One Good Book Deserves Another

Genre: Paranormal Romantic Suspense
Series: Night Watch, Book 3
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Length: 352 Pages, 6642 Locations
Formats: Paperback, Kindle



Action-Packed and Incendiary

Hybrid demon and Night Watch Hunter Zane Wynter always gets his man...or woman, regardless of race, gender, or...skill set. It's his job as a part of the group of bounty hunters best suited to take down the baddest of the bad, the Others who have gone over the line and hurt and killed innocents. And he's very good at his job.

Rushing into a burning building to catch the murderous vampire he'd been tasked to hunt down, however, puts him face to face with the slight body and wide, pretty eyes of Jana Carter, the vampire's next intended victim. The building comes down around them as he saves her life, but she disappears before he realizes that Jana Carter is no one's pretty little victim. She's an Ignitor, a fire starter wanted in connection with several fires in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. And she's a killer. She's also his next target.

Catching her is the least of Zane's problems, though, when she steps out of the shadows in front of a demon den to warn him about the bloodthirsty mob inside. It was his first clue that not all is what it seems in relation to the Ignitor, but as it seems everyone and their fiendish brother are trying to kill Zane and take Jana alive as soon as he snaps the cuffs on her, it certainly isn't his last.

The FBI wants her dead, some shadowy fanatic group called Perseus wants her back, Jana wants to be left alone, and Zane...the roguish and deadly demon...just wants Jana. Burn baby, burn.

This third foray into the Night Watch series is as jam-packed with action and adventure as the biggest summer movie blockbuster. Fast, fiery, and tons of fun, Cynthia Eden has hit hard with the powerful demon hybrid Zane and the wily and tenacious Jana. I've been a Zane fan since the series started, patiently (well...as patient as I ever am) waiting for his book, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Zane has always struck me as a guy with lots of still water that runs deep beneath the bad boy player image, and that certainly bore out in this book. And I can't tell you how thrilled I was with Jana's character. One of the best I've read in the genre lately, her winsome and harmless appearance and skilled acting make her appear the helpless victim. Her core of molten lava over tensile steel makes her anything but. Her character had depth, complexity, and tons of appeal. Together, Zane and Jana fit perfectly, and I appreciated that Eden actually developed their relationship as the book progressed.

The plot was non-stop, if a little chaotic at times, and there did seem to be a rather large number of megalomaniacs with sanity issues running around for one book. That being said, Eden did a great job creating action that fit well with the characters and developed the plot around who and what they were. As a result, the story felt like a natural evolution of ever-increasing tension, danger, and emotion as the characters react to each situation in which they find themselves.

There wasn't a lot of world building or exposition in this book, but that's common for Eden's style. Readers glean information as they go, instead of getting told the lay of the land with each book. I've read the first two books in this series, as well as the first two books in the Midnight Trilogy, which shares a world and all its mythos with the Night Watch series, so I'm comfortable with the background, but new readers may feel ill-prepared and a bit lost as they dive into the paranormal community here. Eden also isn't a paragon of descriptive passages, so readers who favor having a clear visual of characters and scenery as a story progresses may find it difficult to do so. I would have liked a little more definition given to the locations in the book, so the book had a little more of the southern flavor of Baton Rouge, but it wasn't a serious complaint. There was more than enough action to keep me highly entertained.

I'm a fan of Cynthia Eden's books, but some I've liked some more than others. Eternal Flame is definitely on the list of those I've favored the most. The characters were particularly appealing, the action was high octane, the plot a bit messy at times but definitely layered, and the romance was a full five alarm. Yum.

Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: Night Watch, Book 2
Rating: 4 Stars
Formats: Paperback, Kindle


Sandra "Dee" Daniels lost her entire family to vampires when she was just a kid. It was a brutal awakening to the world of Others that still rips her out of sleep with a scream on her lips. Since that bloody night, she's made it her goal to track and kill the vampires responsible - and until then, take down as many other fanged fiends as she can. Her job as a bounty hunter for Night Watch, a...specialty organization to say the least, keeps her connected to the baddies in Baton Rogue, and rumor is there's a Born Master in town - a vampire that isn't one of the changed Taken but an ancient evil that defies human comprehension for his ability to wreak nearly biblical destruction. If Dee doesn't stop him, the Born will make the town run red.

She prefers to work alone, but after a couple of run ins with the stranger Simon Chase - a sexy as hell bad boy intent on saving her ass whether she likes it or not, she finds out his past is similar to hers and he's out to take down the Born, too. Pairing up isn't her style, but in this case, accepting a hand may be the only way to keep from losing her head...unless bad boy Chase has his own agenda and isn't quite the knight in leather-clad armor he appears.

Without a doubt, Eden pens intense, kick ass action and offers up gorgeous alpha men for our reading pleasure, but in this book, she had her work cut out for her. We met Dee in Eternal Hunter (my review here) and I quickly realized that while she's loyal to her friends, she's got issues a mile wide...the sort that would make her being the center of attention a potential problem. I can imagine not everyone is going to like Dee in I'll Be Slaying You, as she's not traditionally likable. I, however, did like her, much to my surprise, because while her blind prejudice and quick-to-condemn aggression aren't the most appealing traits ever, I couldn't help but admire the core of her. She's a girl who lost everyone she loved in brutal fashion at an incredibly impressionable age...stumbled upon her family's butchered bodies on the same night she went on her first date and got her first kiss, and despite a horror that would have sent most to the mental hospital, she found a way to make a life for herself - even if she is a bit screwed up from it all. Who the hell wouldn't be?  She fights forces of darkness that she shouldn't be able to fight instead of screaming about life's injustices...or just plain screaming, locked up in a padded room somewhere, and I admire that about her, so yes, I like her, even with her flaws. And I appreciate Eden for not glossing over those flaws or eradicating them through the story arc of the book.

Liking her self-proclaimed partner in this book, Simon Chase, wasn't hard either. Sexy, yes, and layered with his own issues and motivations. I loved his unwavering dedication to Dee, even as she was...well...being Dee. And I thought their relationship was lusty good fun, if a bit lacking in sweet tender romance. Dee? Do sweet and tender?? Not without a lobotomy, that's for sure. Suffice it to say, the relationship between them may not be my personal preference for heartfelt romance reading, but it was very in line with what we know of Dee and what we've learned of Simon, so I have no complaints.

I do have a couple of complaints about the plot, though. It wasn't the most original, to be honest, but I will say that it did take a couple of turns that pushed it into fresher territory, and I liked that very much. Reading it was like walking along a very very well worn path for just over half a journey...and then suddenly the earthquake hits and you turn to race along a slightly different route to get to safety. That's how the plot of I'll Be Slaying You read for me as I went along. Familiar and a bit unoriginal at first - though well told, don't get me wrong - then some surprising aspects came in and made it fresher and more unique.

The writing style and character development were really solid, though, and I've loved the backdrop of the world Eden started creating in her Midnight Trilogy and spread to encompass the Night Watch series. I loved getting another peek at Jude and Erin from Eternal Hunter, and of course getting reacquainted with the half-demon Zane and the cop Anthony. I'll Be Slaying You may not have been perfect for me, but it was a good, solid read full of action and lusty good times. I'm looking forward to Eternal Flame due out in December.

Night Watch Series:
   

Genre: Paranormal Romantic Suspense
Series: Night Watch, Book 1
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Formats: Paperback, Kindle


It's stating the obvious, but I read and review a lot of books, commenting on strength of plot, technical aspects of writing, character development, world building, etc. I have to admit, I enjoy detailing why I like or dislike something. Occasionally, though, I come across a book that hits all or most of my happy spots, not because the plot is so spectacular, or the writing is so technically impressive, or the characters stand out that brightly, but for some nebulous, purely emotional reason that doesn't translate as well to an objective review. Eternal Hunter is one of those books.

Erin is new to Baton Rouge, working as a tenacious Assistant District Attorney and working at hiding herself - both her location from a violent, murderous stalker intent on Erin as his mate and her Other nature from...well...everyone else. Jude Donovan, bounty hunter and supreme alpha male shapeshifter has a much different agenda on those points. From the moment he senses and scents Erin, he refuses to allow her to hide anything from him, and he sure as hell refuses to let any sick psycho shifter come anywhere near her. Both have secrets they guard, both have wounds that still haunt them. Both will learn that only together can they stop a creature bent on death and destruction.

Eternal Hunter is a quickly paced, sensual, and dangerous romp and I really, really enjoyed it. There's something about Cynthia Eden's style that appeals to me. I enjoy the world she's created, one that exists in the same universe as that of her Midnight Trilogy, and I thought the chemistry between Erin and Jude was top notch. I really appreciated Erin's strength, as that's a personal preference of mine, and I loved Jude's uber-alpha personality tempered with some emotional insecurity that made him even more appealing as that vulnerability humanized him. Their characters and relationship really worked for me.

I'm not going to be overly critical of the story elements, I'm simply going to say that the plot was perhaps not the most original I've ever read, the sexual and burgeoning emotional relationship between Erin and Jude was given much more room than the threat of the stalker, and the climax had some cliched elements. There were also a couple of plot threads that struck me as odd. None of that severely impacted my pleasure in the read, though, because I found it to be very satisfying on an emotional level overall. Sometimes, for whatever reason, a book just hits the right buttons for a person. Eternal Hunter hit the right buttons for me.