Genre: Historical paranormal mystery
Disclaimer: Reading is all about exploring new worlds, but this Book Review does not shy away from spoiling specific scenes as this is more of a look inside the good and bad of a book.
The Analysis:
This book came to me as a rec through a book podcast. It was presented as a flawed, but entertaining book. What it did was inadvertently answer the question, is it possible to love someone too much? And the answer is, yes. So, let’s book review it. But first follow me on Goodreads, here.
Here’s the Blurb:
Finally free of her suffocating marriage, widow Daisy Ellis Craigmore is ready to embrace the pleasures of life that have long been denied her. Yet her new-found freedom is short lived. A string of unexplained murders has brought danger to Daisy's door, forcing her to turn to the most unlikely of saviors . . .
Their growing passion knows no bounds . . .
Ian Ranulf, the Marquis of Northrup, has spent lifetimes hiding his primal nature from London society. But now a vicious killer threatens to expose his secrets. Ian must step out of the shadows and protect the beautiful, fearless Daisy, who awakens in him desires he thought long dead. As their quest to unmask the villain draws them closer together, Daisy has no choice but to reveal her own startling secret, and Ian must face the undeniable truth: Losing his heart to Daisy may be the only way to save his soul.
This cover is different from my copy. I like both. But I find that this one seems more classy to me for some reason lol. I just really like the design.
Now The Story:
Book Info:
Pages: 417
Author: Kristen Callihan
Available: Google Play
The book opens with action. Our heroine, Daisy, is past her mourning period to her terrible husband who died and she's ready to live life to the fullfillest. That includes getting busy when she hasn't had any in a lonnng minute. Since even before her husband died. Except, halfway through she seems to have second thoughts. However, this isn't explored in any great depth because a werewolf is a foot and kills the mans.
However, the set up is a bit ambiguous for me. It could be my own folly and I missed something. But I couldn't pick up whether she had taken up the prostitution career or if she just visited a gentlemans club for some fun. As I had never really heard of the latter in romances, curious minds would have appreciated a slightly lengthier explanation. But it really has no bearing on the story.
She escapes death by sheer luck. Her body was crushed under the weight of the man she had been entertaining. Pretty much obscuring her from sight. Long enough for our hero, Ian, to make his appearance along with a rather large crowd that heard the screams. Ian was alerted by the smell of blood and wolf, however, because he is one. He immediately takes her to safety, but his secondary motive is to squelsh any potentional rumors about werewolves. It was bad news that their was a rogue wolf out there somewhere, but it was worse if this sparked an angry mob.
After her recovery, we get to see the first signs of their chemistry. Let me just say, I love a good banter. This pair have it in spades and seemed to really enjoy each other. I'm instantly excited to be reading their love story. More, more, more.
The more was the reveal that he used to have a crush on Daisy's sister. A crazy stalker-ish type crush. Of course, he explained it as him trying to protect her from the secret that her beau harbored about his supernatural ability and that morphed into what he thought was love, but wasn't. However, the sister really puts a damper on things that in the moment makes me considerably sad. I was genuinely thinking: dang it, wish the sister didn't exist. I was shipping them that hard after one or two chapters. But more than that, I hated that he couldn't simply do a good deed. Because of his past history the sister and Daisy were questioning everything. I felt so bad for Ian, it was like his past was preventing him from being a good person. At one point, he was like, they want me to act in ass. So I might as well be one. And I'm thinking nooo. Why can't they just say thank you and move along. Especially the sister like calm down, get the story, then draw conclusions. Don't draw conclusion, attack, and then get the story. It was frustrating and my heart was with Ian.
But the mystery is on. Ian attends the autopsy with the sisters beau and his frenemy, Archer, as well as a human cop who wasn't supposed to be there. This cop is related to the sisters because they are cousins, I think. Its a gory sight and theirs another body. But Ian ascertains that the link might be the perfume that Daisy is also wearing. They've got to find this werewolf before he outs them to the human community to the detriment to all.
This leads to multiple point of views: Ian and Daisy are the primary povs, but also expect scenes from the human dectective, the diseased wolf, and the wolf within Ian.
There's a lot of world-building. The continuation of the romance with Ian and Daisy getting to know each other. It was all well-written, imaginative, the chemistry was their, and I had no serious complaints. However, most of it was a three star read for me. I can't really say why, outside of the fact that I couldn't fully connect. But then the ending had me zooming to four stars and I will certainly recommend. So the rest of the book review will focus on the last third of the book.
All the clues, eventually lead Ian to his brother's door. He's convinced that his brother has released a diseased wolf out into the wild to force the humans hands and everyone out into the open. For half the book, he's been avoiding a confrontation out of love and reluctance. Reluctance because he's the oldest and theirfore the one to inherit, but he stepped down when his family died and handed over the reigns. He's positive that nothing will bring him back into the fold and apparently, not even a werewolf sighting that includes killing women wearing the same perfume.
He approached the first meeting with his kingly brother with the intent of just getting answers. It was clear that his brother was not going to offer up anything. In fact, his cagey behavior leaves one to believe that he is up to his neck in the diseased werewolf killings. But the hero can't prove it. In fact, the brother thinks that Ian is behind it and using it as an excuse to retake the throne. Well, we know thats definitely not true. However, he's the king and orders Ian's punishment. For what, it fails my memory now. However, it leads to a brutally gruesome scene of the pack beating and litterally ripping him apart.
This beating leads to days of recovery time. However, when he awakes he wants no more games. He wants to act on his feelings for the hero and the feeling is mutual. Yet, Daisy litterally gets a migraine to big for her to get busy. Laughable.
The beat down does reveal something else though and its Daisy's supernatural powers. All three of her sisters have elemental type powers. Except, it was the oldest who knew this and was keeping it from the others. Her reasoning was paper thin. And I was just as mad as Daisy and the middle sister. The secret was also kept from their father. However, he did know about the middle sisters powers. The middle sister had the power of fire and it was hard to control for obvious reasons. If he handled that well (and at least from this book it seemed like he had) then he deserved the truth about the other two. Heck, they all did. The middle sister discovering her powers and figuring them out on her own seems callous and cold.
Daisy heads home wanting some qt time with Ian, but gets the valet driver instead. They share some honest talk and I find myself on the valet, Talent's (might not be name), side. He doesn't want Ian to fall in love. Now this portion is silly. The man should be able to take walks and smile for no reason. However, he claimed that the only reason that Ian was as badly beaten in the fight was because Daisy had made him weak. Now, I just found that fight hard to bare. So, if he could have avoided it in someway, I'm left wondering why he didn't. He didn't fight that hard to get at the truth. He didn't challenge his brothers authority and he got his intentines ripped out of him. That looks to me like Daisy makes him weak, lol.
But what gets old, quick? It's Ian insistence that all he wants is normalcy. Mostly because it seemed to be getting in the way of the common sense decisions he should be making in regards to the human world and the wolf one. At every turn, people are telling him that the sky is falling and he's just shrugging off. Nope, normalcy. Like dude, stop it, some things are greater than ourselves and you're clearly needed to fulfill a bigger purpose. Your normalcy isn't looking that interesting anyway.
This all leads to a conversation with Archer. The guy is a hypocrite and its frustrating. He's dating a human, despite being whatever he is (i didnt read book 1), but finds the time to warn Ian away. I just have one word, back off. Let's talk about some quotes that put me in my feels.
"She is going to live in truth."
The cousin detective dies leaving Daisy to realize life is too short to not have what you want.
This romance is very push pull. So when the above moment arised, it was very much, go get your man, for me. It led to some spicy smexy time and a bit of a revealtion as well. The heroine is scarred from her previous marriage because of abuse. This scene is meant to be very touching, but I found myself uncaring. But I was right back on the love train with this quote:
"I could love you."
The hero and heroine share how they feel.
Coming from any one else the above statement could leave a lot to be desired. However, in this book its uttered by both characters. Two people who have so many walls up that their scared of their own shadows when it comes to their feelings. So, this means everything.
Also, the reveal of Ian's complicated past with his family is uber dramatic. I find it to be too much, but he literally wakes up out of his sleep to have a panic attack. His son who lived to be in his 30s committed suicide thanks to the poisioning of his mind by Ian's then wife. A woman who later died of a broken heart. This is the first moment, I also realize how little we were told about his background. That leads me to kinda feel like I wished I had known sooner even if the heroine didn't. But that feeling didn't last long with quotes like:
"I want you more than I'm afraid."
No more running let's get married scene.
I don't figure out the identity of the diseased werewolf until moments before its revealed. In hindsight, its pretty obvious. I feel slow for not picking it up, lol. However, it is very interesting and casts the story in a new light.
"Haven't you learned, woman? You've fallen off the map. Here there be monsters."
Favorite quote of all because it reminded me of the famous movie, Wizard of Oz: Toto, we're not in Kansas, anymore.
