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Review

Jack’s back, baby!

That’s right! After four books of being truly awesome supporting his big brother, Braith, Jack is back as the hero of his very own book, and it’s fantastic!

I love The Captive series! (The first book – Captured – is free on Amazon… GET IT NOW!). It completely took me by surprise when I discovered it last year, and I devoured the books back to back in an absolute whirlwind. I took the opportunity to do a reread of the whole series before I started this, which I recommend if you are a little bit shady on details, as a lot happened in those four books, and while there is some recap, I really appreciated having it all fresh in my mind before I started.

And fair warning – this review will contain spoilers for the earlier books in the series.

So this book picks up a year after Salvation ended, with the big battle against Jack’s sadistic vampire father over and his big brother, Braith now the (very sexy and swoony) king. Vampires and humans are now living side by side in a new society, and Jack and William have left the palace to explore the outer regions and ensure that Braith’s new laws are being adhered to.

Truly, they’re both on the run. Neither of them are dealing with their grief, or the memories of the past, and with nothing holding them down they have taken the opportunity to go off exploring without having to deal with real life.

Their travels bring them to the town of Chippman, and into the life of Hannah. Hannah is a vampire who runs a tavern with what is left of her family. While she appears to have a happy life, we soon discover that all is not as it seems, and the vampires of the town are actually all “undesirables” – not normal vampires, but those who have something ‘wrong’ with them. They banded together in one place to escape persecution from society under the old king’s rule – but of course, that just made them easy pickings when a sadistic, power-hungry psycho moved into town with the intention of ruling them and making their lives hell.

Jack and Hannah are drawn to each other from the moment they first lay eyes on each other, and as the secrets of the town are uncovered, and Jack pisses off the bad guy – making an already tense situation even more dangerous – the attraction between them grows, the UST hits epic levels and, they can’t keep away from each other.

“Undesirable”…
“Hannah, you might be the most desirable woman I’ve ever encountered.”

Oh yes, Jack is a smooth one alright! Having witnessed the love that his siblings have for their partners, he recognises what is happening to the two of them, and he dives on in, and I love that! Hannah is more reluctant, but knowing her background, and the life she has led, it’s completely understandable. And she doesn’t resist for too long before caving to the sweet and tender yet violently protective vampire.

But danger is still lurking, and the bad guy just won’t go away, so be prepared for some truly disturbing evil stuff and some epic action scenes!

Braith, Aria and Daniel all make an appearance, and I loved the opportunity to catch up with them! I also loved the time we got to spend with William. The friendship between him and Jack is fantastic, and I loved his part of the story.

The story moves at a quick pace, and kept me enthralled the whole way through. The ending had my heart racing, with lots of action and a couple of big twists which are clearly leading to at least one more book – hooray! Although rest assured, this one is definitely cliffy free, and ends beautifully.

I loved this book! I loved being back in Erica Stevens’ world, I love the characters, and I loved Jack and Hannah’s story. I can’t wait for more.

4 stars.