[book-info]

Review

Juliette does it again, I can’t recommend an author enough! I’ve been devouring her books like candy and I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of them. Hardest Fall was my airplane read and I couldn’t put it down, well maybe during some crazy turbulence, which had me reassuring that I fully prefer being on the ground than up in the air … Anyways, the Dominion series has quickly become my  recent obsession, which had me falling absolutely in love with Juliette’s work. Once we were hinted at Xander and Bone’s story, I just couldn’t wait to jump into their story and boy was I not disappointed.

As far as this genre goes, the more unique, the better. And the books that Juliette writes, they’re always so memorable. It’s so easy for me to get lost in her stories, they’re definitely captivating.

I’ve been dying to know more about Bone since we’ve been introduced to her in Darkest Fall. There’s something intriguing and a little mysterious about her that you just want to uncover right away. And that’s what Xander was set out to do.

Bone has that tough exterior, but you know there’s something more underneath that hard. It didn’t cross my mind much during Darkest Fall what her stance truly was on the war. But we get to see the shift in this one and it definitely had to do with what she felt was right, down to her core. And she couldn’t help that she surrounded herself around people on the right side of the war.

Xander was just the guy to bring Bone’s soft side out and I loved every moment of it. He’s such a smooth dude and it was damn near impossible to avoid the guy. He was protective to a fault and was quickly entranced by Bone. It’s evident that they’re perfect for each other and just make each other better.

Besides this dynamic duo to fall in love with, I was beyond happy with my Dommiel and Anya cameos. And there’s sooooooo many. After their book ended, I just wasn’t ready to say good-bye to them. I hope Juliette keeps the same tune going with the next book, which obviously I’m eager to read. Uriel, anyone?!

Major thank you to Juliette for the reader’s copy!

[rating stars=”five-stars”]

excerpt-my favorite scene@Jul

~XANDER~

The impatient tremor in her voice triggered something inside of me. “What’s happened?”
Her cat eyes lifted toward me, then widened. She knew I knew something had happened.

“Nothing.”

My hand froze in the air with my glass raised. “Tell me,” I ordered.

Nervously, and somewhat defiantly, she flipped the braids hanging on her left side with the pink-dyed hair over her shoulder. My eye caught on the raised red scratch and the bruise forming at the base of her throat, right where her pulse was.

Rage—white-hot—surged through my veins. I couldn’t move, couldn’t think, all my darkest emotions narrowed in on the mark on her neck and the motherfucker I was going to kill for putting it there.

Dommiel spoke, but I barely registered the words. “We need to leave them alone.”
The other three quietly made their exit. I only noticed out of my peripheral vision, because I couldn’t think through the haze of red pouring like lava through my blood, pushing me to find my biggest, sharpest knife so I could gut the creature that put a mark on her.

“Xander?” A fearful whisper.

That’s when I finally raised my gaze to hers, finding a myriad of emotions flashing across her expression. But the most potent was fear.

Slowly—viper-coiling-for-the-strike slowly—I set my glass on the lip of the table and eased off into a standing position.

“Who?” I was well aware that my blood-boiling, must-murder reaction might have come across as over-the-top. Even so, I couldn’t stop it, couldn’t keep the thoughts of dismemberment and carnage from bouncing around in my brain. “Who…put that mark on your skin?”

“Xander. You need to calm down.”

Keeping my movements slow, steady, perhaps eerily so, I walked closer to her. She didn’t back away, but when we were less than a foot apart, she put her palms on my chest to stop my forward movement.

Lifting my hand, I didn’t touch the mark, but rather cupped her face and pulled her closer, piercing her with the violent intent I had for the dead man or dead demon. “Carowyn.” I hardly recognized my voice, gravel deep. “Tell me who did this to you.”

“It doesn’t hurt. I’m fine.”

I pulled her closer, gently stroking my thumb across her perfect cheekbone. “Who?”

She swallowed hard, glancing away before meeting my gaze again. “It was Rook. That’s why I came looking for you.”

I’d been a demon hunter for over two hundred years. In that time, I’d witnessed horrifying, heinous things, and countless times I’d avenged the good by expelling the evil back to hell. I’d returned unjust cruelty with just and swift violence. I exacted retribution without a thought, an extension of who I was now. But never, in all that time, had I yearned to eviscerate another creature with the burning desire for blood the way I did at that moment. The many ways I could cause pain to a demon prince flitted through my mind. It was an unsettling but also a satisfying feeling.

“I will kill him,” I stated quietly, my voice shaking.