Twilight Hunter (Execution Underground, #1) in Vampires, Weres and Fae!

Apr 19, 2013 Lori {Romancing the Dark Side} rated it really liked it

Shelves: reviewed, paranormal-romance, werewolves, shifters, read-in-2013

Originally reviewed on Romancing the Dark Side:

Kait Ballenger delivers a sexy romance with plenty of suspense and humor in the latest addition to the Execution Underground series!

As a member of the Execution Underground, bad boy and half-breed Jace McCannon lives to hunt and kill werewolves. While tracking a vicious killer on assignment, he encounters a beautiful alpha female werewolf and goes against everything he stands for when he lets her live and brings her to his home. Frankie isn’t ju Originally reviewed on Romancing the Dark Side:

Kait Ballenger delivers a sexy romance with plenty of suspense and humor in the latest addition to the Execution Underground series!

As a member of the Execution Underground, bad boy and half-breed Jace McCannon lives to hunt and kill werewolves. While tracking a vicious killer on assignment, he encounters a beautiful alpha female werewolf and goes against everything he stands for when he lets her live and brings her to his home. Frankie isn’t just another beautiful woman, she’s a packmaster trying to find the same killer who’s brutally killing the females in her community. Jace and Frankie each have their secrets, but the attraction they feel for one another is put to the test when they’re forced to work together to find who’s responsible for the slayings.

My favorite aspect of this book is the unique supernatural elements Ms. Ballenger adds to the story with the Norse mythology twist surrounding the hero, it was unexpected and interesting. Jace is one of my favorite type of heroes, he’s an Alpha male with little regard for the rules and has a dark past that’s left him a bit tortured, but a good guy to the core. He’s hidden his true identity from all of the Execution Underground members with the exception of David and uses his past to fuel his hatred for werewolves. Falling for a werewolf was never an option, which makes his relationship with Frankie complicated, to say the least.

Our heroine Frankie is described as beautiful, smart and fierce and proves to be all that but she also comes with a couple of insecurities. She’s outspoken when it comes to pack business but sometimes has a hard time expressing her feelings which is a bit frustrating. The almost insta-love between her and Jace is not my favorite kind of romance, but I get the whole mate thing when it comes to werewolves. I just feel a lot of the conflict between her and Jace could have been avoided by just communicating. Jace was a jerk to Frankie for half of the book which made me wonder why an Alpha were like her would “fall” for him after everything he does and says. Frankie is a bit of a contradiction at times, but she does step up to the heroine plate towards the end of the book. Are they my favorite couple? No, but I did enjoy the steaminess of their romance…I just wanted a little more of an emotional connection between the two.

After reading Shadow Hunter and falling in love with Damon Brock I found his portrayal in this book to be a little out of character for him. He’s a hard ass who demands respect and is always going at it with Jace, even though he was the one who recruited him into the EU. I know that Damon isn’t in the right state of mind after what happened to him (you’ll have to read his novella) but I’m thinking the author was just giving us Jace’s POV of Damon Brock, Jace isn’t exactly known for his subtlety so I can totally understand why he would have a problem with authority.

Although I enjoyed Jace and his bad boy ways but the character who stood out the most in Twilight Hunter for me was his close friend and fellow EU hunter David Aronowitz. His character intrigued me from the first time he’s introduced, he’s an exorcist who’s lost the love of his life and is battling his own demons (no pun intended). While helping Jace he finds his long lost love Allsún, which sets up the next story in the series. I really can’t wait for David and Allsún’s story!

Twilight Hunter combines a dark and gritty world of supernatural hunters with a sexy romance, a little mystery and non-stop action. Kait Ballenger has developed an unpredictable world with compelling heroes that keeps you coming back for more. Anything can happen and there are no guaranteed HEAs in a world where evil lurks at every corner. One thing about this series is for sure, once you meet the men of Execution Underground there’s no going back!

* I received a complimentary copy of this book by the author in exchange for an honest review.

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Jul 14, 2013 Melindeeloo rated it really liked it

Shelves: arc

3.5 stars- This is was a mixed read for me, the story kept my interest, but I had lots of issues.

First off, I am not really a romantic suspense fan (somehow didn't pick up on this when I requested the ARC - don't know how I missed 'hunt for a sadistic killer' in the back matter but I did) and I had a really hard time with just how depraved the killer/killings were - he savages (as in gnaws on) women and then rapes them as they are dead/dying (just ewww) plus there is also torture later in the b 3.5 stars- This is was a mixed read for me, the story kept my interest, but I had lots of issues.

First off, I am not really a romantic suspense fan (somehow didn't pick up on this when I requested the ARC - don't know how I missed 'hunt for a sadistic killer' in the back matter but I did) and I had a really hard time with just how depraved the killer/killings were - he savages (as in gnaws on) women and then rapes them as they are dead/dying (just ewww) plus there is also torture later in the book.

On to the romance... the hero Jace - a werehunter who secretly has were blood - is not terribly heroic to start out and is really hard to warm up to. He loathes himself for his parentage, is not great with his fellow paranormal-hunters and he initially tries to kill his heroine - he does get a pass on that since at the time he thinks she's the killer. So right off the bat this is not a romance-y romance but one that flows out of the intense sensual connection between the leads and it is punctuated with lots of miscommunications, so there are fits and starts in their relationship after the initial hook up.

As to the Execution Underground series frame work... since Jace isn't really tight with his fellow hunters, there is some conflict within the team that has the potential for being interesting, but after his first book I don't really have a clue about most of the other guys waiting in the wings, so I didn't get a good feel for the pool of potential leading men for the rest of the series.

On the plus side, there are some (non-Greek) mythical elements to the world building and I hope that there's more of that in the series (I am a sucker for myths and legends.) Here there's a mash up of Native American and Norse myth. But the biggest plus for me was that I was intrigued though by the 'sequel bait', former lovers David - a demon hunter- and his former lover Pixie/Fae lover, Allsun.

So bottom line, there were interesting things going on but Twilight Hunter was a bit darker than I normally like for my romances, however I will likely pick up the next book if it's about David and Allsun and if sadistic serial killers aren't going to be a common theme for the series.

ARC via NetGalley release date 8/24 ...more

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