My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Title: Cruel Stakes (Vampires & Vices, #2)
Author: Nina Walker
Format: eBook (Kindle Unlimited)
Pages: 286
Publication Date: 7/8/21
Publisher: Addison & Gray Press
Categories: Paranormal, Young Adult, New Adult, Romance
Cross your heart and hope to live.
I should leave them alone and be done with vampires. I finally have my mother back, I’m dating the perfect guy, and I’ve parted ways with Adrian Teresi.
But I have an opportunity to help the hunters and hopefully learn something that could save more humans. Not to mention, I need answers about the venom burning through my veins.
So I go back to The Alabaster Heart to strike another deal with the vampire prince. The game of cat and mouse that follows is expected, and maybe even a little fun, but nothing prepares me for the day that our games end—and the consequences begin.
Cruel Stakes is the sequel to Blood Casino, a paranormal series about Vampires who are like the mafia running the underworld. Evangeline or Eva, is playing both sides, working for Adrian, a vampire prince and also becoming a vampire hunter with Felix and her friends. The stakes are higher now because the Queen of vampires, Brisa, has her in her sights.
I liked being in Adrian and Eva’s world again, especially when they travel to the Palace of Versailles in France. Brisa has won the city of Versailles and has called her princes to come party with her basically, and they party everyday. It’s decadent, and as opulent as when Marie Antoinette was alive in Versailles. But to what end?
Eva and Adrian have grown somewhat closer, as close as cold Adrian lets her be – but still it’s hard to know how much Adrian can be trusted. I like that once we start to think we know Adrian…we don’t again. He is quite a mystery and I’m wondering at his end game for real.
There is another twist at the end involving Leslie Tate – so I guess I will wait for book three.
This sequel felt rushed. It’s a very quick read with only less than 300 pages in this volume and I needed more to the story. I felt like things were just being glossed over. Leslie Tate is back? Okay, let’s ambush Adrian and oh, too bad the fight is over. It was all so fast, the scenes needed to be extended a bit at least!
Adrian and Eva finally admitting something about their attraction felt so anti-climatic but there is drama there we get to know more about in book three I hope. The way it happened was rushed. And what is this obsession with her virginity? I get she smells good to vampires but yikes…haha. Eva was trying to get laid in this book.
Eva dealing with Felix, her “boyfriend”? Did they even really care about each other? I felt nothing and I’m team Adrian anyway. I honestly am not sure what it is about Eva who is 19 years old appeals to world and very very old Adrian. 😅 She is fetus compared to him. Sigh…but that’s how it is with vampire hookups. And even worse, I felt awful about her best friend Ayla. What is going on with that? How were they so close and now not best friends? And how is Eva so casual about it? She tried to talk to her a few times, but I felt like as a best friend…she could do way more. So I wasn’t feeling Eva at all in this book at all.
Why you should read it?
- vampires vs. vampire hunters and….energy demons?
- fun plot twist at the end
- Adrian and Eva finally make moves on one another
Why you might not want to read it?
- the story is rushed
- most exciting thing happens at the end of the story, it’s a cliffhanger
- this could have been combined with book 3
Am I still going to read book three? Yes, definitely because I need to see what happens with that plot twist. I hope Eva has more character growth in the next book and we see what Adrian is really up to and how he really feels. Overall, I’m still entertained with the series and look forward to the next one.
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