This review is for those who have read or are familiar with the previous books in the Sabina Kane series or don't mind knowing major spoilers for them.
SPOILER ALERT
Sabina Kane is on the hunt. Her prey: Cain, the father of the vampire race and the one who murdered her family and her friends. Unfortunately, Cain is hunting Sabina, too.
The one man who holds the key to defeating Cain is, of course, Abel. A mage with secrets to spare and, hopefully, the power to match it. Unfortunately, for Sabina, he's in Rome and may not want to be found.
Sabina sets out for Italy with her friends, Giguhl and Adam Lazarus, to track down the only man who can get her the revenge she hungers for. But will he help her or oppose her? And just who is Abel, really? Worst of all, when Sabina figures out the goddess Lilith has a plan for her she realizes this trip is getting deadlier by the minute. As they say: when in Rome - SURVIVE.
Another series down in the records. Gotta say, it's a bit bittersweet to let go of these characters after 5 books together. On the one hand, it's nice that I don't have to witness their perpetual torture, but I also don't get to see them taking names and kicking ass anymore either.
As always, Sabina is a favorite to follow. Snark and badassery incarnate. She showed a surprising amount of humility in this one, considering her justified rage at Cain's murder spree. As much as she's shown to have layers in previous books, it was still impressive how much progress she's made with choosing non-violent channels. And I thought her eventual resolution was fitting for all the shit she's gone through.
Adam never really did it for me. Sure, he's stable and supportive, and being hot doesn't hurt either, but I swear I wouldn't remember his name if it wasn't for having just finished the book. I think he had more going for him early on, but when the novelty of him being genuinely interested in Sabina wore off I didn't have anything else to grab onto for him. He's fine for what he is, but I can't say he ranks in my top 20 love interests, considering I probably won't remember him a week from now.
Gighul had so much more personality and humor. Plus he had the added moral quandary of friend vs minion that just added depth to their relationship. While there were times when the uniqueness of their relationship appeared previously, this book puts things into a whole new perspective on more than one occasion. Can't say I know how this hedonistic demon's plans will work out in the future, but he's a helluva guy to know.
The other main character was Cain himself, who I found severely lacking, even before the big showdown. He's built up to be the baddest of the bad, the puppetmaster behind all other schemes Sabina's faced so far, and yet he literally has no power. He's only got the curse stating that whoever kills him will be paid back sevenfold (aka that person and 6/7 of their loved ones also die) but other than that he's completely human. Why does he hold such power over dark races? I can kinda understand vamps being beholden to him being the father of their race, but as far as actually holding any power he's got nothing. Lock him up, why don't ya? It doesn't seem like it'd be that hard to do.
But that brings me to the story as a whole, and I gotta say I loved this one. Exploring the realms of the dead was a great call back to all the characters we've loved and lost before. I especially loved seeing Vinca from the first book again. It doesn't always work to call back to everything from the series in the finale, but this time it was nice seeing things come full circle. I don't really expect that kind of stuff in adult series, but the curtain call of sorts was fun.
Unfortunately, as much as I enjoyed reading the series for the protagonist and story in general, I feel I need to address the LGBT+ representation I've been praising. Looking back on the series as a whole, I'm sorry to say I don't think the LGBT+ characters were treated very respectfully. Yes, it's great that there was representation and inclusion, but is it really far to call it representation when they're treated so poorly? I will be revealing some major spoilers for previous books here, at least pertaining to non-plot significant characters, so be warned if you're still planning on picking these up.
First I want to talk about Brooks. Brooks is a Changeling Fae first introduced in the 3rd book. He's funny, flamboyant, openly gay, and performs regularly as drag queen Pussywillow. After suffering a violent beating during the later part of book 3, he fully retreats into his drag persona and asks to be called Pussywillow and use she/her pronouns. In the 4th book, Pussywillow joins our crew back in New York and operates mainly in the background, rooming with Gighul and trying to participate in a female roller derby league. Honestly, Pussy's played mostly as comic relief, reveling in her diva persona, until she picks a fight with Gighul and Sabina over their relationship and storms back to New Orleans. In this book Brooks is back, claiming he just had to address his trauma and that he's sorry for the drama he caused as Pussywillow.
Honestly, I was disappointed with their treatment as Pussywillow. Again, it came off as more of a joke than anything, with Sabina seeming to use the correct pronouns begrudgingly, or with quotation marks around them. It never felt like Pussy's feelings were ever validated. Yes, she was suffering from trauma, but it didn't seem like it was ever considered anything but a phase. Yeah, it's hard to consider someone trans when they decide their fulltime name is something ridiculous as Pussywillow, but that's their prerogative, isn't it? And then to have Brooks come back at the end to justify everyone's assumptions just felt like a cop-out. Don't get me wrong, I love Brooks, and I admittedly didn't like Pussy as much, but that doesn't mean her choices shouldn't be respected.
But Brooks' story doesn't hold a candle to the outrage I felt about Mac and Georgia's story. Mac is a werewolf, niece to the New York Alpha that Sabina tussled with a couple times, and is in a serious relationship with vampire, Georgia in book 3. Book 4, again moving back to NYC, has Mac's uncle calling her to come back to werewolf society and fulfill her female duty of making babies already. I shit you not. Nevermind that she is a lesbian, nevermind that she's in a relationship, no, she's obligated to marry a werewolf male and make babies for the betterment of the race. Obviously Sabina and co. are outraged at this...but they let it go because it's a werewolf thing. Oh, sure, Mac "agrees" to it, but only because she's repeatedly threatened and told she's going to do this whether she wants to or not. I mean, she's in tears during the 'wedding' ceremony, and then forced to consummate the marriage immediately afterward. And the only resolution she gets in this book is that her uncle says she's pregnant and wants Sabina to bless her baby. We don't even get to see her again!
It may be unfair of me to make this assumption, but I can't help but think that Mac's story only ends this way because she was in a lesbian relationship. That if she was in a serious relationship with a male, even if it was still a vampire, Sabina and crew would have fought tooth and nail to stop the werewolf political bullshit she was forced to follow. Cause mixed-race babies are better than no babies, amirite? Maybe it's just me, but I don't feel like Mac got a fair shake, especially with her not getting any resolution after that abhorrent mating ceremony she was forced into. She's never seen as a victim, just someone who 'made a choice', and then we never get to hear from her again. And then for Sabina to be happy that Mac's kid is gonna be another girl? Yeah, cause girl werewolves seem to have great lives ahead of them. UGH!
So, yeah, kind of a crappy note to end on for me. I loved Sabina's story overall, but Brooks, Mac, and even Georgia's treatments all rubbed me wrong. Maybe I'm wrong, and I'm totally blowing things out of proportion just because they're LGBT+. I mean, a lot of cis hetero characters get tortured...just not by their friends or family. Hey, maybe it's just commentary on the bias of the system against these characters...except nothing changes for the better for any of them. Sure, Georgia gets a new girlfriend at the end, but Sabina seems to only focus on her similarities to Mac. Maybe if you're gonna include token characters, don't make them disproportionately victimized in the narrative, okay Jaye?
Well, that's probably enough of a rant there... I still enjoyed the majority of these books, so I guess I'd recommend them for fans of Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy. This is definitely a great finale to those who have already enjoyed the series, even if I found the final boss kinda lacking. I wish I could give the series as a whole higher praise, but I think I made my gripes fairly well known. Still, if there was ever cause to come back to Sabina and crew, I'd definitely be up for another round, especially if Mac was included this time...
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