“After they were both done, the pile of knives and guns on the coffee table looked like they’d cleaned out an armory. “I think we have a problem, Dmitri.”

I suppose I have to admit that I’m starting to be fine with certain Romance novels (as long as they’re either lesbian Regency-Era, gay Napoleonic Wars-Era, or supernaturally bent), as this series is kind of enjoyable in a light, breezy, and “not taxing my brain to read” kind of way. The big third-act “gasp-worthy” reveal was…pretty obvious from maybe twenty pages in; you could tell it was just going to be that kind of book. It was also so nice (meant only slightly sarcastically) that Dimitri, a character that has been written in the previous three books to be a dangerous, vicious, sadistically sexual walking weapon for Raphael, the Angel who Made him, has a soft, caring, vulnerable side. I am also so glad that not only his mental anguish, but that of the other main character in this fiasco, Honor’s, emotional, physical, psychological, and sexual trauma can be cured by a good old case of:

.

I appreciate that the series, as schlocky as it is, does manage to have plot points that spread and continue and grow from book to book; everything is not wrapped up at the end of each book, and characters and relationships change and evolve throughout the series. Also how realistic it is to have characters that work in the same organization know each other by name only; not everywhere is a close, intimate clubhouse gathering. I will say one criticism is that for the two people who were the straws that allegedly stirred the plot’s drink, the villains almost seemed to be afterthoughts to the larger plot of Dimitri and Honor and their very fast slow burn. Though I guess slow clap for the fact that Dimitri is stopping just this side of forcing Honor because he prefers to have woman begging for it. On that point, instead of finding it all so hot and sexy to read, like I suspect Singh wants you to feel, I just thought “oh good, I won’t have to startle one of my cats by yeeting the book across the room at that point, if she tries to make rape sexy.”

Oh yeah; and I am so, so glad that in this world of mindless violence, depravity, S&M, and truly unhealthy at times relationships, incest is still highly frowned upon. If it hadn’t been, my feeling of this book as

would have been well and truly complete. Can you tell I have conflicted feelings about actually reading this series? I only bought the first because “the Angel Raphael owning NYC and having a pseudo-S&M relationship with a cross between Buffy and Dean Winchester” sounded strange enough to try, and now I’ve wound up slowly getting through the series. I will never read another of her series, though; this one is more than enough.

I mean, this is an actual example of writing from this book:

Honor?

Yes.