Maybe it was a mistake to jump right in and read begin with book 7. So, some of the disconnect could be my bad. However most of the blame I'm putting on the author because the book reads like a skipping DVD on fast forward. After five pages the hero is hot to trot for the heroine- normally not a bad thing but they are ogling each other while talking about the sexual abuse and murder of children and heroine's own physical and mental abuse. A plot like this can work but takes a subtle hand: you need to be able to intertwine a stroy about a quest for justice over a sexually deviant monster and a story about two people that want to get in on. But the plots can never directly cross! There has to be transitions! Don't cross the streams! More than once the heroine is talking about the awful situtation she barely escaped from and the dude can't pay attention because he is lost in her smokey eyes. That is not sexy, that is creepy as hell.