Rating: 3.75 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novella
Andras is a demon. He was created to be one and has been around since the dawn of time. He has seen a lot in his days as he has fought battles and takes his responsibility of ferrying souls that have crossed over seriously. Demons are elusive creatures, and even those that know that supernatural beings exist do not know much about demons. Andras exists with a sense of purpose for the job he was created for, but anything else hasn’t held his interest in many years. Until he sees Ben.
Ben is a hunter. Most specifically, he hunts rogue vampires but any supernatural that has gone off the grid is fair game. His parents prepared him for life as a hunter, but even they didn’t know to prepare him for Andras. The moment their eyes meet, there is a pull between them that won’t be quieted. Their need to possess each other physically is great, but Andras scoffs at the idea that soul mates exist. Both of them will have to readjust what they thought they knew to be true for even just a taste of each other.
Demons and hunters and all things supernatural are the basis of this series. This book is the second book in the Out of the Shadows series but works fine as a standalone. Ben is a hunter, like Will from the first book, and while Will and Reese make a welcome appearance, you do not have to have read their story first. The characters here, especially Andras, make for an interesting read. Andras has walked the Earth for quite a long time. His job is the most important thing to him. He has had lovers throughout the centuries, but nothing and no one has held his attention for quite some time and he hasn’t even realized he is missing something.
When Ben happens upon Andras he has no idea what he is seeing at first and things he thought he knew get called into question. The author does a great job with character descriptions and the initial, as well as continued, pull between the two of them. There are also descriptive passages that help set the current scene and I was definitely intrigued for these two to get together.
Where I struggled was in some of the initial set up and the world building. It came across that the author knew this world well, but it didn’t translate as well over to me. Ben and Andras are both on different hunts when we first meet them and this part wasn’t all clear for me. There were names spoken of that I felt I was supposed to know and for the first part of the book I was trying to catch on in some places. The same for the world in which Andras lives. A lot of information is given in a short amount of time regarding his early history, where he lives, the Creator, heaven and hell, and his Archangel counterpart. It was all interesting, but there wasn’t enough time to fully explore it and many areas were just touched upon.
I then found myself waiting for Ben and Andras to get together. The wait was worth it as the chemistry between these two is intense and there is an extended scene highlighting them together. This book also ends in a similar fashion to the first one where after they get together, the book ends. It’s implied they will continue be together, but being it’s certainly not a conventional pairing I found myself needing more for the ending to be fully satisfying. I did just enjoy seeing these two on page together and wanted more from their story.
I am enjoying the premise for this series and will certainly follow along if there are additional books added. The characters were the strong point for me here as Elektra offers a unique pairing within a supernatural world.