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Review
4.5 stars!
Woohoo! Back to the BDB world with the fourth book in the Black Dagger Legacy series, and the story of BDB trainee, Boone, with a side of old-schooler, Butch O’Neal. With a sweet, functional, sexy romance, a murder mystery and a glorious revisit with the BDB boys that I love so much, I loved this book!
This book starts with the events of the Throe party that took place at the end of The Savior. Boone’s father, a member of the aristocratic Glymera, was killed. Boone and his father didn’t have a close relationship, in fact it was quite antagonistic, and though he isn’t surprised by his father’s death, it still sends his world reeling a bit. When he is taken off fighting rotation against his will, he is instead teamed up with former homicide detective-now BDB badass, Butch O’Neal to investigate a possible serial killer targeting women at a vampire LARP club downtown.
Helaine’s sister was a victim of the killer, and she is a woman intent on vengeance. Putting herself in the sights of the killer, she hangs out at the club hoping to find the male responsible, and that puts her right into the path of Boone. Though wary of him at first, Boone and Helaine quickly join forces to investigate the murders and hunt down the bad guy, and it doesn’t take long before their working relationship becomes all too personal, and they find themselves swept up into a passionate and intense love affair.
I love the romance in these books. It’s always so raw and intense, and having the paranormal aspect allows it all to move really quickly because you have things like bonding to explain it. Though shy and quiet Helaine is still drowning in her grief over her sister, she opens herself up to Boone like she never has to anybody before, and the development of their love story is so gorgeous! They have their ups and downs, but for the most part they are functional without too much drama, and I loved seeing that progression for them.
God, I love Boone! It felt like a bit of a change of pace from the usual BDB book because Boone is not a macho alpha like the boys that are usually in these books. He’s still fierce and strong with alpha tendencies, but it’s not as extreme, and he’s a genuinely good guy, and I loved reading about him.
I was excited going into this one knowing that we would be revisiting with Butch, but it was not so much a catch up with him and Marissa, but just Butch himself as he takes the lead on the murder investigation. We see more of him with V than we do with Marissa (and that’s never a bad thing because more V is never a bad thing), and even though we get the impression that things between Butch and his shellan are still blissful, I would have liked to have actually seen them together and interacting rather than just receive hints of a sexually satiated Marissa sleeping off her multiple orgasms in another room.
In other Brotherhood news, there’s time spent with Craeg and Paradise, a great scene with Manny, an epic moment with Wrath, and a bit more time with the Band of Bastards, including an intro to Syn’s story up next – and that is one messed-up vampire, I am so freaking excited for his book!
As always, I was swept right back into this world, and loved checking in on these beloved characters. This was a great read with mystery, intrigue and a lot of heart, and I loved it! And once again, the narration by Jim Frangione is absolutely stellar!
4.5 stars.
See our Black Dagger Brotherhood page for more info on both series – including suggested reading order.