We're on a second meeting with the brother now and Ian is still trying to protect his brother. Why? He finally challenged him for the throne, which needed to be done weeks and months ago. I liken it back to that character trait that no matter how evil, misguided etc., a family member has become its seen as more caring if you put up with the nonesense. I just can't stomach that way of thinking. I don't mind that he gave him mercy, actually. But during the fight and argument stop babying him and do what you need to for the good of all. I will now skip this before I get ranty.
The brother dying is an actual surprise, tho. See the gif for my instant reaction. Wow, like he's really not the villain, lol. And for the most part, everyone in Ian's immediate family is dead.
Possible plot hole (involving the son and motivation): So, the beta general of the pack was holding on to the diseased son. He was doing it in an effort to bring Ian back to the pack that he had abandoned to a ruler that gave no shits. Now, he claimed if Ian had've known that he would have just killed him. But from everything I learned had he waited some years and then reappeared with the boy and offered him back like a gift. I found him in the woods, sort of things. That might've actually gone better than this whole convulted plan that did in fact work. Less plot hole, maybe more fan theory. But the end is nigh:
Daisy shares the sons last moments and its so heart felt that I was here for every moment. My heart also went out to her for making the hard decision of ending his life. I was picturing some pus-filled igor type character in my mind. But I laughed out loud, litterally, when he asked to touch her hand and she hesistated like, do I have too. But he begs for release and she gives it too him. Despite being terrified of him and the night and everything else. Its a very real scene.
Ian shows up after everything is finished. Things calm down. Ian burries his son and brings the house back under some semblance of order. However, this tumulteous angst leads to another sex scene and I'm not here for it. Its just misplaced. Its a reminder that authors (including myself) just don't know how to write true intimacy anymore and it all comes back to sex. They should've talked or not talked and just held each other.
But with the mystery solved. The brother dead and Ian's firm placement on the throne, all should be finished. Instead, Daisy wants to break up because she's human and will die and she doesn't want to be another scar on his heart. A perfect summantion of her thoughts are as follows:
"Love should not be the destruction of another."
A theme the book didn't know it had.
I can't agree more with this quote or her entire argument during the break up scene. Oh yes, Ian comes packed with the flowery words of love and commitment. And its certainly enough for our heroine. Although, she does take a more proactive stance, but more on that later. Because, for me, he never really made a strong, yet clear argument that he wouldnt fall apart were she to die. He fell apart after the death of his son and wife. One should argue if he's even worthy of love if the lack of it sends him into this dark place where nothing else matters. In its most simplistic terms, an entire pack of werewolves were being treated like slaves, but it didn't matter because his family died. Put that on the same level of being underneath the finger of a modern dictator and see if you'd still be giving him a pass to be so madly in love.
My advice to Ian, just love. Love genuinely, hopefully, and with much care, but when it leaves you, mourn its passing, but leave room for it to take shape in different ways in your life going forward.
My answer certainly isn't that Daisy is the answer to that. Now, don't worry about a thing. In the end, its worth it to be upset because you love her so much. But, Iannnn, you aren't just upset, you're not functioning in society even if its a werewolf one. Sound off in the comment, is Ian's love toxic?
But let's go back to the surprise ending. Daisy is indeed dying from one of the attacks. This is what leads to the break up conversation. One that Ian puts out of her mind and she agrees to stay for whatever comes next. However, the next morning she comes up with an idea and disappears. She knows of a method to save her soul and she must complete it before anyone has a chance to stop her. I loved this twist. My feelings behind their love aside. It was ingenuious and he definitely needs her and proved that by having yet another freak out if not a minor one at her absence.
One soul in place of hers because she'd already given her soul to Ian.
An explanation for how she saved her soul.
This whole portion is definitely a unique concept and if the author wanted to explore it more, I'd be completely down. The ghost body snatchers thing is right up my alley. And despite my thoughts on Ian and his toxic love, I'm genuinely happy he got his happy ending. However, the above quote had me confused. When did she give Ian her soul? Was that a metaphorical thing or a real thing that happened that I missed? Also, is this supposed to explain the toxicity because their soul mates. Okay, but then explain his son and his former wife that caused many a panic attack.
Shrug, oh well, it was a nice world to visit. I was obviously too invested and that would mean only one score....
Story At A Glance:
Recommendation: 4 out of 5
Read Series Continuation: Yes
The Ratings:
Book Cover Appeal:
🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓
Story & Narration:
🍓🍓🍓🍓
Romance:
🍓🍓🍓🍓
Character/(s) Personality:
🍓🍓🍓🍓
