Review: Nice continuation of the 1st book but . . .
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 15, 2013
**** SPOILER ALERT *****This review will cover both Books 2 and 3 of the trilogy.I gave Book 1 all five of my stars because I didn't want to put my book down.  I promptly dove into the Book 2 and, well, I found the story line was beginning to drag and it wasn't a problem at all for me to set the story aside to do other things.  Disappointingly, Book 3 was easy to permanently shelve because:In Book 1 it was taboo to even entertain the idea of co-mingling pure blood lines and the Law Keepers were always looking over your shoulder to keep everyone in line.  Prophecy and Valentine spent many chapters fighting their feelings at the risk of betraying their blood line's loyalty.  By the time we get to Book 3, fraternization with the other blood lines isn't even on the radar.Which brings me to Venturi.  At the end of Book 1 Prophecy destroys the leader of the Tennebrae and Venturi is instantly promoted.  Now herein lies another problem with the storyline: Venturi - as the new Lord of the Tennebrae - doesn't stick around to help his destroyed family heal from the destructive battle that Prophecy and Valentine in hindsight accidentally waged; he doesn't tend to any "passing of the scepter" housekeeping details.  Nope!  He suddenly has a crush on Prophecy & immediately traipses off with her on her quest to find Valentine and to destroy Elena who is out to rule the world.  He doesn't give a single thought to the Law Keepers.Prophecy.  Oh, where to begin?!  The men in her life keep telling her how strong she is. Well, she's got mad witchcraft skills when she can figure out how to use them, but emotionally she's entirely co-dependent.  She seems to need to be around a man to hug, lick, bite and console at her leisure.  She loves Valentine - but refuses to allow either of them to even say the words aloud to one another.  She dangles Venturi along like a puppy and he's a gullible sap who will do anything and everything she asks.Prophecy wears her star necklace her entire life but it doesn't occur to her that it might be the key to open her spell book.  I figured that out in Book 2 but it took Prophecy way later into Book 3 before her attempted assassin / father poked her in the head with the knowledge.  The whole "you're my father??" scene was eyeball rolling.Claims - just what does it take to claim a fellow vampire so that you won't feel tempted to look to others because you're so consumed with your lover?  Sex isn't enough and having  magic threads turning colors or weaving between you and your lover doesn't make the claim, either.  Claims were a big deal in Book 1 and by 60% of Book 3 it still wasn't defined.And speaking of that big battle to save the world.  It was the focus of the story line from the very beginning but the author just dragged on the inevitable to the point that I just didn't care.  In Book 3 the author did the predictable: she had Elena cackling to her captured audience all her evil plans for world domination.  *Yawn*  Isn't that the recipe for every B-grade book and movie?  By the time I flounced, the image of Elena in my head became Ursula from the Disney movie The Little Mermaid.All told, the idea of the story is good but I think it should have been just two books instead of three.  Venturi was a nice character but he was a time consuming distraction to the story who aided to Prophecy's co-dependency.  The story just needed to move along to keep the action exciting.To the author's credit, she wrote very sensual scenes between the characters.  Vampire neck biting was pretty tingling to read and the eventual sex scenes were done quite well.