(Later update: previous book in the series is reviewed here.)
I haven't read any of this series before (this is book 4), but I found it pretty interesting, and I was able to pick up on most preceding plot details without too much trouble. Our heroine, Kate, is the cranky daughter of Roland, who... well, that's about the one thing I'm not totally clear on as to what he is, other than "scary badass immortal sort." Anyhoo, blood magic runs in the family and he kills all of his children, so Kate's been on the run from him all her life, and was raised to be a killer in self-defense. She grew up hearing there was to be no love in her life, so when her date, Curran the Beast Lord*, totally flakes/disappears on their date, she is really really super butthurt. However, her superpouting has to be gotten over in a hurry when some freaky person starts going around town spreading plagues and terrifying the crap out of shapeshifters, and she has to align with Curran whether she wants to or not.** It turns out that the plague-spreader is a very terrifying relative of hers... and thus Kate has a HELL of a battle to do, with someone who could easily take out her shapeshifter friends.
I found it all pretty interesting, I'd read another book in this series again. Things resolve well, and other than Kate being kind of blockheaded over one specific thing, I enjoyed the characters overall. Four stars.
* I have to admit that the term "Beast Lord" does both make me giggle and shudder at the same time, but at least the character is a good egg.
** One of my few quibbles about this book is that Kate pouts and acts irrationally for too long about this, EVEN AFTER it becomes clear that it was all just a misunderstanding. I was all, "look, Kate, I get how truly butthurt you are, but uh... sounds like it wasn't him trying to bail on you or you bailing on him, so get over it already!"
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