I finally finished the book! My first in April, actually. Yes, it's the 14th. It's called real life, bitches. Sometimes books take a backseat. 

By now, most of the die-hard fans who were going to read this have already done so. I've seen the complaints. I share a few of the complaints.

But it's Ward. She's like this comfort-food writer for me. Even when it's bad, I always know that I'll laugh a few times, and will get at the very least a few moments of good sexual tension. So I keep reading.

But dear me, even I couldn't ignore the fifty PoV's this time. I was one of the people who didn't mind when the series left the cookie-cutter PNR format in favor of a more broad-scaled world at around book 7. The extra PoV's were helpful in getting me excited for future stories to come. Yes, sometimes the extras overtook the main story, and I wasn't always a fan of that. But I generally liked the side stories as well, with a few exceptions (I've never been a fan of the lengthy flashbacks). 

However, it's gotten out of hand. Between iAm, Trez, Xcor, Assail, Throe, Saxton, etc. (including the flip side with the female PoV's) and the flashbacks, plus the current Wrath/Beth story...yeah. We were more than maxed out on PoV's. 

That said... It was really only the Assail/Sola story which didn't work for me. A lot of people like this couple, but I've never attached to them. I'm still in the Xcor/Layla camp. And I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Trez/Selena's chemistry in this book. I love how Trez isn't the traditional white male character. And since Xcor isn't attractive at all (not like how Z is scarred but you can tell he's still hot), I love that too. Ward's starting to write a little out of her comfort zone. 

And iam?!? 

 Yay! Yay! Yay!

I know that so many people are throwing in the towel. I won't be. The familiarity and brotherhood and awesome sexual chemistry keeps me coming back, even when it takes me WEEKS to read the darn book because of parts that drag. 

The pros are still outweighing the cons. Maybe it won't always be this way, but sometimes I need to have something familiar to fall back on when I'm tired of constantly having to start new books and learn new characters. Familiar works for me in this instance.

Don't look at the shadows too long, or a demon might look back.

Words - lovely, haunting, beautiful words.

"That's what makes you my favorite." He reached up and wiped a tear off my cheek with his thumb. "Every wicked bit of you."

Words - dark, scary, ominous words.

You were sent here to die.

Words - damning, horrific, perilous words.

I am the plaything of a demon.

Words - funny, bantering, entertaining words.

"I hope you aren't planning to order me back to bed."
"No, you have far too much crockery at your disposal."

This isn't the Beauty and the Beast of your childhood. Do you dare to seek out the man inside the demon?

You will hate and hurt each other and become your own monsters.

I'm happy to have found another book to add to my beautiful word porn shelf. Laini Taylor was needing some company. 

What I didn't like : the weird melting pot of mythology and lore, both new and old, real and imagined. We have the B&B mansion happenings, the greek gods and characters on the outside of the story, and mentions of things which brought me back to our world, such as the day of the dead. It was a bit congested up in this mix.

That's about all I didn't like though, so no real major complaints. For once, I didn't mind the lack of fantasy-ish action in this particular story, since I wanted to read a re-telling of the B&B couple itself. While I love female assassins in fantasy, I wasn't a huge fan of Graceling, so that comparison didn't mean squat to me.

You may know Beauty and the Beast, but not quite like this.