ARC Review--Cashmere by Temple West

This high-stakes sequel to Velvet proves that when you’re the only human caught in a paranormal war, high school can get a little tricky. With Adrian’s brother trapped in hell, the Praetorian Guard has made Stony Creek their base-of-operations, but Caitlin has a bad feeling they’re more interested in her than in finding Lucian. Caught in a sea of conspiracies and lies, Caitlin and Adrian perform a risky magical procedure in an attempt to protect Caitlin from compulsion.

Relieved that her nightmares have ended, Caitlin is disturbed to find that something even stranger has taken their place.

Determined to get on with her life, even amid a crazy paranormal manhunt, she applies for a competitive summer fashion internship in New York. Searching desperately for answers about what Caitlin might be, how Adrian’s father is involved, and where Lucian has been kidnapped to, Caitlin and Adrian must rely on each other to survive. But when the truth finally comes to light, the consequences are unimaginable.

And the question still haunts them both: even if they survive, how will they deal with the fact that Adrian is immortal and Caitlin is not?

I received this book from the publisher, via Netgalley, in exchange for a voluntary and honest review. I was in no way compensated for this review.

There’s nothing I love more than being able to read part of a series back to back…well, binging a series is also fun too, same concept, but more finality to it that way! Regardless, I couldn’t bring myself to wait another year to start Temple West’s Velvet trilogy and after finding that I really enjoyed that one I immediately went to book two, Cashmere.

Cashmere picks up a few months after the events of Velvet. Lucian is still missing and Tommie aka the name of the man who is being possessed by Adrian’s demon father, is also unaccounted for. Add to that we have Guard (there was a more specific name but of course I’ve forgotten it!) members in town, sent by the Council, leading the search for Lucian. Things are incredibly tense! Adrian and Caitlin must still play their roles from last time, Adrian being the bodyguard and they can’t allow their feelings to ever show through or else there will be hell to pay.

Caitlin has been offered a grand opportunity with an internship at a fashion designer where other high school students attend for one month. There she can live out her dream of being a designer and learn the trade through experience. Though the Guard has sent bodyguards with her, sadly not Adrian, because they still believe she could be important to Adrian’s dad and requires watching over. But naturally, we learn there’s more to it than that. I still don’t feel like we have a very good idea of what exactly Caitlin is. We get a name and some possible theories, all we know is that it’s something the Council doesn’t like.

I struggle to accurately explain why I enjoy these books. When I look at all my notes and reflect on things, you would think I would be put off by it. True, this time around we have less romance focused plots and none of the cliché tropes, so I was happier about that. But the pacing is still a little off. I mean we have like a month of time before the internship and then a month at the internship and it’s like we live out each and every one of those days with Caitlin. All while the search for Lucian is going down and while Caitlin and Adrian and Julian try to figure out what exactly she is and what it means. You would think it would bog me down having to drag through so many non-critical moments…and yet, I’m not! It’s weird, because pacing is usually an issue for me. If it’s too slow, I’m likely to quit the series after giving the first book a go, but I find I am still really enjoying these characters and the storyline itself!

We get a newly added character thrown into the mix, Kalare. She’s a vampire and a sort of Guard member. But she’s very different from the others in her group. Kalare is kind of sassy and I loved it! I feel like I could totally be BFFs with her! Caitlin is like her polar opposite with being more bubbly about things so it was kind of funny that these two slowly become friends! And oh yes, there’s definitely some tension between her and Julian…of the romantic kind of course! And Caitlin may or may not take advantage of this at one point! I’m most excited to see if more things develop between them!

Another thing I enjoy is how Caitlin continues to try to balance her normal life with her somewhat twisted paranormal life. Or at least involvement with the paranormal peeps! She has human friends with very human like troubles and I admire her. She’s very conscientious about other’s feelings it seems like and she tires hard to maintain her friendships with her human gal pals while trying to continue to keep Adrian and his family’s secret, secret. Though I was surprised to see that she and Trish were on the outs in this one, for a great deal of time. Trish was another favorite of mine!

This series so far has done very well for itself if balancing Caitlin’s life with normalcy and paranormalcy. She’s struggling to figure out the big secret that surrounds her life these days and I feel like we only just reached the surface of all that mystery!

There was a lot less kissing in this one! Granted our star-crossed lovers are separated for most of it, and they’re trying to keep their (true) love a secret from pretty much all the vampires, except Julian for as we already know, he knows about them! We aren’t left completely in wanting though, and trust me on this…less is more! Lol!

The ending was pretty shocking too! Far more scandalous than Velvet’s cliffhanger. I feel like this one came in parts! So I definitely cannot wait to get my hands on the next one! And it seems safe to say, it shouldn’t (hopefully) take Temple as long to write this one! Cashmere is another perfect example of why vampire romances will always have a special place in my heart!

 
Overall Rating 4/5 stars


Cashmere releases on February 14, 2017