quarryRating: 3.75 stars
Buy Link:
Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novel


Note: This book is a direct sequel to Code Name Jack Rabbit, and as such, this review may contain spoilers for the first book in the Vampire Guard series.

Vampire Guard agents Blair and Declan are chasing down a human, and nothing is going as it should. Not only are they having trouble catching the human, but their wireless equipment isn’t working and the traffic lights are malfunctioning and causing havoc. Just when they think they might succeed, a detonation traps Blake and severely injures him. But vampires are hardy, and ultimately, it give the vampires the clues they need to start making inroads in their latest case.

Piecing together the bits of information is easy enough, and when the pattern emerges, the men are all shocked. The perpetrator is even more dangerous then they first thought. Even more, he had ties to each one of the men. Blair and Declan, and their respective bondmates Forge and Lucas, call in help from other teams in the Vampire Guard. Together they quickly come up with a plan to trap the bad guy, hopefully once and for all. But the danger is exceedingly high, and if the agents don’t succeed, hundreds will lose their lives. But for Blair, Declan, Forge, and Lucas, it’s personal and they have all the motivation they need.

I definitely have mixed feelings about this book. I picked it up because I was looking forward to seeing the continuation of the story for these guys. At the end of the previous book, they had just joined the Vampire Guard, so I was interested to see what would happen next. I had a few problems with this one, and I didn’t enjoy it as much as I wanted to.

Right off the bat, the story starts with a bang. Literally. The action-packed beginning had me on the figurative edge of my seat, and drew me into the story. I immediately was glad to see that this story is told from Blair and Declan’s points of view, as the first story was primarily their bond mates POVs. So I liked that we got to see things from their view as well. And I liked that we got a bit more history about these characters, seeing how they first met and bits of their past lives. That was something I felt was missing in the first book, so I was especially glad to see it here.

The characters are what really worked for me. I like the band of brothers Noble has created, and I loved that they are unique individuals who remained wonderfully consistent. As I said, getting to see Blair and Declan’s side of things was really great. And it definitely worked to give the story a more complete feel, especially when taken in conjunction with the series as a whole. And it was really great to be with the guys again, to see how things were evolving for them. This is really an ensemble story, for all that we only had two POVs, and Noble makes that work to the story’s advantage. Add to that a whole host of engaging and interesting secondary characters, and it makes for a good story.

But I definitely had some issues with the plot on this one. There were times when it felt awfully contrived, and I had to just take a leap and go with it. There wasn’t enough basis given, however, for me to fully invest in all the plot points the story was trying to sell. So this was a bit of a struggle for me at times. The uneven pacing didn’t help. There were times where the story seemed to drag, and a lot of information was given that didn’t seem entirely necessary to me. And then other times where the scene and action raced through, and I was struggling to keep up. I again felt like I was missing information, like there were things I should know, but just hadn’t been told. For all that we did get to see some history of the characters, it wasn’t as in depth as I would have liked, and it just made me feel like I was missing something. While there were some truly interesting and clever plot twists, they were largely overshadowed by moments that seemed too easy or over the top.

So this one is definitely a mixed bag for me. I really enjoyed the characters, and I love their subtly played connection to and affection for each other. This isn’t a romance, but a paranormal mystery with romantic elements. In fact, there’s one truly lovely romantic moment at the end. My issues with the plot and pacing aside, the characters are well done and engaging, and that’s what really worked for me.

A review copy of this book was provided by DSP Publications.

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