I should note that I haven't found this series quite as enjoyable as it was before the introduction of the Long Game. You have no idea how tried I am of vampire politics in UF.

However, Carrie Vaughn deserves a huge around of applause and awards for actually ending the series and stepping back.

In some ways, it does feel like she is checking off points - and Amelia could have had a bigger role in this book to be honest - but it is a workable, if not great, conclusion to the series. It's an ending but Vaughn has left herself the opition to return to the world if not the characters.

The most disappointing and weakest parts of the book are [ Kitty's pregnancy. It feels too much like a fairy tale ending and too much like a breaking of the rules Vaughn set up. It actually weakens the final book because it makes Kitty even more special. . Despite that, it is a good ending.

This does read like fan fiction, yet there is a slight nod to a daughter being pressured to date a jerk - if this idea had been given more room, the story would have been a bit better.

Disclaimer: Arc via Netgalley.

                Thank god for Open Road Media. Truly and completely. 

                Years ago, I picked up this book when it was being re-issued via a small independent press.  The edition was so badly edited and produced that any reader knew it was the publisher and not the writer.  I couldn’t finish it.

                Thankfully, Open Road Media has re-issued the Godforsaken as an e-book.

                Thankfully, they did a professional edit.

                Thankfully, we can now read Yarbro’s tale of a Spanish prince who is werewolf.

                I love Open Road Media.  I will never get tired of saying that.  We need more publishers like them.

                Is the book Yarbro’s best work?  No.  It’s an interesting book though because the prince, Don Rolan, is not designed to gain the reader’s sympathy or at the very least to keep it.  It is the supporting characters that earn the reader’s sympathy and provide reason to keep reading.  The jester, the ambassador, even the bitchy love and the slightly mad queen come alive in a way that Rolan does not.

                The book itself will appeal highly to those who enjoy Showtime’s Penny Dreadful series, and in many ways, Yarbro captures the horror of the Inquisition as well as the feeling of a Victorian dreadful.  It is historical fantasy, though the Spanish royal family here is based on that of Philip as opposed to Philip himself.  The time and place are drawn with the skill that one knows Yarbro possesses.  The last 100 pages are ones that a reader will want to read in one sitting.

So I found the writing a bit dull. I'm not sure why. Maybe if I had read the first one?

However, the relationship between the characters was nice and believable. It was sweet. There were some nice touches of humor.

So lately, I've been on, for a lack of a better term, an Amazon freebie paranormal erotic binge.  I don't know why.  Maybe I miss badly worded sentences.  It's been somewhat disappointing that the last few I tried to read didn't have many badly worded sentences, but I've noticed something else and that will be in an up-coming post.  (Which is here: Clothes off!  I should note that while this book does have some of the whole Alpha issue that those lesser works have, Cremant's treatment of it is better and consent is more to the forefront.)

I want to single this book out, however, because it's not really my taste, yet the writing is pretty damn good.  There is more character development than most similar works, and there is far better description.  Additionally, and Cremant deserves a round of applause for this, it is one of two freebies in the genre I've seen that has a poc on the cover and as a heroine.  Most of the other freebies either just have a white guy or a white guy with vaguely Asian features on the cover, and when a woman is present she is usually white.  If she isn't, she seems to be latina, but when reading the book it is quite clear the character, despite the cover, is a white woman.

This is not the case with Cremant's book (or even the whole series) and her writing is solid.  It's not my taste (it has to do with the alpha thing to be honest), but if it looks like it might be yours, Cremant is worth a try.