I don’t want to speak too soon, but I think this might be my favorite book in the Monsters and Muses series. It outshone the first two in that I loved the story, the couple suited each other well from the start, and my least favorite trope was omitted! And I got my wish, a book focused on Jonas. There are minor spoilers ahead.
Our leading man, part bar owner, part hitman, wants revenge. He wants to finish a job he started over a decade ago involving a botched hit on a man who played a part in the death of his father. Jonas ends up serving jail time due to his errors but for a much shorter period of time than he should have. We get his origin story here, how he became who he is and how he met and started working with Kallum. After being introduced to him in Promises and Pomegranates and being very intrigued I am very satisfied in getting to know all about him. It’s been said that due to an overwhelming desire for readers of the series to get more Kallum and Elena the author was motivated to write a prequel to their story. But I want more Jonas and Lenny!
Lenny is the only daughter of a well to do and well known family that lives on Aplana island, the same island where Kallum, Elena, and Jonas live. Similar to Elena, Lenny has lived her entire life according to her parents wishes, perhaps in an even more restrictive sense than the daughter of a mafia leader. Having been exploited since she was born, her parents have always found a way to use Lenny to boost and promote her fathers business. You will notice that there are a lot of similarities between the two women. But in my case I ended up feeling much more sorry for Lenny while at the same time feeling a lot more distaste for her mother and father. She finally gets out from under her parents’ very large thumbs when she decides to start a fake relationship with Jonas after a chance encounter.
We get a lot of new characters here, which I found very welcoming after the small cast in Vipers and Virtuosus. I think the large cast made the story all the more interesting and the conflict all the more provocative. I hope that the next three books follow this formula. And with three books to go, I think I may want to change my predictions about who might be the focus. I previously stated that I could see each of Elena’s sisters getting a book, but I think things are going in another direction. I got a feeling that the end of Oaths and Omissions was kind of hinting at the next book, which I think could star Jonas’ brother, Alistair. I am less certain that we will get a book on Blue, the bouncer and sometimes fill in bartender at The Flaming Chariot, as there wasn’t much mention of him in this book. Instead, I could maybe see one of Lenny’s older brothers getting a book. I would really enjoy a story focused on Cash, the polished lawyer who works in Boston. And I won’t spoil the ending, but a character from the previous book was briefly on page, making me think that we will get a King’s Trace romance. I am literally going to grab the next book in mere minutes, as soon as I finish typing the last few words of this review and have looked it all over. I won’t have time to post another bonus review this Friday, I will be going on a quick weekend getaway, but hopefully by next week you may have caught up to me if you have started the series and you’ll be ready to see what I have to say next.
Nonfiction and Nonsense 