Review: Born of Vengeance

Title: Born of Vengeance
Author: Sherrilyn Kenyon
Series: The League #10
Publication Date: February 7, 2017
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Book Type: Hardcover (library)
Page Count: 406
Rating: 3/5 starfish
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Synopsis:

A fate worse than death . . .

Bastien Cabarro survived the brutal slaughter of his entire family only to have his wife pin their murders on him. Made Ravin by The League, he is now a target for their assassins-in-training to hunt and kill. The average life expectancy for such beings is six weeks. But defying the odds is what this Gyron Force officer does best, and Bastien won’t rest until he lays his betrayers in their graves.

Ten years later, he has one chance to balance the scales of justice, provided he relies on his former wingman— the very sister of the woman who testified against him.

Major Ember Wyldestarrin joined the outlaw Tavali the day Kirovar fell into the hands of a tyrant, and she and her team were left on an outpost to die under a barrage of enemy fire. The last thing she wants is to be involved in politics again. But if she doesn’t bring Bastien in, her sister will pay the ultimate price. Now she has to find some way to betray her former wingman (and fiance) before he catches on and kills her. Even so, treachery doesn’t come easy to a woman who took a loyalty oath to protect her homeworld and comrades-in-arms.

Yet as she tries to do right by her family, she learns that Bastien doesn’t just hold the key to the fate of Kirovar, he is vital to The Sentella-League war, and to the entire Tavali nation. If she hands him over, three nations fall. If she doesn’t, her entire family dies. Their fates are all in her hands, and time for all of them is quickly running out.



My Review:

I am a huge fan of Sherrilyn Kenyon!  This series is up there as one of my all - time favorites, HOWEVER…..this book was a disappointment for me.  I had originally rated it 4 stars but the more I thought about it while preparing to write my review, the more issues I found with it and the lower my rating got.

In the beginning, we start out with Ember being assigned a new wingman, Bastien Cabarro.  He is known as a playboy and she is none too excited to be babysitting him.  When he saves her sister and asks her out on a date, that’s the end of that story.  We get nothing of them dating until the next chapter flashed to a year later and he asks her to marry him.  What the heck?  This is becoming all too familiar with Kenyon’s latest novels.  We get flashed forward months, or sometimes even years, leaving out detailed parts of the story.  Then we flash forward again, and Bastien is on the run, trying to survive his Ravin sentencing.  Now, here is where we get his point of view in retold parts of previous books and scenes that involved him.  I hate this!  Give me a new story, not one retold 3 times but through someone else’s perspective each time.  Did we really need to waste 3 books doing this? Three entire books might I add. 

Another of my issues is The Sentella – League War that is going on.  Where is the war???  It is just noted that the war has started but we don’t get any details.  I am really hoping that the next book will focus on  the war and going after Kyr.  

It seems like this book was forced, and not much effort was put into the details or even the story itself.  I am very disappointed and I hope that her next book will go back to how she used to write, creative, detailed and a story that is not a repeat of the last one.  I will admit that the bonus story at the end seemed promising, so I’m hanging on, but it’s by an unraveling thread, and I hope Kenyon can save me with book #12.