Crouching Tiger, Forbidden Vampire

I have enjoyed the entire series. I was reading it a second time when I discovered this was the last of the series. It has taken me months to get the courage to read this last story. I guess I'm just sad to have it end and waited until all was quiet so I could enjoy the last book. It is most worthy of a wrap up. Another great story and a sterling farewell. Well, here's hoping for a return of these characters sometime in the future, of course I can always read them again.

Sad to know this is the last one! I have been a fan since 2009 with how to Marry a Millionaire.

So, I’m again, a latecomer to a series. The first that I have read in this series is the last of the series, and what a story it was. I can’t possibly refer to the wrap-up of the entire series, but I did thoroughly enjoy this book, and now find my TBR pile has increased by several more titles.

In this story, Sparks is focused on Russell, an ex-marine with a huge chip on his shoulder and a taste for the one who turned him vampire. I liked Russell – a bit gruff and grumpy, he had reasons that made sense for his anger, and he really wasn’t hard to understand or empathize with.

Jia is equally well-built, with her determination to eradicate the vampire that killed her family. A nice mix of tiger and woman, Sparks managed to incorporate the cat within the woman – giving her a feel of otherworldliness while holding her in human form. A difficult sense to explain unless you are a fan of shifters, that sense of something ‘beneath’ what is easily seen is not an easy task to convey to a reader.

But, jumping in late meant that some of the backstory was lost to me, a situation I remedied by reading blurbs and some selected reviews/excerpts from their earlier trajectory. The cautious and almost begrudging agreement of Russell as he joined forces with Jai, and his obvious discomfort of suddenly being a ‘team’ rather than his preferred solo operator led to several clever interactions, and his general unrest about Jai was charming. He really was so laser focused on Han and gaining his own revenge that the attraction and desire for her were foreign concepts. Clever when it finally hits him, and as his focus changed to include and rely on Jai also softened his rough edges, and gave peeks into his heart.

Plenty of action in this installment: fights and tension as they track Han and find their revenge. A bit of a muddle with a “bad guy controlled by a demon”, which just felt as if another element was added to increase tension, but the characters and story, at least this installment, could have worked without it. Why can’t the bad guy just be despicable because he is? In reading this when I did, it was difficult to catch and understand completely the other storylines that wove into this one, wrapping up (what I assume) is the other loose ends for characters that appeared earlier.

I met several other / earlier characters from the series, and found more than a few that I wanted to know more about. Sparks has managed to pique my interest in this series with this story and the wonderful Russell and Jia. I think faithful readers of this series will be content with this ‘placeholder’, as there is a note from the author that the series isn’t necessarily concluded, but on hiatus as she focuses on other stories.

I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher for purpose of honest review for The Jeep Diva. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.