Reviewed by EBookObsessed on
Blaylock and Qhuinn have had a long and complex history. They have been friends since before their transition. While Blay was loved by his parents, Qhuinn was rejected by his parents because of his deformity (one blue eye and one green eye). Qhuinn was raised like an unwanted orphan and he mostly watched his parents dote on his older brother and sister from the window of his room in his second-hand, threadbare clothes, until the day they finally tossed him out of the house and removed him officially from the family records. The only thing that kept Qhuinn from giving up on life was his friendship with Blay.
But along this journey not everything was puppies and rainbows between these two best friends. Blay was obviously in love with Quinn since they were teens but Qhuinn, always treated as an unwanted freak and outsider in his own family, was not ready to accept that he was also gay. For many years, Blay had to watch Qhuinn on his nightly sexcapades with strange women. And for awhile Blay gave up on his dream of being with Qhuinn and was in a relationship with Qhuinn’s cousin, Saxton. Then Qhuinn fathered the twins, Lyric and Rhampage with one of the Scribe Virgin’s Chosen. Layla, complicating his relationships with everyone.
Qhuinn and Blay had a rocky relationship for many years until Qhuinn was finally ready to admit that his feelings toward Blay were so much more than friendship, but even after all this time as a couple, you still saw that Blay struggled and had moments of doubt about Qhuinn’s feelings and Blay’s place in Qhuinn’s life. They are mates but they never had a mating ceremony. Blay fears that Qhuinn might simply change his mind at any point and walk away from him. I imagine most of that had to do with the fact that it took Qhuinn so long to accept the love that Blay has offered to him.
A blizzard hits Caldwell and things the mansion go sideways which has everyone distracted by power outages, broken windows and falling trees. While chaos reigns and everyone is running around trying to make the mansion safe, we lose a member of the household.
Even though we don’t see too much of him in this story, I feel the most for Lassiter in what happened. Since the fallen angel has taken over for the Scribe Virgin, Lassiter knows that is coming and even he says that he is bound by some rules, one of which is not to interfere with fate. In many ways, Lassiter makes it harder on himself spending so much time with the Brothers and their families. As he builds a personal connection with all of them, it must be so much harder to know when something bad is coming and not being able to intervene or even give a warning that might stop something bad happening to these people he cares about. The Brothers are as close to a family that he has and yet he can’t interfere and even nudge them in a way to keep them safe.
I am a few books behind on this series and while things have changed a smidge, it was nothing that I couldn’t follow along on. Even though I do have some issues with the worldbuilding in the BDB universe, there are a few characters in this series that I really like such as Rhage and Mary and Blay and Qhuinn and need to pick up a book to find out what is happening to them.
Received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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Reading updates
- Started reading
- 21 November, 2020: Finished reading
- 21 November, 2020: Reviewed