Review: Dark & Violent...a guilty pleasure!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 16, 2013
I liked this story, but when I finished I felt like something was missing.  When I thought about it, I realized that after having read The Wolf and The Dark Knight back-to-back which were 800+ pages each, I missed those other 400+ pages!  This story is gripping from the beginning and I liked how Remington didn't allow anyone to dissuade her from how she felt no matter how abhorrent it seemed (or was) to everyone else.  Jax was extremely ignorant of anything nice or sweet in life and was the true meaning of a war machine, but I liked the premise that anyone can change.  Although I believe people can be born inherently evil (psychopaths), there are others who have done evil things, but are not evil to the bone and can change.  He tried for her and that was very sweet.  We are all due and afforded a second chance in life to grow and do/be better.  That being said, it is the height of barbarism to go around killing women and children, staking men while alive then hoisting them up in a macabre forest of dead knights and soldiers.  While I think it's a contradiction to believe that a man who is a killer and knows only killing will treat a lady like a lady (without putting his hands on her or being abusive), this is fiction - romance fiction no less, and I would dearly like to believe that that a killer could truly be a "pet" to his lady and shower her with love and respect even though he was never taught how.  My last thought...I would liked to have known more about Jax's past, his childhood with is Father.  People are who they are because of their childhood and how they were raised; clearly his was rooted in barbarism as referenced, but I wished it was more fleshed out in order to give us more understanding into his character and how he came to be the way he was the day he layed siege to Pelinom Castle.  I certainly wouldn't mind reading about another de Velt male!