Shades of Wicked: A Night Rebel Novel (Night Rebel, #1)

by Jeaniene Frost

In this thrilling new Night Rebel series set in New York Times bestselling author Jeaniene Frost’s Night Huntress world, sexy and ruthless vampire Ian finally meets his match!

The Rule Breaker...

Master vampire Ian is unrepentant, shameless…and every shade of wicked. He’s made one too many enemies in his two centuries of existence, including Dagon, a demon who now lays claim to his soul. Ian’s only chance to escape Dagon is to join forces with a Law Guardian, but he's never been able to abide by the rules for long.

The Law Maker...

Veritas’ normal role is police, judge, and jury to reprobates like Ian. But she has her own ax to grind with Dagon, so if she can use Ian as bait...well, all’s fair in law and war. As they scour supernatural hotspots to perfect their trap, Veritas soon realizes Ian’s carefully cultivated, devil-may-care roguish image hides something much more powerful. And Ian discovers Veritas has shocking secrets of her own. As they’re drawn to each other with a passion as intense as their peril, either love or justice will prevail. But each will have devastating consequences.

• ISBN10: 0062695614
• ISBN13: 9780062695611
• Publish Date: 1 November 2018 (first published 30 October 2018)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Avon Books
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[Berls]

I have been eagerly anticipating this spin off series throughout our entire readalong. While Ian has been a bit of an underdog, I've also suspected that there's significantly more to him. And then as it got closer and closer to this book, we started to know Veritas and I found out she was going to be the POV for this series and that my brought my excitement up a notch. But I was also nervous, because I had highly anticipated Vlad's series and be so disappointed.

Thankfully, I can say I was not at all disappointed. I am BEYOND THRILLED by this first book in the Night Rebel Trilogy. In fact, it may be my favorite book in the entire Night Huntress World.

First of all, I was 100% correct about Ian. I want you to read it to fully understand his hidden depths but he is so much more than any of the other heroes in this world and I really truly hope that by the end of trilogy his friends, who he is so incredibly loyal to, will finally see the real Ian.

At the very least, Veritas sees him. I mean, she SEES him. I love their relationship -- it has bits of my favorite tropes (it's fake romance meets enemies-to-lovers) and they both have some truly hilarious moments and some very vulnerable moments. Veritas is also a great character, who I very much enjoyed getting to know better and seeing this story through her eyes was a treat.

The way this book unfolded was equally great. So many unexpected twists and turns. It was full of action, humor, and gut-wrenching moments, not to mention appearances from pretty much the entire cast of the series. I easily devoured it in 3 days and was ready to start the next book immediately because when I say cliff-hanger, I do mean hanging on by just a pinky! Thank goodness I'm reading this after all 3 books are published.

It's no secret that I'm not a big fan of Tavia Gilbert's narration for this world. I was able to tolerate her narration of the Vlad series, but I have to say a lot of the things that normally bug me didn't in this book. Even Bones's appearances - which have always been my number one complaint - didn't bother me. The sex was not too breathy (as it normally is) and it worked. Not going to say she's become a favorite, but maybe she took some notes before narrating this book? Or maybe this book was just SO GOOD that I didn't allow the narration to distract me? Whatever the reason, I really hope it continues for the next two books !

[booksandcats]

It took me a long time to get around reading this one, even though I loved every other book in this world by Jeaniene Frost. For one reason, this book is not that easy to get in Switzerland, no library near me owns a copy and most bookshops would need to order it extra, so it was more of an effort. And for the second reason, I never really liked Ian. Not because he was kind of an antagonist when introduced first (his behavior is actually very reasonable in the vampire world, Cat and Bones just were kind of dickheads), but because he was annoying. He was always the character to boast, to make annoying quips and remarks. You know that kid in school that would always make jokes and just push it too far and you wish he would just stop because it stoped being funny way waaay back? That was Ian to me. So, fair to say I wasn't too eager to go through extra effort to read a book about him. Veritas on the other hand was quite intriguing. Granted, she was kind of bland and boring on first look (a very interesting mix with Ians Character), but we also saw several glimpses that she was more than she let on. So, since the second book came out recently and I've read so many amazing reviews by friends on here, I decided to give it a try. Lucky me.

This is maybe my favorite book of Jeaniene Frost so far. I'm tempted to say ever, but since there are still more to come, I'm sticking with so far.

Ian and Veritas both have amazing back stories that explain a lot about their behavior in previous books (Ian's annoyingness for example), their Chemistry is great. I love how it's built up a bit and not instantaneous. And while I loved, absolutely loved Ian in this book, in his interactions with Veritas, Frost stays very much true to the Character, as in his interactions with his friends he is still annoying and cocky and so very Ian. But I get it now. Veritas is... wow. I love Frost's ability to create strong, kickass woman. First Cat, then Denise, the Kira, then Leila, now Veritas. She is my favorite character. Ever. Won't say more about her, just read the book.

