Book Review: Damned If I Don’t (The Harker Trilogy Book 2) by Erin Hayes

 
 
After what happened in the last book, Edie feels even more helpless than ever, despite being the most powerful vampire hunter in the world, and neither her nor Jude are sure what they should do next in order to find a new replacement for the Progenitor. When they coerce Jude's acquaintance Dean into bringing them to the person he's been getting information from, they finally find out Jude's past as well as just how screwed they really might be.

Title: Damned If I Don't
Author:
Book Number: Book 2 of 3
Pages: 292
My Rating: 3.5 Stars
More Info: Goodreads, Amazon
 

Review:

*I received an ecopy of this book via Xpresso Book Tours. This has in no way influenced my review.*

I gotta hand it to this author—she really doesn’t make things easy and perfect and happy for her characters. Most books are predictable in that you know certain characters won’t die or that certain terrible things won’t happen, but that is not the case with the books in this series. And as someone who likes books that are darker and unpredictable, I appreciate that. I thought the end of Book 1 would be about the worst that would happen, and I thought the thing that was taken from Edie would somehow be returned to her, but I was pleasantly surprised to be wrong (which probably makes me sound like a sadist, but you know what I mean). Of course Book 3 could change that, so we’ll see.

I’m also happy to say I did get more into this book and enjoy it a little more than I did the first one. I still felt that the two POV characters’ voices sounded the same, but the first person present tense sounded smoother this time at least. And the characters still didn’t have as much depth as I would’ve liked, but they had a little more, and I cared what happened to them.

I think the thing that kept me most hooked though was the plot. It flowed well, there were new stakes and revelations, and I really wanted to know what would happen.

So overall, I ended up liking this book better than the first one, and the unpredictable and interesting plot kept me hooked!

 

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  1. Greg

    “how screwed they might be” ha ha sounds fun. I love unpredictable books too and when the MC’s aren’t necessarily safe- I like the vampire hunter angle (for some reason I have a thing for vampire hunting) and the cure for vampirism is a cool idea. Like how would that actually work? Kinda fun. I know an author like that who puts her characters through the absolute worst, you’re like emotionally wrung out by the time she’s done lol, but it does keep you guessing. Like how bad can it get??

    Ooh you’re reading Snowed. Hope that one’s good!

    1. Kristen Burns

      Yeah, in most books you know that certain characters are safe and nothing seriously bad will happen to them, especially the main characters, but you just don’t really know in these. And there was an explanation for the cure—a magical one, but one that worked well enough for me to accept it. The didn’t make me emotional though, I guess I just didn’t connect to the characters enough. But it was pretty dark with all the things that happened.

      Haha yep! So far the MC is horribly unlikeable, but I’m only like 15% in and there’s a chance she was purposely made unlikeable in order to have growth, so I’m trying to wait it out and see.

  2. Lola

    I agree the author really didn’t make it easy for the characters and by the end of the book I was really wondering how they are going to get out of this one. And I agree in most books you can predict the general lines or who will stay alive and who not, this book had some surprises in that department. This book was a bit too dark for my taste, but I thought it was well written.

    I also thought Edie would get back the thing that she lost and I really liked how the author handled that part as it felt realistic how Edie struggled with the loss of it. I also would’ve expected she still would have her power despite the loss and was surprised when that didn’t turn out to be the case.

    Glad to hear you enjoyed this one more than book 2, as this one was darker I thought you might enjoy this on a bit better. Great review!

    1. Kristen Burns

      Seriously, the things that happened were very surprising!

      I was glad her reaction to the thing she lost was realistic. That’s one thing I don’t like in books, when something like that that happens but it’s just fixed magically or the character isn’t affected by it. I’m still worried it’ll somehow be fixed in the next book since things like that just happen so often lol, but I want it to stay realistic.

      You know me well, haha. I do want to know what happens now, so I’ll be sure to read the next book when it comes out. Thanks!

  3. Bookworm Brandee

    LOL You like for your characters to be tortured…literally, huh? 😉 Actually, I’m a fan of an author surprising me as well. Even if the “surprise” doesn’t make me happy. I’m glad this book worked a little better for you than the first. I’m feeling more confident about giving the trilogy a go. 😉

    1. Kristen Burns

      I do. I’m such a masochist when it comes to reading (I’m pretty sure I said sadist in my review, but in reality it’s masochism since I like to experience it all through them lol). And yes, that’s the thing, I just like when books are surprising and unpredictable, and that happens most often when bad things happen in the book. Thanks! Lol I’m glad I haven’t scared you off completely 😛