Brought to you by OBS reviewer Heidi
The second story in Jeaniene Frost’s Night Huntress World series takes us to a story about Mencheres, one that tells all about the joys of second chances and feelings of redemption.
Mencheres has lived a long life, but hasn’t felt the same vigor for living that he once had, ever since he helped deliver death to his estranged and evil wife, Patra. He no longer has visions and sees nothing, but darkness when he tries, which leads him to believe that his end is near. And, with his jealous enemy, Radjedef, after Mencheres’s power, he knows it’s only a matter of time before it’s taken from him and he’s killed. So, Mencheres decides to end his own life so that Bones and his people do not suffer from punishments handed down from Radjedef and the rest of the Law Guardians.
Mencheres decides to investigate a young vampire’s death and feels it’s as good of a time as any to die, once he is surrounded by the ghouls responsible. He just never expected a young human to intervene, putting her own life in danger. He is forced to save them both and takes her home with him.
Mencheres can’t read Kira’s thoughts and is unable to remove the memories of him and the ghouls from her mind. He keeps her at his house hoping that in time, he will be able to. Once, he determines that will never happen and that she needs to get back to her sick sister, he decides to trust her and let her go.
Neither expects the loss they feel at not having the other around anymore. So, when Kira’s mission to find Mencheres leaves her in a life or death situation, it’s up to Mencheres to come to her rescue. But now his greatest enemy has new ammunition to use against him to get everything he wants.
I really wanted to like this story, but I found the first half of the book to be incredibly boring, and I struggled to keep reading it. Once Kira starts looking for Mencheres it does get better, but it’s not Frost’s best work by a long shot.
It was nice getting a more thorough look at Mencheres and getting to understand his character better. Seeing him near death and brought back by love is a touching concept, especially with Kira being the first person who has ever truly loved him. I’m glad to see he’s finally found that and can be happy, I just wish getting to that point hadn’t been so dull.
Also, it was interesting to see the Mayan ruins, Chichen Itza, being the place where Kira was taken to after being kidnapped since I’ve actually been there and I could kind of imagine the scene.
It was pretty obvious once Mencheres met with Aken, who was going back in that boat though. There was no way that it would have been Mencheres or some innocent. But it was nice to see that Kira wasn’t willing to play the damsel in distress and aided in her own escape.
This storyline was pretty simple, a little too simple perhaps. This one is much darker than the other Jeaniene Frost books up to this point. There is no humor as this book is filled with Mencheres’s internal struggles and painful past. But the hot sex was definitely ramped up in this one, with the help of Mencheres’s power to act as an extra set of hands:)
“Kira knew that his tongue felt like a vibrator set to the speed of Oh Hell Yeah”
I would recommend reading this story to anybody that is reading the Night Huntress series so that they understand what has happened and don’t lose any important details, but I just wouldn’t go into it expecting very much.
