boeklogboek: J.K. Beck – When Pleasure Rules

donderdag 16 april 2015

J.K. Beck – When Pleasure Rules – Read for #LLC2015

The second book in the Shadow Keepers series, published September 28, 2010.
Genre: paranormal romance
Cover: good

Seven innocents have been brutally murdered in Los Angeles, yet the Shadow Alliance has no suspects and no leads. As the body count mounts, the age-old feud between vampires and werewolves threatens to explode.
Lissa Monroe - a strong-willed, ravishing succubus who entices men to surrender their souls - agrees to go undercover for the Alliance. Her mission: infiltrate the mind of werewolf leader Vincent Rand, a ferociously alluring enemy who exerts a powerful hold over her. As the City of Angels teeters on the brink of apocalypse, these two adversaries must join together in order to survive an even more lethal enemy hidden in plain sight.

I have read the first book over 3 years ago, and I really liked the world building, I just didn’t like the main characters. I am glad that I did not have that problem with the second book, as I loved everything about it.

Lissa Monroe is a succubus, while having sex she feeds on pieces of the man’s soul. Her secret ability is rare; she can also look inside his mind and find his deepest secrets. And exploiting those secrets has finally allowed her her freedom from the slavery that most succubi suffer under. She has her own nightclub, and she has managed to buy some other girls from their demons. Succubi are not true immortals, they do die but they come back without their memories of previous lives, although those can surface.

But now Lissa is in trouble, as her former owner has discovered who she was, and is now blackmailing her into killing a human by taking all of his soul. What Lissa does not know, is that the Alliance is also aware of her power, and is taken this moment to arrest her to co-erce her into helping them as well. Or else she will be imprisoned for murder. Her former lover Luke is a powerful attorney and a vampire, and he recognizes her as well. And although she betrayed him once, he still loves her and tries to help her as much as possible, acting as her attorney.

Someone or something is killing innocent people, draining them dry, and if the killer is not stopped, a war between the vampires and werewolves is almost certain. And both their leaders will be disposed of. So they are intent on finding the real killer and keep themselves safe. And so Doyle of the Alliance finds himself working with Vincent Rand, the enforcer of the Werewolf King. Rand doesn’t have to do things by the book, and at first they suspect him of the killings. And it is Rand that they want Lissa to read.
As she is very much attracted to Rand, something that has not happened for a while, and he to her, she doesn’t really want to, but when they become intimate, it will be inevitable. Untill she discover he has so little soul left, she would take it all if they have sex, and she refuses to do that. She won’t kill his soul!

Rand is send to Los Angeles to find the killer, as someone is pointing the finger to his boss. He has little scruples in how to do this job, but he doesn’t get very far in the investigations. Add in a human witch who plays both sides, the attraction between a succubus and a werewolf, a jealous ex-lover, a psychic demon-cop, dangerous bad guys and you have the potential for a great story.

J.K. Beck did a great job mixing it all together. I really liked Lissa from the first page, and Rand very quickly grew on me. He is so much better than he thinks he is himself. Even if he could not save his wife while he was in the army from a rival gang, or if he did not truly love her, he was not at fault. He got out. He thinks himself a killer born, trained to be a better killer by the army, when he got bitten and became the monster that was always within him. But Lissa sees the real Rand, and she stands by him, even when he believes the worst about her.

I loved this story, and will certainly read book 3 soon. Recommend if you like your paranormal romance a bit darker and original. I love the mix of paranormal species and the unique ones mentioned.

9 stars.