Review: Great world building
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 19, 2013
First of all, I'd like to say that I'm a fan of Belinda McBride. I read Blacque/Bleu and loved it (my fave read of 2012). I read Doms of Dark Haven 1 & 2 partly because of her. So when I found out about Toxic I knew I had to read it.However, this story fell short of my expectations. Okay, let me explain myself.This is a well written story. The characters are likeable. I love that Briony is comfortable in her skin and loves chocolate, my kind of girl. Rico is just hot and the few love scenes sizzle.The author spent a lot of effort in building a believable world around the characters and introducing some really wonderful secondary characters. Chase Montgomery is fabulous. I think I met him initially in one of the Doms of Dark Haven short stories. I can't wait to read his story in the series. Dionne Theale is absolutely fabulous and I hope she finds love in her own story.But the downside of having all these larger-than-life secondary characters is that Briony and especially Rico pale in comparison. It also doesn't help that for more than 50 percent of the story Briony and Rico were apart and Rico was stuck in wolf form. I just didn't feel that much connection to them as a couple. In fact I had more connection with Sage, another secondary character. I hope he gets his own story too.All-in-all, this is an enjoyable read and I hope the author writes the follow-on stories soon. If you enjoy stories with emphasis on the 'world-building' than on the 'romance', then this works perfectly. Pick up a copy and make up your own mind.