Review:
*I received an ecopy of this book from the authors. This has not influenced my review.*
Even though this was only Book 2 in the series, it was already a comfort kind of read for me and one I was really excited for. And let me tell you, this book jumped right into the good stuff: relationship problems, murder, and sex, all within the first 10%.
One of the things I love most about this series though is all the tension that Thad’s religiousness brings to the story. I didn’t fully explain the premise in my review of Book 1, and it’s not that clear in the blurbs, so I’ll explain it here. Thad is devoutly Catholic. He’s working for a special group of monks, helping them kill demons, in order to repent for his vampirism so that he can get into Heaven. He is (or was going to be?) a monk himself even. So obviously he wants to do what the monks tell him to, avoid sinning, etc. That’s why he always had female blood donors in the past (so he wouldn’t be tempted to have sex with them) until a man was hired by mistake. Now he’s in love with and sleeping with Sara, thus having sex with a man, which is a definite sin in his mind, and that causes him a whole bunch of inner turmoil. Then you have Sara’s side of things—imagine what it would be like if every time you had sex with the person you loved you knew they were considering it a sin, basically considering their and your sexual orientation a sin. I don’t know about you, but I can’t imagine that would feel good. It’s a kind of inner turmoil and relationship struggle I’ve never seen in any other book. But, despite all of that…
I love Thad and Sara’s relationship. I love the emotion in it. I love that it’s not perfect. I love the respect they have for each other despite their vast differences. I love how, when something happens, when there’s an issue, they talk, even if talking is hard. (There was one thing Sara didn’t talk about, but I could actually understand why, so that’s excusable.) Their relationship is beautiful. And I would say healthy as well. Yes, Thad’s jealousy was a big part of this book, but not in a jealousy-is-sexy sort of way. Thad was ashamed of his jealousy and the way he acted sometimes. And more importantly, he apologized to Sara for it and the other things he did wrong, he reminded himself that Sara didn’t belong to him, and he never tried to manipulate him or force him to stay. Sara apologized too when he did things wrong since he wasn’t perfect either. The authors have managed to make their relationship just angsty and emotional enough to be engrossing without being frustrating. Thad and Sara love each other, and I love their love, and there is so much love in this paragraph lol.
I also, yet again, just really liked Thad’s POV in general. He has such a different way of thinking, of feeling, of coping with those feelings than I do and than any other character I’ve read about does because of his vampirism combined with his Catholicism combined with his homosexuality. It’s a chance to understand a completely new perspective filled with guilt, humility, faith, judgment, self-punishment, shame, forgiveness, love, and so many other emotions. He was also a lot more vampire in this one, so that was fun. Well, it was fun for me, not so much for poor Thad who kept feeling ashamed of himself because he hates the fact that he’s a vampire.
Of course Sara was great too. Still realistic and relatable as a 20-something, but he seemed more serious and mature this time, which makes sense with the experiences he’s been having. And Nohea was there to help as well, despite still being angry with Thad. There were also some new characters who weren’t very likeable but were well-written.
The New Orleans setting also played a big part in this one since parts of the plot involved Mardi Gras. And of course there was also magic and paranormalness and a mystery for the characters to figure out.
Overall, another great book in the series with an adorable romance and characters who continue to shine!
Recommended For:
Fans of Book 1 in Irene Preston and Liv Rancourt's Hours of the Night series. Anyone who likes M/M, vampires (and in this case, a Catholic one), sweet romantic relationships, and lovable characters.
More Books in the Series:
Book Review: Vespers (Hours of the Night Book 1) by Irene Preston & Liv Rancourt
Book Review: Bonfire (Hours of the Night Book 1.5) by Irene Preston & Liv Rancourt
Book Review: Nocturne (Hours of the Night Book 2) by Irene Preston & Liv Rancourt
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I love books that don’t screw around and get right to the story! They always say grab your reader fast so I don’t get it when books drag on and on lol. If you hooked at 10% that’s a good sign. 🙂
That is a unique premise and I like it. A conflicted, religious vampire. Score! Definitely something different. Yeah he must have a lot of guilt! And I can see where that’d be tough on Sara too. Sounds like it’s handled well.
Plus Mardi Gras!
Right? Sometimes it’s nice to jump right in, especially if it’s a series!
I love the premise of this series so much. It’s so unique and interesting! And it does seem to be handled really well.
I just downloaded the first one. I haven’t read about vampires in YEARS and this sounds like something I would like.
Now…to find time to read it lol
For What It’s Worth
It’s a great series! And really unique. I hope you love it!
This series sounds quite interesting. I’m not religious myself (well, not in a traditional organised religion sense), so I find books that incorporate it (in a non-preachy way) fascinating; particularly when a character is struggling with their reality vs their faith.
I just went back and read your review of the first book too, definitely going to give it a try!
I usually feel a bit iffy about two authors joining forces, and tend to avoid them unless they’re thrown onto my radar (with a review like this)…even though my favourite book is by two people…my brain, I don’t understand it :/
It is! More and more lately I’ve been finding books with Catholicism interesting (I haven’t come across any with other religions). The struggle in this one is so unique though.
Yay! I hope you love it. Don’t worry about the two authors thing, the writing is totally coherent. I get you though, sometimes I find myself avoiding something even though I’ve loved books in the past that have that thing lol.
Thad and Sara’s life is emotionally complicated to say the least. What an intriguing series this is, especially with the religious themes.
Complicated in the best sort of way! For the readers, at least lol. The religious themes make it so unique.
Yessss! I know how much you were struggling to find a faster paced book for you to enjoy so I am so happy to see that this book jumped right into it and got started with all the drama straight away! Exactly what we all need 🙂
Actually I wouldn’t really call this fast-paced (even though yes it did jump right into the good stuff), it was just really good overall, so it kept my attention regardless of pacing 🙂 Definitely what I needed!
First, I love your blog! I love the fonts, the way the thumbnails look on your homepage, and how easy it is to navigate.
I’ve never heard of this book or the series, but it looks interesting! I’ve been reading a lot of adult romance, and I can’t remember the last time I read something about vampires. I think I would enjoy reading about Thad and Sara’s relationship, and how they overcome their unique obstacles. Plus, Thad is a religious vampire–definitely new to my ears.
Aww thank you so much!!!
It’s such a good series, the religious vampire idea was new to me too, and I love it! It adds such an interesting twist to things.
Angsty and emotional without being frustrating. I like the sound of that!
I figured people might appreciate that 🙂
What’s not to like about Vampires? I like the fact that a vamp could be religious, makes it sound so unique. Cuz, you know, the cliche of vampires hating crosses. LOL 🙂 Glad you enjoyed it.
Right? Vampires are the best lol. The religion def does make it unique though! Thanks 🙂
I think I would like this from the tension to the case. Great review!
Thanks, it’s such a great series!
That’s great when a series feels comfortable that soon already! The whole religion thing and how he considers sex a sin sounds like it ads an interesting type of conflict to the book. I like how you describe their relationship, with how they talk things through and it’s not perfect. Sounds realistic. Great review!
It really is such an interesting conflict, and I love their relationship! Thank you!
hahaha I had to read the review TWICE because Sara is usually a female name! So I was like huh??? ok ok I think I got it now. So anyways, I would have love all that Catholicism in the story! I think the best dark fantasy/horror vamp, demos stories come from stories where there is very religious characters!
Hahaha now you know how the characters felt and why Sara got hired by accident 😛 (They thought he would be female because of his name too.) Yeah, I think the religion works super well in this story and have been getting more interested in stories with Catholic aspects!