Book: Master Oradea by Sylvia Black
Reviewed by Your_bookish_fantasy
Rating: 2/5
2.5* Another vampire mafia in the series told from a duel POV- which helps deliver a fuller perspective, this story of fated mates- love at first sight left me feeling really dissapointed and im sad that i feel that way because i enjoyed the previous book and i like the story as a whole but this book i was ready to dnf 4 or 5 times. Perhaps I’m being too harsh in my assessment, but I’ve only read one other book in this series which was the previes book (book 9) as it does state this can be read as a stand alone IT REALLY CANT! i read the one before so i knew why there was a battle, and i knew some of the characters and background, but i still got lost at some points. Like they keep mentioning witches that aren't witches...? Who? What? And a syndicate which makes the rules...? Who is in this? Why do they make the rules? So please do NOT read this alone! Read a few before it at the very least as you need to know who the witches are or you'll be left as confused as I am.
It also seems like there were a few too many similarities between book 9 and this. It was almost the exact same fated lovers story with almost the same sex scene - at least it felt very similar. However, to Sylvia's credit, she writes the heat and the lust very well with great choice of language. There's no crude or cringey descriptions, and the honest stuff is easy to read- I don't mind admitting my cheeks flushed a little on the last few pages of this one, beautiful writing that offers a smooth and enjoyable reading experiance!
I do enjoy the story concept that seems to run the whole series (of a war with the rogues) which is why i read to the end, plus I want to like it so im just really hoping the next one is better. I would not recommend this book, and i won't give spoilers, but i feel i could sum up this entire book in a paragraph or less so you can skip it and move on to the next one.
I did however like the way Oradea saw witches and how the suspicion between the master vampires and their mates was written, this for me made the fated mates part all the better as he should have walked away, with any other author I'd have thought that was where we were being led to.
Apart from the romance between Natalia and Oradea though, I felt like this book was a real lull in the story in anticipation of the epic battle promised . This took my 4 days to read because i just didnt want to pick my kindle up, it wasnt page turning or exciting or leaving me needing to know more. It was a slow paced, age gap, fated lovers, with a huge lack of the previous books energy. I read the previous book in around 3 hours in one sitting but this one was just dragging on, I wish it had been condensed into a couple of chapters at the start of the next book really because there was a lot of waffling and more failed attempts on the rogues and just really predictable in general. I knew every plan they made was going to fail as the villain proves to always be in the know and always seems one step ahead, while his supply of shifters is magically endless (we have not been given any structure or rules or lore in this book or the previous ones to state how strong the rogues are, how they banded together or why they decided they will listen to another speciies and take said species as a leader even though so many of them are being used as bait and are being slaughtered). so due to all of that I had no anticipation or nerves reading through this book, even though the threat of death was there at every turn and the writing made it clear all the time over and over that the threat of the young virgin dying could happen at anytime and this was looming over the whole story but because I felt bored I just didn't feel the actual threat on her life at any real point which really bothered me as that last fight I should have been worried for her! (no spoilers so that's all I'll say)
But With more questions to be answered, and another cliff hanger to appease its on to the next book.