Published: April 29, 2014
Why, oh why, is this the last book in the Angels of the Dark series? I want more of the Army of Disgrace. This book took me quite a while to finish. I was reading other books and then just listening to this one while I was at work and working out. But, of course, the audiobook was amazing. Max Bellmore is a fabulous narrator and he continues to be stupendous in his craft. I eventually did finish this one but I never really wanted it to end.
We get to see Thane of the Three, a Sent One with more weeds in his garden than flowers. He starts the book out enslaved by the Phoenix princess, Kendra, which is the direction that we saw him heading in at the end of the last book. With help he is pulled out of his drugged enslavement and escapes back to his world. Where he and his boys promptly get revenge on every Phoenix in that camp.
Elin is a halfling who was taken captive by the Phoenix after they killed her father and husband and kidnapped her mother. While a slave of the Phoenix she lost her mother and soon had nothing left to lose by helping the new Sent One who was under Kendra’s enslavement. However, after Thane takes her with him to Downfall (his nightclub) and she sees what happens to all of the the Phoenix she is worried about telling him about her halfling status. Though she is not ashamed of it she is afraid for her life with good reason. She does not want to end up on a stake.
I feel like this book explored having a relationship more than the other books. Like many of the hero’s, Thane fights his attraction to Elin because he cannot be with a human. He would hurt her and though seeing a woman suffer turned him on in the past he cannot abide by it with Elin. We get to see changes like that in Thane in a slower dialogue than we generally do with the other characters. Maybe it was because it took me so long to finish the novel or it was just the quality of the writing but the struggles in the relationship of these two characters was more real than in the books previous. What also helped this was the crazy other women in the book that worked at the bar. They were the friends Elin needed and gave a good balance to Thane’s seriousness and his hot and cold routine.
This book did bring out some feelings and a tear or two for me. Thane pushes Elin away when he finds out who she really is but, thankfully, Xerxes has the foresight to create a bond with her before taking her home. Not to the Phoenix camp like Thane wanted. But to wherever she wanted. Where she promptly found herself in trouble. Additionally, there was a lot of emotional struggle in this book as well as learning what happened to the Sent One king and who was responsible. For a very good read you absolutely do not need to look any further. This one has everything you should be looking for!
—“Well not every relationship can be as healthy as ours.” – Elin, mate to Thane of the Three—
Angie
bookishlyromantic.com 