes with vampires and hunters and mutated creatures. There was a bit more court intrigue this time though. Not as much as I was expecting, but that’s fine.

The characters were lovable! (Again.) Xiaodan was her sweet, somewhat mischievous self, but I feel like we got to see the other two show a bit more emotion or come out of their shells more. Zidan is very stoic and hard on the outside but kind and protective on the inside. And Remy has always been a caring person and was finally able to be more friendly and teasing and relaxed once he was with people who accepted him.

Speaking of which, the last book was the romance, whereas this one was more of an established relationship, and it was very sweet. Essentially no relationship drama, which was the right choice for this story, because it was so nice to see a character who’d been shunned or used by most people all his life finally find love and happiness with the right people (or, rather, vampires). There could’ve been more focus on the non-sex parts of the relationship (which feels weird to say because the sex was mostly vague or fade-to-black), but I still enjoyed their romance.

There were also some side characters I liked, and one who surprised me. I have mixed feelings about Remy’s dad because it was interesting to see a different side of him, but I didn’t love how it sort of put aside his abuse.

The audiobook narration by Matthew Spencer was great! (Also again.) He sounded natural, brought the right emotion to the scenes, and made characters sound different enough to avoid confusion. The voice he did for Zidan was especially sexy.

Overall, I enjoyed this duology, and this was an ending that wrapped everything up nicely! It had vampires and hunters and action and a sweet romance with three people all loving and supporting each other.

*Rating: 4 Stars // Read Date: 2024 // Format: Audiobook*