No man knows what he will do till the right temptation comes. – Henry Ward Beecher
All the experts agreed that vampires weren’t real. Which is exactly why vampires exist—not because the experts say they didn’t but because chaos theory said they could, the underlying order to it being that when humans think they know it all, nature is always glad to prove otherwise.
Gray is living proof—well, sentient proof, at least—that vampires can and do exist, and he now treads on a different plane of reality than he’s ever done before. Where before he was the pilot of the dead bodies he possessed, he is now the co-pilot inhabiting the very alive and aware consciousness of Caleb Jansen, the formerly unregistered mal and guy who has become a reluctant but very useful tool for SPECTR, the guy who isn’t as much human as he is advanced human these days, the man for whom the parasite is becoming the symbiote, which is causing all sorts of interesting scenarios in his relationship with his exorcist boyfriend John Starkweather. Only Caleb doesn’t quite know it yet.
This wouldn’t be a Jordan L. Hawk book if a few boo-wigglies didn’t come out to play, now would it? Well, this one’s no different, and this time it appears to be an incubus demon that has a particular fondness for sucking the life right out of some folks, and it seems playing a sedate little game of cat and mouse with the good guys isn’t quite satisfying enough for it. No, this time the demon’s calling goes beyond the desire to play at a little mischief with poor pitiful humans. This time there are political consequences to consider, when fanaticism and prejudice ride into this Technicolor world on a monochromatic horse and insist that tighter restrictions need to be placed on the paranormal community, and we all know that where politics are involved, hypocrisy isn’t far behind. After all, politicians and ambition go together like self-serving interests and…well…politicians.
It’s a race for Caleb, Gray, and John to hunt down the hunter and stop it before it has the chance to kill again, which means they need to discover who summoned it and to what end. There are some critical moments and some crucial timing involved in their hunt, moments in particular in which Gray, the drakul with the far keener sense of humanity that many humans, becomes the difference maker between life and death when John is tricked into forgetting Exorcist Rule Number One: You don’t really think I’m telling you what that is now, do you? So, I’m evil. Read the book.
Caleb just wants his life to be normal again, but normal is so mundane. Why else do we readers insist upon living other people’s lives and existing in alternate realities but to escape into the worlds in which the impossible is possible and the definition of normal can mean anything from summoning demons to summoning the magic necessary to thwart them? Thankfully, there are authors out there who are happy to oblige our obsession.
Reaper of Souls is the summit, it’s the place where Jordan L. Hawk has decided to shove us off the edge of the cliffhanger, and all we can do now is hope that our fingers are either strong enough to hang on or the ripcords on our patience parachutes don’t decide to malfunction before she deigns to deliver us from the anticipation of discovering what’s next for John, Caleb, and Gray, as the forty day time limit for exorcism draws ever closer and Gray becomes ever more addictive and impossible to resist.
Not for Caleb and John.
For me.
Reviewed by: Lisa
You can buy Reaper of Souls (SPECTR Book #3) here:
So much love for Jordan and her writing :D