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** spoiler alert ** I am BAFFLED by all the good reviews. I have read this entire series and was eagerly anticipating this book. What a disappointment. Usually I stay up all night in order to finish books from this series because I literally can't put them down, but I actually had to force myself to even finish this book at all.

First of all, I understand that Lothaire is not a "good guy." That has been established in the previous books; however, I feel like his behavior could have been spun differently so as to make him at least likeable in this book, which Cole just did not do. She tried to set up a background for Lothaire to explain why he is the way he is (which I won't go into here), but it just fell short for me. Also, if I had to read the words "end game" one more time I probably would have thrown the book across the room.

I thought the whole premise of Ellie being possessed by Lothaire's potential vampire bride, Saroya, was brilliant. And it started off really well. Somewhere along the way, however, (perhaps midway through) Cole seemed to lose steam. The story just wasn't going anywhere and the constant discussion about doing something to get the ring from La Dorada and subsequently banishing Ellie's soul just became redundant. It was almost like, enough already, stop talking about it and do it or shut up.

Also, SPOILER ALERT, I understand that Lothaire is an uber alpha male and all that, which I usually love. But when he turns Ellie into a vampire against her will, in the face of her flagrant and vehemently stated objections, I was annoyed. And when he didn't even apologize, flying the "I know what's best for you" flag, I was even more annoyed. BUT when Ellie, who up until that point was pretty strong and independent, just kind of accepted that without a fight, I was just over the book.

I felt like there was a lot of build up around the premise of Lothaire realizing and accepting mortal Ellie as his bride, but when it actually happened it was pretty anticlimactic. And he didn't really accept her as a mortal. I felt like he didn't accept her until he turned her (against her will) and made her into an immortal, which to me doesn't scream true and unconditional love. Long story short, it almost seemed like Cole just said forget it and wanted to finish the book.