A review by chaos_tempest
Born of Vengeance by Sherrilyn Kenyon
2.0
I wanted to love this book, I wanted to love the romance between Bastien and Ember so much, I wanted to further the story in some way, shape or form, and it failed me in all three ways. I have loved Sherrilyn Kenyon for years, she was the first real romance author I religiously followed, but the last several books from her have been less and less promising.
Bastien, as we know, was convicted of killing his family in a failed coup d'état and was sentenced to be a thrill kill for would be assassins. He hides out on a planet, often used by Andarions for the Endurance right, that blocks the tracker hidden in his body. Ember was a captain on Bastien's home planet, his partner, actually, after a controversial mishap with another aristo. Before the uprising, they of course fell in love, do we get to see this happen, no, not in the slightest. Ember becomes scared and backs out of the relationship (not Bastien's fault), leaving him wide up open to take the fall. Time skip, jump thing, insert Jullien, then Dancer, then Jullien again, keep in mind, these scenes are from other books and in BoV it takes up over half the book. When Bastien is finally, and I mean FINALLY, reunited with Ember, it was almost like nothing happened, they pick up right where they left off, with no build-up or romance.
If you can't tell, this book was a cop out filler, and a poor one at that. The Bastien that was portrayed to us in the other two books was strong and independent, willing to take a beating to save two kids he barely knows. We don't get to see that Bastien here. In BoV, Bastien whines, woe is me, think of Ember, more woe, etc. The scenes from BoL or BoF could have been beneficial to character building, since they are from his perspective instead, but they weren't used that way. The romance and love that Ember and Bastien shared could have been a cute and riotous story. They both have the potential characteristics for raising Hell and getting reactions from people, they had SO much potential, why wasn't it utilized?!
Also, I don't understand why SK keeps saying that this series can be read independently. If a newbie went into this book, no knowledge of the rest of the series, they would have no idea what was going on. This series absolutely should be read in order!
Bastien, as we know, was convicted of killing his family in a failed coup d'état and was sentenced to be a thrill kill for would be assassins. He hides out on a planet, often used by Andarions for the Endurance right, that blocks the tracker hidden in his body. Ember was a captain on Bastien's home planet, his partner, actually, after a controversial mishap with another aristo. Before the uprising, they of course fell in love, do we get to see this happen, no, not in the slightest. Ember becomes scared and backs out of the relationship (not Bastien's fault), leaving him wide up open to take the fall. Time skip, jump thing, insert Jullien, then Dancer, then Jullien again, keep in mind, these scenes are from other books and in BoV it takes up over half the book. When Bastien is finally, and I mean FINALLY, reunited with Ember, it was almost like nothing happened, they pick up right where they left off, with no build-up or romance.
If you can't tell, this book was a cop out filler, and a poor one at that. The Bastien that was portrayed to us in the other two books was strong and independent, willing to take a beating to save two kids he barely knows. We don't get to see that Bastien here. In BoV, Bastien whines, woe is me, think of Ember, more woe, etc. The scenes from BoL or BoF could have been beneficial to character building, since they are from his perspective instead, but they weren't used that way. The romance and love that Ember and Bastien shared could have been a cute and riotous story. They both have the potential characteristics for raising Hell and getting reactions from people, they had SO much potential, why wasn't it utilized?!
Also, I don't understand why SK keeps saying that this series can be read independently. If a newbie went into this book, no knowledge of the rest of the series, they would have no idea what was going on. This series absolutely should be read in order!