(This review may contain spoilers).
Ideally, I’d give this book 4.5 stars out of 5. Out of this series, this book is probably one of my favourites. While there are a lot of recognisable elements in this book from the Dark-Hunter series (and Zarek, of course, has the stereotypical majorly tragic past), there was more focus on the romance and less on making Zarek have the worst possible background.
I liked the link-ins to the Greek mythology and although there was a bit of information dumping, in particular when it came to Astrid’s past with Acheron, it was good to have the opportunity to get to know Astrid and to see something of her relationship with her sisters and Sasha. I loved Sasha…but I don’t want his character to be ruined like many of the others have been when they’ve got their own books.
I liked the fact that Astrid, despite being a nymph, was left not being able to see. It was good that, although she could look through Sasha’s eyes, there were still limitations to that. And she didn’t have some sixth sense for objects.
Zarek might be one of my favourite Dark-Hunters, for the simple fact that his personality doesn’t take a swan dive. This book showed more depth to him and made it clear that his prickles were a part of him. Finding his love didn’t magically change him, even though he did become a little better.
I love Simi. I’ve said this before, but this book just made me even more aware of that. Acheron went down in my estimation, but Simi became my favourite character from this book. I love her almost childlike innocence…and I definitely would have liked to see her attempt to barbeque Thanos. Even though I ended up feeling sorry for him by the end of this book.
There were some good elements of humour and banter in this book. While some of the characters from previous books did crop up, I didn’t feel like they detracted from the storyline. I do feel a lot of sympathy for the Apollites and Daimons. Even if the Daimons are the bad guys, I can’t fault them for wanting to survive. For not wanting to watch their friends and family die such an awful, horrible death.
I’m hesitant about picking up the newest books in this series, but I would very much like to read them and hopefully see a return to what drew me to this series in the first place.
Ink of Blood 