Summary
The hunted now becomes the predator.
I bit a vampire. I sank my teeth right into his flesh and drew blood, and I liked it. Now, I’m craving blood as if I’m a creature of the night. I’m far from it. My family has been hunting and killing the bloodsuckers for centuries.
So it comes as a horrifying shock when my aunt catches me licking blood off a knife like its cake batter. Panicking, she calls someone who she thinks can help me. Little does she know that dangling me like a carrot to Sam Mason has consequences no one is prepared for, especially me.
I’m not ready to deal with the cocky Vampire Navy SEAL who rocked my world so hard, my brain is still recovering, and my body is still tingling.
But when I find the powerful Sam Mason and my aunt chatting like besties, my heart almost stops beating. If my uncle finds Sam on his property, he’ll burn him alive.
Little do I know it’s not my uncle I have to worry about. One of my sisters decides that I’m better off not falling for a bloodsucker. I assure her I’m not. But she knows me better than I know myself.
Now instead of killing vampires, I’m rushing to save one. I pray I can get there in time. Otherwise, my family will suffer a fate worse than death.
Excerpt
The odor of wet dog burned my nostrils as I stalked into the infirmary with one purpose in mind—tear out Dane Gray’s canines with my bare hands. My eyes flashed from green to silver and my fangs lowered slow and deadly.
Dane was responsible for what had happened to Ben. I couldn’t exactly prove it, but Ben’s wound was definitely from a large animal. Bears were a possibility, but they were rare in and around the city.
For the last eleven days since the ambulance brought Ben in, he’d been in and out of consciousness, and as the days passed, his condition wasn’t improving.
It felt like a dagger stabbing my heart over and over again anytime I looked at my best friend. He’d been through hell and back since I’d become a vampire. He’d been the product of an experiment gone wrong, and as a result, he was half human and half vampire. The vampire in him should have been healing him, which led us to believe he’d been bitten by a shifter. According to Doc, their venom could be poisonous to vampires. Not so much for humans. I was curious about whether Ben’s half-human side would become a shifter.
Tripp had said no unless an alpha had bitten him. Despite that, I was thankful a clerk at a gas station not far outside the state forest had found Ben behind his establishment and reacted quickly. Luckily, one of the paramedics on the scene knew Ben was a Navy SEAL stationed on the naval base. He’d gotten ahold of us, and we’d rerouted them here.
Tripp marched toward me, his bronze eyes pinpricks. “Back away. We don’t know that Dane’s pack is responsible for Ben.”
I glowered at the alpha in the distance as he and a bald dude gave Dr. Vieira their rapt attention.
I gritted my teeth. “He is. I feel it in my bones.”
Tripp slapped a hand on my shoulder just as Dane sat in a chair and held out his arm. He was there to give Doc a blood sample for his research. We’d agreed to help the Gray Pack uncover why one of their own had died from a shot of a drug used by Layla Aberdeen and her sisters that night at the club.
Tripp guided me into an empty patient room. “We invited them in. We are not getting into a fight. Not here. Not now. Are we clear?”
Growling, my fangs clicked into place as rage boiled inside me. I was one second away from ramming my fists into the glass supply cabinet. “Who’s the bald dude?”
Tripp swiped a hand over his sandy-blond hair tied into a ponytail at the nape of his neck. “Dane’s beta, Ross. Look, after Doc pulls their blood, I have a plan.”
I retracted my fangs. “Care to share?”
“Just follow my lead.” He sounded as frustrated as I probably looked.
I tucked my fury away for the time being, stretched my neck one way then the other, and trailed behind Tripp. If he had a plan, I was sure it was a good one. Unlike me, Tripp had an uncanny way of extracting the truth without beating someone over the head.
Blood flowed from Dane’s arm into a vial before Doc switched the filled tube with an empty one. Ross was engrossed in something on his phone as he waited his turn near the stainless steel counter along the sidewall opposite Doc.
Dane lasered his dark eyes on me as though he was ready to leap over the black countertop and tear out my throat.
That rage I held so tightly was about to burst as I approached.
Review
(audiobook) It was better and worse than the first book at the same time.
Better because there were a couple of unexpected twists that made it very entertaining. The balance between the plot and the romance was quite good too. It’s still a lightning fast instalove with a touch of fated mates trope, which isn’t for everyone, but both Layla and Sam show some more affection besides the obvious attraction. Though the love confessions happen very early in the relationship, they were still cute.
That also showed consistency in the characters. Sam is devoted and feels a lot of love–hidden behind a rough exterior–while Layla is stubborn and the conflict between her loyalty towards her family and the friendship and love she feels for their longtime enemies is the focus of the story.
I wouldn’t say the same about the side characters, who sometimes made incomprehensible decisions. They change side or contradict themselves quite often.
The sexy times took another meaning with Layla and Sam developping real feelings for each other, and what had been disturbing in their intercourses in the previous book become proofs of passion and love.
The worse part was the multiple unnecessary repetitions. Way more than in the first book. It’s supposed to NOT be a standalone, so of course people who are reading this book also read the previous one, there’s absolutely no need to repeat everything from the first book, nor for the flashbacks from the previous series, every other chapter. An author should assume their readers are smart, not have the memory span of a goldfish.
It was frustrating, because there was enough action and events to make it a fast paced book, but instead it drags a lot. You could literally skip a chapter and the plot wouldn’t have moved forward much.
The narration was also way better. The annoying tics from the female narrator have disappeared, leaving a solid narration. The male narrator expresses the subtle changes in Sam’s feelings quite well. A slightly better audio than the first book.
Quickie
- Series: Vampire navy SEAL: Sam & Layla #2 (ends on a cliffhanger, and references a lot another series by the same author)
- Hashtags: #paranormal romance #military romance #romantic suspense #enemies to lovers #surprise pregnancy #vampire #vampire hunter
- Triggers: violence and death, lots of blood, including blood play
- Main couple: Layla Aberdeen & Sam Mason
- Hotness: 3/5
- Romance: 4/5
- + Sam admits his feelings and it’s kind of cute
- – it draaaaaaaaags
Stalker mode
You can subscribe to SB Alexander’s newsletter on her website.
You can also follow her on Facebook.
Vero Ticker 