Review: Kendra Leigh Castle - Midnight Reckoning

Dark Dynasties Series:

Book 2:

Midnight Reckoning: Jaden Harrison and Lyra Black

Summary:

Jaden is free for the first time in his long immortal life.  For the first time he can make his own decisions, go where he wants to go and do whatever he wants with no enchanted leashed tied to him. He is enjoying that freedom when he sees Lyra a werewolf he has seen before being attacked by another werewolf. He is not sure what he is thinking when he steps in to protect Lyra, their first encounter was not a good one.  When Lyra sees who her savior is, she is less then pleased. She remembers meeting this arrogant vampire and it was not a good meeting. Instead of thanking the vampire she ends up yelling at him and running off, forgetting that her mother’s necklace was left behind.

Jaden has been thinking about Lyra since their last encounter and now he has her necklace to entice him more. Looking at the necklace and wondering about the woman who wears it. He knows that he will not be able to get anything done until he satisfies his curiosity. So he sets off for werewolf country.

Lyra does not have time for men, she is destined to be her Packs Alpha, but Pack traditions do not allow for female Alphas.  They are stuck in the middle ages when it comes to women’s liberation.  She has to figure out a way to enter the Proving and not get killed. Her cousin definitely has it out for her and she has no real training to speak of.  The chances of surviving if she can’t get any training are not good.

When Jaden arrives in the werewolf territory he knows that he is walking in dangerous territory, and is not surprised when he is attacked by a werewolf outside Lyra’s home. What he didn’t expect was to receive an offer of employment by the Alpha himself…

Review:

 To first point out I did not read the first book in this series. I personally feel that this was a mistake; I was definitely missing important pieces of information and was drop kicked into this world with very little knowledge of cast and background.  I will probably go back and read the first book, which seems like it would have been very interesting.

That being said at first I was a little perplexed with the whole cat shape shifting and a vampire at the same time. I am used to one or the other but not both. So I found it kind of weird at first, but got used to it. The whole world was kind of strange at first, I didn’t know anything of this new world I found the different species odd, it was all the familiars but with a twist.  But by about half way through I think I finally got the gist of what was going on at least when it came to Jaden. Overall, I would have liked to see more of the training between Lyra and Jaden it was basically glossed over, but it is where they were spending most of their time, the purpose of his staying in werewolf territory. A lot of their interaction was fluff and kind of in passing. It took me a while to really get into this book, but once I did, I was in it and interested. There is even a twist or two just to keep things interesting.

 Lyra, I got, the wolves were pretty easy. However, I wasn’t all that thrilled with Lyra. She is in her early 20’s, she knew the proving was coming up; she even knew that she wanted to participate, yet she didn’t do anything to train for it. She just whined that the gender issues that Packs have were unfair.  If I knew that I was going to have to fight to the death possibly I don’t think I would wait until a month before the event to finally start thinking about doing something and even then, her father still had to take the initiative for her. That’s not my idea of a strong leader, I’m just saying. After a while she started getting with the program, so I started liking her more towards the middle of the book.

Jaden is easy to like. He’s pretty easy going, he’s just happy to be free for the first time I several centuries.  He wasn’t expecting to be so attracted to Lyra, but once he acknowledged it he wasn’t afraid to go after her, even though it was basically forbidden by both races.  This is definitely a case of forbidden love for both Jaden and Lyra, but Lyra has the most to lose from this union including possible death by her Pack.

Rating: