Hope is in short supply, but courage runs deep as the Salamancan hunters recover from a devastating loss. Jenn knows she must rally her team against the Cursed Ones, but her focus is shattered. She's torn between passion for Antonio, who once fought by her side, and hate for the bloodthirsty vampire he's become. His volatility is tearing apart their team...and Jenn's trust.
As the Cursed Ones amass new strength, Team Salamanca must stick together if they hope to survive, let alone defend humanity. Jenn wants to believe Antonio's loyal to their cause--and their lover--but she's slowly losing her heart to Resistance fighter Noah. And if Antonio's not careful, he may just end up with a stake in his.
It's been ages since I read the last book in Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguie's Crusade trilogy, I read it as an ARC in 2011, so it's been a really long time! No matter, after a few bumps in the road I was able to get back on track with Vanquished.
So much has happened to Jenn and her team that it's impossible to sum it all up now, even with my poor memory! This time around, Jenn is still hurting from Antonio's actions, he went to the "dark side" and was able to come back to himself, but there's a distance between them. She loves him still, but it's hard to know if he feels the same way. And having Noah there only complicates things. This is one of the more complicated love triangles I think, and yet not really complicated. Noah is a pretty awesome guy and he cares for Jenn, even gave up smoking because she didn't like it. He's a good guy and could make her happy, yet I don't see many sparks between them. Jenn frets a lot over Antonio and wanting to be with him and yet his holding back because he's a vampire. It gets a little tiring at times, but not to the point where I hate the characters.
With so many characters in these lovely authors' series, it's always hard to "sum up" what happened with who. Too much happened! We get back in touch with Skye and her being kidnapped by her ex, Jamie decides to go after her and rescue her. Where Heather, Jenn's sister and newly made vampire, is on a mission of her own. To kill Aurora.
Heather was an interesting character to follow, I felt like I knew what she was doing at times, but then she would do something else that would totally blindside me! I wasn't expecting her to do this or that. For that matter, there were a LOT of surprises in this one!
It's the final book and the final battle. Jenn and her accumulated team that has crossed borders to get to her and her friends are going to take down the vampires, led by Lucifer, yep, that GUY! The battle was long and worrying because so much was happening, lives were being lost left and right, by both bad guys and good guys. By the end we're left reeling with all the chaos that had been wrought.
I thought the ending was good, maybe a touch to perfect, yet there's still all these other things the characters have to consider that are on the horizon. We won't get to see any of that though. For now, the story is done.
Yet I am still left reeling with a few questions, ones I can't really pose, but it makes me wonder are we sure it's all said and done? How did this "event" work out the way it did? What was all that? Errg! Too many questions and no answers in sight! And if that wasn't enough to make my head spin, the epilogue brings about another question!! It's hard to explain the exact feeling I got, but I was seriously thinking somewhere along the lines of "say what?" again! It was just that surprising! And there were just too many twists and questions like that that left me a little unsatisfied to truly enjoy the novel, hence the not perfect, but still awesomely good, rating.
All in all, it was a good read. I enjoyed reading this trilogy because I have enjoyed the duo authors' first series that was cancelled for a few year, tearing my world apart since that fourth book (or second book in the second compilation for newbies) ended with a whopper of a cliffhanger! Took years before that cliffhanger pain to end! Anyways, this series has been good! Different from the last, but has the same writing style the authors have adapted with multiple points of view in third person, from both hero/heroine and enemy alike! I cannot wait to see what the next series these ladies cook up will be!
Overall Rating 4/5 stars
We both have Nancy Holder on the brain today! Thanks for stopping by.
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