The storyline is great as well, the antagonist amazing, powerful and the fight against him is grasping, with lots of emotions and twists.

Lastly, I like how Jeanine Frost found an ending to this book that was kind of a mix between a sad and a happy ending. Veritas is not happy, she is heartbroken, but she knows Ian is alive and that what they had was true. We as a reader however know, that he knows about her, so their relationship isn't lost, so sad ending for her, happy for us? very fun twist. Also a great set up for the next book, a good way to keep the relationship interesting enough besides just being happy together and fighting evil (not that I wouldn't read that), yet still keeping the progress this book made. Also, so much more believable when fighting such an overpowered enemy that they wouldn't just win and everything would be fine, but that one of them actually dies. Also, even though I hate that Veritas loses part of her awesome power (the coming back from the dead part, this is a spoiler so I can write that lol), I like that she isn't that op anymore. Otherwise, no real stakes for her. Aside from losing everyone she loves and cares about.

So, great book, if you know the universe of Cat and Bones by Jeaniene Frost you will love this. I suppose it can be read as a standalone, but I wouldn't advise it. Many characters and actions won't really make sense, plus the other books are great as well. Do yourselves the favor and read them.

[Linda]

4.5 stars
Finally! Ian's book - I know it released two years ago, but I only just read it now. And I loved it so much. There has always been so much more to Ian than what he's showed his friends and other people (or vampires...) The suspense and mystery part of Shades of Wicked was so well done. And I adored the witchy parts.

[uktraveler]

Great story! Wish I didn't have to wait until 2020 to read next in series. All of Frost's series are great and bringing in characters from other series is fun.

[Romance Schmomance]

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IAN .... IAN .... IAN! My goodness, I forgot how much I loved Ian and was completely overjoyed when I heard he was finally getting his own series. Ian & Veritas had me hooked on their story, line for line. And I simply couldn't get enough of it. But with every series that Jeaniene puts out, the ending will be a bit of a cliffy and leaving you absolutely hungry for more.

Veritas was definitely a heroine that you have to get used to, it wasn't instant for me. But once you understand a bit more of who she is and what her life is like, you can't really blame her for the type of person she is. When it comes to Veritas, there's still so much we don't know about her. But by the end, I was completely in awe of her and she's quickly becoming one of my favorite heroines that Jeaniene has written.

Ian was the exact same, but well a bit more once we see him develop feelings for Veritas. And I was loving every moment of it and just wanted so much more. I don't think I could ever get enough of this vampire. Vlad is still probably one of my favorites, but Ian easily comes in second.

I never realized how much I missed this world until reading this one and it looks like I'll be going back to do a major re-read. I am so looking forward to Book 2 in this series and hopefully, it'll be summer in no time. Love, love, loved this book!

Major thanks to Avon Books and Pure Texuality PR for the advance reader's copy!

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[Cocktails and Books]

Damn! The layers to Ian.

Full review to come.

[Melanie]

My review and an extended sample of the audiobook are posted at Hotlistens.com.

This book has been a long time coming. For as long as I can remember, people have been asking Jeaniene Frost to write Ian’s book. Well, she has finally done just that. My biggest concern going into this book was, would it live up to the hype? I’ve found that many books that I wait a long time for, don’t live up to the wait. Luckily, that was not a issue here. I loved Ian’s book.

If you know me, you know I go into books pretty blind, if I can. So, I had no idea who the heroine of Ian’s story would be. Imagine my surprise when I see that it was Veritas. She’s been around for a while, but has always had short times on the pages, but they were very big part of the plot. She’s a Law Guardian. That means that everytime the vampires of the Cat & Bones world bent and pushed the rules, Veritas made an appearance which could mean life or death for the vampire in trouble.

Now, Veritas wants Ian’s help to deal with a demon that has been a thorne in her side for more than 4,000 years. She knows that Ian has a score to settle with same demon, so he would be the perfect vampire to help her. We also learn that Veritas has quite a few secrets that she’s been great at hiding even from the well connected Cat & Bones gang.

I don’t want to go into too much detail, because I hate spoilers. But suffice to say, this is a great start to a spinoff series. If you haven’t read the Night Huntress series (with Cat & Bones as the main characters) or Night Prince series (following Vlad and Leila) or any of the other Night Huntress World books, you can still read this series, though I think you will have more fun with the characters if you’ve read the entire series to this point.

Narration
Tavia Gilbert is again the narrator for this series (she’s done all the Night Huntress World books to this point). It’s nice because she continues to get the voices consistent across all the different books. I love all the accents she chooses (of which there are a lot and vastly different). Ever since I listened the first book (which I can’t remember which was my first audiobook), I’ve been straight to audio for this world. If you haven’t tried Tavia Gilbert, you should totally give her a try.

**I like to thank the publisher for providing me with a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

[ellieroth]

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