in terms of paranormal romance, there's nothing excruciatingly bad about this book. the writing is on point; the protagonist is a sensible, efficient and humane woman with her grain of uniqueness, bc, you know, she's the main character; and the hero is her exceptionally handsome reward (or would be if she didn't play the 'im not like the other girls' card) after hundreds of pages fighting for the life she has built. fair enough. but. the efficiency of the plot didn't make it exciting, the mix of magic and modern world didn't work for me, and i didn't connect enough with the characters to want to read the sequel. actually, the cold slash damaged hero (which is totally my brand) wasn't well established as a character: i didn't feel very sympathetic or attracted towards him bc there wasn't any real glimpse of the man behind the mass murder. he didn't show any vulnerability (not even regarding the heroine), and the only excuse for him to hunt down the bad guy -- the safety of his cousin's son -- wasn't convincing, bc the boy was never mentioned, except in the prologue and the epilogue with the lame plot twist. so, given his cardboard personality, i didn't feel the sexual tension that made the mc all horny. i know there are two more books for character development, but that lack of flavor, along with the boredom detective stories always give me, made this one too long and not that fun. so much for plot without porn.