Book Review: Rise of the Fallen, by Donya Lynne

Rise of the Fallen
Donya Lynne

Initial Thoughts: Cover is great; story is average.

My Rating: 3.5 Stars

Summary:
In the streets of Chicago exists an uneasy, centuries-old truce between vampires and their distant cousins, a race of shifters called drecks. Vampire enforcement agency, All the King’s Men (AKM), is charged with maintaining the truce, but when volatile enforcer Micah Black loses his mate and falls into the biological agony that results from the broken bond, he tests the boundaries of the truce by seeking out Apostle, a leader in the dreck community. Micah wants Apostle to kill him, a request Apostle is more than happy to fulfill.

When ex-Army medic Samantha Garrett inadvertently disrupts the plot and saves Micah’s life, a chain reaction sets Micah’s heart on a collision course with Sam’s, but he will have to protect her from Apostle and her obsessive ex-husband, Steve, if they will have a chance at forever. Can Micah hold his emotions together to keep Sam alive?

My Thoughts:

First off, I love this cover. It's HOT, totally hot. And this book (and review) is for the 18+ crowd...so if you're a young 'un, you might want to skip this one. OK?

So, this story doesn't only cover Micah and Sam's stories, but a host of other folks. Some you like. Some you don't. Some you just don't care.

And there's all kinds of sex. Straight sex. Gay sex. Kinky sex. If this isn't your cup of tea, um, don't pick up this book. I personally found it interesting to read some of this stuff, never having been exposed to it before.

As for Micah, here's my problem. The guy's a dick. And you can't even blame the broken bond for his dick-i-ness. He was always a dick. Everyone knows he's a dick. Very few like him despite it. Most fear him or don't care. Some liked to see him broken. You can't like or emphasize with a dick. At least, I couldn't. And while I felt for his loss, I didn't care because, ya know, he's a dick!

But he is So. Good. Looking. Almost makes me want to try to save the dick myself. Ya know what I mean? 

I have to admit, I liked him more towards the end, especially his treatment of Sam... but the dude's gotta shed that dick bag he carries around and be more like-able.

Loved Sam. Loved her strength and grit and determination. Hated her douche of an ex-husband. He deserved everything he got! It was quite comical, actually. 

As for plot? It was ok, though there were some unanswered questions. There's a whole story line about a guardian that who or why or what he was all about is unexplained. At least, if it was explained I didn't get it. While I liked the guardian character quite a bit--one of my favorites, in fact--I didn't get what his purpose was.

So let's get to the meat and potatoes...the sex. The descriptions were good, if lacking a little viscerally. I thought adding the sound affects (like "Ungggh"), was kind of a turn off. Better to describe the actions and reactions viscerally than to put sound affects like that in dialogue. To me, it was off-putting and distracting.