** spoiler alert ** Acck, Acck, I am trying to get rid of the nasty artificial taste of saccharin left by the epilogue of this book.

I had some trepidation over this book and the “hot gay sex scenes” to quote one reader. But the gay sex scenes were a non-issue for me. On the other hand, I could have done without the skanky sex scenes between heterosexuals. The only sex scenes between heterosexuals were between vampire males and women for whom they had no respect. Which bothers me. Considering the vampire prostitute provided much needed sustenance to the outlaw vampires, you think that they would be more respectful.

The problem with this book was the lack of romances. While Blay and Qhuinn were having hot sex everywhere, the friendship and love were missing. The nice thing about Blay and Qhuinn has been their friendship and love for each other. While Blay may have been his usual kind caring persona with other characters, it was lacking in his interactions with Qhuinn. Yes, there were hot sex scenes. But I did not like Qhuinn abasing himself, by offering himself sexual as his only means to be with Blay. In fact, Qhuinn had to spend too much time demeaning himself in this book, including his confession that his out of control promiscuity was just his way of denying his homosexuality. Too much sex, not enough sexual tension and meaningful connection, left this romance wanting. Which made the surprise mating ceremony in the epilogue just too much.

One of the huge draws of this series is the anticipation of the growing romances of other characters. Unfortunately, Layla is the only character who I want to have a romance. The new character Assail is yet another drug dealing vampire. Trez and his love interest, the chosen, Selma,( or is she a princess in disguise) does not really interest me. All of the Brotherhood has found a mate. The new characters introduced are not as interesting. Honestly, I was disappointed that Qhuinn did not get a cool brotherhood name like Rhage in his induction. I think that J.R. Ward needs to find some more members of the Brotherhood to save this series. So I am happy to see that the next story involves Wrath and Beth. The Black Dagger Brotherhood is my favorite guilty pleasure. But it needs great characters like Rhage and Zsadist. Assail and Trez just are not as interesting. Also, I would like to see some more bad ass females.

(This review was first published on Goodreads.