Redeemed coverRating: 4 stars
Buy Links: 
 Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novel

 

Redeemed is the third book in Liv Rancourt’s Soulmates series and the books form one continuous story. The identity of the third partner in the triad is not revealed until partway through book one, so this review does spoil that information, as well as some other plot elements related to the ongoing story. 

Trajan has been commanded by his maker, Jacques Betancourt, to kill Connor MacPherson. Trajan has been by Betancourt’s side for more than 100 years, always doing what he is told. This time, however, Trajan has refused. Connor is his lover, one of his partners, and he has no intention of following Betancourt’s orders. Ignoring the command is easier said than done, however, as a vampire is compelled to follow their maker’s orders. So it is taking all Trajan has to block out the voice in his head demanding he hurt Connor. That also means Trajan, David, and Connor are on the run, trying to stay one step ahead of Betancourt while they figure out what to do.

While is is unclear exactly why Jacques wants Connor dead, the men are guessing that it is related the missing elven princess. If they can find her, they may be able to get one step ahead of the vampire. Of course, that is not an easy task and no matter where the men hide, Jacques is somehow able to find them. He also seems to have a lot of supernaturals on his side and he has an army behind him to do his bidding. But Connor, David, and Trajan are not without their own strengths. Each of the men have their own supernatural abilities. But more than that, they have friends and, most of all, they have each other. They are determined to walk out of this crisis together for their long awaited happy ending, and they are willing to do whatever it takes to see that happen.

I have been enjoying the Soulmates series from the beginning and was excited for this story, as it culminates the storyline that has been building since the first book. Here we see the men in the aftermath of Tested as they are facing Betancourt’s command for Trajan to kill Connor. This time, there are no secrets and these guys are all working together, which is nice after the more strained situation they faced in the previous book. The problem is that Betancourt has access to Trajan pretty much wherever he goes, due to his power as Trajan’s maker, so no matter how far they run, they can’t really escape his hold.

Even as there’s tension as the men try to break free of Betancourt control, there’s also a nice sense of bond among David, Trajan, and Connor as they work together to solve the problem. I really like these three guys together and I think that Rancourt has done a nice job of building this three-way relationship among them in a way that feels very believable. Each of the men has an individual connection with each of the others, but they still are an unbreakable three, so they need all of them for the relationship to fully work. I like that in this installment we get to see the men all working together, versus the more separated action from the previous book.

Another thing that we really get to see here is that these guys are not without their allies. We’ve always known that Sheena and Trajan are very close, but here we also see the men have a larger group of supporters than I think any of them realized. So it’s a lot of fun to see how this group comes together, particularly when we get to the final showdown with Betancourt and they’re all working together as a team.

My main issue with this story is that I think we needed more recap coming out of book two. I read the first two books, and I reread my review of Tested before starting Redeemed. I also looked back through my notes and highlights from that book to remind myself of key events. Even with all that, I found myself missing some key connections from the series threads that I had expected to be reiterated here and weren’t. For example, I couldn’t remember specifics about the missing elven princess, why there was a conflict between elves and the Morrigan, or why Connor was specifically involved. It would have taken just a few sentences recap to remind readers about that information. Also, I couldn’t remember why Betancourt wanted to kill Connor, or why he wanted Trajan to do it. And again, I feel like a few sentences to catch everyone up and remind folks of what had happened in the past would have gone a long way here. I feel like reading the stories one right after the other would work great, but reading as they released with a gap between books, I needed some basic recap here to feel like I was fully following it all.

As I said, this is the third book in the Soulmates series and I originally thought that this was only going to be a trilogy. Most of the main story arcs wind up nicely here, and so we get a good resolution to the events of the past couple of books. However, Rancourt does know note at the end of the book that there are more adventures coming for Connor, David, and Trajan, so it does sound like we’re going to get more for them and presumably some of those last little threads that were left open will get resolved in the upcoming book. I really enjoyed this series, both the supernatural side of things, as well as the relationship among the three men, so I’m really excited to learn that there’s more coming for them. If you like paranormal, urban fantasy, polyamory stories, and some really interesting combinations of personalities in your main characters, this is definitely a series to check out.

jay signature