Review: Ren's Story At Last
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 8, 2010
My standard Grimm's Circle open: The Grimm are a group of nearly immortal angels, sent to protect the world from demons and other evil. First created centuries ago, it was decided that to explain the odd circumstances of their lives and deaths, strange tales would be woven about their lives, stories that eventually would become folk tales, fairy tales and legends. Grimm are humans with special gifts in their normal lifetimes, gifts like healing or empathy, who are given a choice before their death: die then or become a Grimm, fighting with them forever or until they choose to give up their wings and die a natural death in a human lifespan.Ren finally gets his story; he was first introduced inNo Prince Charming: Grimm's Circle, Book 2as the occasional lover of Elle, a woman he was in love with who didn't love him back, then he appeared in the short story,I Thought It Was You: Grimm's Circle, Book 2.5, as he continued to struggle with his feelings and felt on the brink of insanity.  At that time, Grimm usher Will appeared with a new project for him: mentoring future Grimm, the teenager Mandy, who'd been saved from demon possession in the first Grimm's Circle book,Candy Houses (Grimm's Circle, book 1), by Greta.  I know, it's a lot to take in, but if you haven't already started the series from the top, it's well worth going back and doing so.As the story opens, Ren is forcing Mandy out on a run in rural Wisconsin when they're nearly run off the road by a woman.  Aileas has been trying to escape something, evil, voices, a presence..something, for more than a week now, and all she knows is that it's related to the book she's been carrying in the back seat of her car since she found it after her brother's death.  When she nearly runs the strange couple off the road she's not sure if she's grateful for their help or more afraid, because suddenly they've got even more company, it's not of the human kind, and these two seem a little non-human themselves.There are actually quite a few things capable of being spoilers in this book, so I'm going to keep my comments to Ren and Aileas.Ren's talent is empathy (some of which manifests itself in a sort of endearing communication with all sorts of animals in the area).  Aileas also has some of the same, so the two of them were always jumping around on each other's emotions because she wasn't able to shield very well from him.  Ren had some major baggage with his pre-Grimm past; because of his gift, he's always needed both a degree of isolation and some internal control which he didn't have then and there were difficult situations with his family.  He's a wounded soul and at least to date, my favorite Grimm.I didn't get much of a feel for Aileas, maybe because Ren overwhelmed her or maybe just because she wasn't Grimm and didn't have the same sort of back story that they always do; of course, I'd had three books to get to know Ren too.  I will say that I loved how supportive she always was of Ren, especially when she learned of his past.  What can be said about when they gave in to the inevitable (he is a sexy beast)?  Smoking hot.There's a nice big gory battle at the end with a glance at some extra Grimm and a couple of very big choices are made in the story.  Will gets a good little story time here too and there's a more expansive look into his personality.  It's finally revealed at the end exactly who Ren is and exactly what his past is and how his legend evolved.I did all sorts of adding, subtracting and adding again for my rating, but in the end, Ren won out.  I like the way the series is evolving; I would say darker, but I'm not sure that's the right word.  It's more serious, the subject matter is weightier, maybe.  The back stories on the Grimm are half the fascination of the story and are amazingly inventive.