When I started this series, I knew that it went downhill later on in the series and I expected that I’d probably stop reading around book 8, but now I’m not so sure. One of the main things I enjoy about urban fantasy is that it usually combines fantasy with murder/mystery elements. I don’t usually pick up regular mystery novels, but this is a nice way to incorporate some mystery into my reading. Unfortunately, this book had way too much of a bad romantic subplot for me to fully be able to enjoy it. Don’t get me wrong, I can read a good romance, but to me this book just made Anita out to be very indecisive when it came to her love life and what she wants. That’s not the main part that bothered me, I think it’s really that it feels like she’s taking Richard along for the ride that is her existential crisis. Everyone has a moment in time where they have to sort out their feelings and things aren’t super clear, but the fact that Anita has a situation where she is dating two people at the same time and is technically engaged to one of those people bothers me. Multi-dating is one thing, promising to possibly get married to someone when it’s pretty clear it’s something you aren’t capable of delivering, at least not in this moment in time, is just unfair to the other person involved. 

I really like Richard as a character, not because I think he’s a perfect love interest or anything. It is quite the opposite actually, at least for what Anita wants in a partner (assuming she even wants a partner, at least not a serious long term one based on her internal dialogue). He seems like someone who knows how to respect boundaries in his relationships and is willing to try his best to make his relationships succeed. That’s largely what creates a problem with trying to have a relationship with Anita. He’s ready for commitment, marriage, sharing a home, the whole white picket fence deal. Anita doesn’t seem to be anywhere near ready for that kind of commitment and seems to have really gotten in over her head by saying yes to his proposal, but that’s a separate topic. Richard also has some really strong morals, even if I don’t necessarily agree with them all. I have to get on board with Anita when it comes to being willing to kill creatures and people if they are a threat to my livelihood. Despite this, it is quite impressive that he’s a werewolf and hasn’t killed anyone yet. It’s obvious that werewolves, similarly to vampires, have their own set of protocols that they follow that are largely morally questionable and killing people isn’t beyond the scope of that. Richard doesn’t seem to fully accept his nature as a werewolf yet, which is to an extent understandable since he didn’t choose to become one and he feels like it is one of the barriers to being in a long term relationship with Anita. I would look forward to seeing more of Richard’s character development, but on his own. I don’t see any scenario where things end well for him here. 

Jean-Claude has never been a likeable character to me, mostly because he is incapable of taking no for an answer and that rubs me the wrong way on a lot of levels. He also seems to equate Anita being attracted to him physically as a confirmation that something should happen between them. I don’t understand what he’s on, because just because you’re attracted to someone doesn’t mean you should do something about it. The fact that he has to blackmail Anita to date him should be enough evidence that he’s an unhealthy choice at best. There really isn’t much he can do at this point for me to like him. I’m resigned to the fact that I will probably never like him as a character and I know based on what I’ve heard about the series that he is here to stay. It doesn’t mean I’m here to stay, though. I might have the energy to pick up the next book to see where this goes. We shall see.