Story: 2 stars
Romance: 3 stars
Darn, I am SO disappointed!
For years, I have been a big Stephanie Laurens fan. Sadly, it was a struggle just to finish this fourth in the Black Cobra series. Problem One: you must read all four books in order. Problem Two: all four stories are SO similar, it feels like you're reading the same book four times. [I swear, if I EVER read the word "cultist" again, I will run screaming from the room.]
I think Ms. Laurens may have been attempting to recreate the success of Elizabeth Hoyt's "Four Soldiers" series. Unfortunately, Laurens misses the mark in a BIG way. Since Hoyt is the more creative story-teller of the two, the four stories in HER series are absorbing and unique where they are NOT in the Black Cobra series.
An interested reader would get the gist of the series by reading the first book. However, each of the four stories contains at least one critical component to the cohesiveness of the entire story SO you need to be prepared to read all or none.
Problem Three: it felt gratuitous to include a bunch of Cynsters as supporting characters in each of these four books. Enough with the Cynsters, already!
Romance: 3 stars
Darn, I am SO disappointed!
For years, I have been a big Stephanie Laurens fan. Sadly, it was a struggle just to finish this fourth in the Black Cobra series. Problem One: you must read all four books in order. Problem Two: all four stories are SO similar, it feels like you're reading the same book four times. [I swear, if I EVER read the word "cultist" again, I will run screaming from the room.]
I think Ms. Laurens may have been attempting to recreate the success of Elizabeth Hoyt's "Four Soldiers" series. Unfortunately, Laurens misses the mark in a BIG way. Since Hoyt is the more creative story-teller of the two, the four stories in HER series are absorbing and unique where they are NOT in the Black Cobra series.
An interested reader would get the gist of the series by reading the first book. However, each of the four stories contains at least one critical component to the cohesiveness of the entire story SO you need to be prepared to read all or none.
Problem Three: it felt gratuitous to include a bunch of Cynsters as supporting characters in each of these four books. Enough with the Cynsters, already!
