Purchased June 3, 2022 Amz

A very dark & morose story with a couple love interests thrown in for good measure. This story has some fight scenes and some characters die. Good character, storyline, & plot development. ( )

There's plenty of suspense, given it starts off with the heroine being sentenced to death for betraying her people--a sentence the hero is meant to carry out, if she isn't able to use the grace period she's been provided to uncover the secret enemy who intends to destroy them all.

This is a very sensuous book--not just in the obvious sense of its steaming sexuality, although there was that, too, but in the sumptuous descriptions of Rome--and it's food (I love it when heroines indulge themselves, and the scene where Morgan has a run for freedom that incorporates going for gelato won my heart over) as the characters explore the city in search for a hidden society that intends to destroy their hidden civilization of shapeshifers. Specifically, these are cat/panther shifters, not werewolves, although similar dynamics seem to prevail--by which I mean, Alpha Male syndrome rears its needy head. I'm not a fan of these particular sorts of dominance dynamics and likely I never will be. Especially when it's Alpha Male syndrome. The women in this story do stand up for themselves--sometimes.

SPOILER for the climax: there is a test for female characters, the "sexy lamp test," which poses the question: Would an attractive lamp have fulfilled the same purpose as the character in this scene? The climax strongly fails the sexy chained-up lamp test. While the heroine gets the chance to exert her genuinely cool shapeshifting and mind-control powers at other points in the story, at the climax she just dangles there. I kept waiting for her to break free and unleash holy hell and...she didn't. That was a strong strike against this book for me.

The hero of this story, for all he's got the dominant vibes, has a crushing backstory as a trained assassin that made me want to get him a warm blanket and hot soup. He has a support structure of sorts from his friends--and then terrible things happen to some of those friends. The heroine, Morgan, has a twisted past based in her rebellion against the genuinely oppressive 'shifter society, obsessed with its own safety to the point of crushing individual freedoms. Secondary characters are well-developed, at least one couple because they're being prepared for starring role in the concluding book of this trilogy. But, despite that and despite a moderately interesting revelation about the villain-behind-the-villain, I don't think I'll read on. Delicious as the description is, and sympathetic as the character's hopes and dreams (as they're caught up in) when it's gilding on some extremely tired gender dynamics I just can't be that engaged. If this was the historical I at first thought it was I might at least excuse it on grounds of time period accuracy. Might. But, no, I really wouldn't have; I'm picky like that, wanting female characters to have agency and male characters to not be domineering assholes (the hero of this story was both, but not at the same time, I'll give him that; and the assholedom is something he's been pushed into and is actively trying to change from. The villain was both at the same time and so gross because of it that I had trouble reading about him, and that makes me only more disappointed that Morgan wasn't able to whup his sorry ass to the curb during the climax).

I haven't yet been converted to paranormal romance. For those of you who are into it, and who don't mind the gender dynamics so much (given how much of this sells like hotcakes I'm clearly more sensitive to it than many), would probably enjoy the travelogue of Rome, the sizzling emotional and sexual tension between the protagonists, and the genuinely sympathetic side characters.

A longer version of this review appears at Story Addict . ( )

4.2 stars. I sure wish they had a 5 star "I love it" & then a special 6th for "It was amazing".
Love the tension b/w these 2 characters. Quite the conundrum to be falling for someone you're supposed to kill.
I enjoyed the new twists on the overriding plotline of the Ikati world.
Looking forward to book 3. ( )

Reviewed by: Maria
Book provided by: Publisher
Review originally posted at Romancing the Book

So. A paranormal romance, Xander and Morgan’s story. Unlike other paranormals I’ve read, both of the pair are superhuman beings, not just one or the other (when I’ve read paranormal romances before, it was always the male who was supernatural).

Well, I’m not a huge reader of paranormals, but I like to read one every now and then, and this one was good. None of your werewolves or vampires, this pair belong to a tribe called the Ikati, a tribe of shifters who have coexisted uneasily with humankind through the ages. They’ve survived primarily because of their close bonds and secrecy. The trouble is, anyone who violates the rules is dealt with swiftly and harshly. On the brink of a brutal and humiliating execution, Morgan gets an unexpected reprieve. She has to go to Rome to hunt down the Expurgari, the enemies of the Ikati. She’s accompanied by an assassin, Xander and he is the nearest thing to a machine I’ve ever read about. Hard as iron and just as unfeeling. Should Morgan fail in her mission, she is to be swiftly eliminated, without mercy.

I must say, this Morgan is quite an irresistible character. She practically dances off the page, in her high heeled shoes and her revealing ensembles. She mercilessly teases Xander with her unique pack of paranormal gifts. It isn’t long before the formidable Xander starts melting, but we are given to understand that this is not his usual style. Morgan, you see, is unique. Her life may be in danger from you, but she’ll defy you to the end and tell you to go to hell if you piss her off. You get the picture? Somehow, she manages to pull it off.

Morgan’s mission to find the Expurgari is accomplished in the most surprising and unexpected ways. Along the way, she discovers an unknown colony of Ikati, living in one of the holiest shrines of the Christian world. Xander may be hard boiled, but he’s not evil, having survived horrific abuse as a child. The evil characters in this tale would give your nightmares nightmares, with ghoulish hints of bondage, torture and terror. Only hints, mind you, but heck, it’s enough! This writer was skilful enough to credibly reproduce the roughhousing banter of male company, extremely hard boiled male company. I didn’t hear the voice of a woman in that narrative and was quite surprised to learn that the author was female, as the name doesn’t give the gender away.

As Morgan and Xander come to know each other and their unique personalities better and better, time grows short and the heat is on. Morgan proves her loyalty and Xander comes to realize, even as he grows to care, that she is not the traitor she’s supposed to be. But as danger closes in around Morgan. As she edges towards the catacombs of Rome, will Xander be able to reach her on time and will he be able to save her? And will he save her to have to kill her ultimately? That’s the hook that will have the reader turning the pages.

There are love scenes, pretty hot at that, but nothing slows down the pace of this novel. And the author has left me with a lasting impression, which none other has ever done. She’s turned the Vatican into a veritable house of horrors. I, a lifelong paid up member of the church, saw this place as the center of the Christian universe. That’s all changed now. Why, it’s a mausoleum, a two thousand year old tomb, full of rotting bones and corruption. Why didn’t that ever strike me before?

Favorite Quote:‘ The door swung farther open, and suddenly there came a sound that stood all the tiny hairs on the back of his neck straight on end.

A low, rumbling growl, from a back corner of the cell, a corner so black he couldn’t fathom it. Rich and spine chilling, with an unmistakable tone of warning, it was a sound he’d recognize anywhere. Then out of the blackness, a glow appeared, two almond shaped points of hot, burning green.

A pair of eyes, beautiful and predatory, fixed on her. ( )