Monsters are real … They live inside us, and sometimes they win. – Stephen King
Cliffhanger! The lemon juice to my paper cut. I kind of love them. Not paper cuts. Cliffhangers.
If you want Holden Krause to have his own book, please raise your hand. ::raises hand:: Okay, maybe it’s just me, and maybe I don’t even want him to have his own book because then he wouldn’t be Roan’s cynical, pragmatic, ultra-scary smart, ethically flexible, wickedly loyal, human/hybrid doppelganger anymore. Maybe I just want him to have more page time in the Infected series. Maybe I love him like Donald Trump loves his crispy-dried-comb-over. Yeah, I love Holden a lot.
And yes, Holden’s all human…in a matter of speaking. All human from the standpoint that he doesn’t transform into a big, scary cat every month, but there’s still something about him that’s evolved into a rather animalistic quality. He is utterly feral and adaptable to his environment, and will viciously defend his territory, and is dangerous when provoked. He’s also self-aware that he is two entities living in one body, and most everyone underestimates him and dismisses the fact that neither of him is someone you want to mess with. And Holden’s got Roan’s back, which is good for both the Lion and the Fox because it keeps them both human in an oddly connected sort of way, because Roan’s got Holden’s back too. And now there’s Scott Murray, of the Seattle Falcons Murrays, and where the hockey puck does he fit into Holden’s life? That’s a very fine question. Clearly neither of them is boyfriend material. Or are they? No. No? I’m watching and waiting…
Roan’s definitely not all Human, though. In fact, it’s looking like he’s becoming more lion with each passing day. He’s caught in the cross-species crosshairs of the cross he bears, and in this installment of the series, his burden just got a whole lot heavier, emotionally, physically, psychologically. The question now is not if he’s going to survive it (Andrea Speed couldn’t possibly be that mean!), but how he’s going to survive it. One thing appears certain; Dylan, as much as he is torn by his love for Roan and his own sense of self-preservation, will be there every step of the way. Yes? Yes. Gods, I hope so.
There was a lot going on in Lesser Evils, not only with the big cases Roan took on, cases that threatened the foundation of his special breed of people, but also in the health and welfare and wellbeing of my favorite biology-bending shifter. Damn, he’s got some enemies, both from within and without. But he has some amazing friends too. And while they all seem to have an opinion about Roan, no one has any answers about what to do for him or how to fix what’s drowning him in his own virus-laden gene pool. Maybe that’s for the next book. I’m watching and waiting…
If I had any niggles where this book is concerned, they are small and they would be this; there were times when I felt there were too many characters involved in the great Roan opine, and that, at times, bogged down the pacing of the story for me because everyone seems to be of the same opinion that the guy’s in some deep doo-doo. So yes, that got a bit repetitious, but that’s okay. I still love him, love that he loves so fiercely and so fiercely protects the people he loves. And I love that he has people who want to protect him right back.
Next.
You can buy Infected: Lesser Evils here: 