Crossfire (Darkride Chronicles #2) by Laura Bradley Rede

Crossfire by Laura Bradley Rede
Published: January 2013

My rating: 4.5 stars

Spoilers for Darkride

I was delighted to be asked by Laura to review Crossfire because I had previously read and loved the first book in the series, Darkride (you can read that review here. The characters go through so much in Darkride and I was anxious to see how things were faring for them.

Crossfire starts off where Darkride finishes, with a gang of three vampirs, two werewolves and one human/thrall on the run, heading away from the hunters and a group of ancient vampires. They are looking for a safe place, and have a name, left by Michael, to go to in case of emergency, but no idea as to who or what they are headed towards.

Cicely has only recently been turned into a vampire, an enluzante, literally undead. Unlike Luke, who is a living, breathing vampire, but is once again immortal now that the curse has been broken. And Ander, the guy/werewolf that she's been in love with for the past few years, and he with her, is finding that hard to deal with. While Cicely is struggling to handle dying, becoming a vampire and losing herself, she is also trying to deal with Anders feelings towards her. She thought that they would be together now that he can control his wolf, she did die for him after all, to save both him and Luke. Luke feels that Cicely should just be with him now, they are both the same, and he hates seeing her pine for Ander.

Whey they arrive at their destination, they meet Naomi Faire, a witch who can charm animals. She's able to help Ander with DJ, who's only a new wolf, as he goes through his first change at the full moon. Spending a lot of time together, Ander and Naomi start to become close and Cicely is feeling jealous and resentful. Luke and Emmie are also spending more time together, all being able to walk in the light while Cicely must remain in the dark. But when someone turns against them, and Emmie is captured, the action really begins.

As a main character, Cicely was always likeable and at the ending of Darkride, I felt really, really sorry for her. While they all suffered their own losses, Cicely's impacted on me most, and in this book too, I was hoping that she was going to find some happiness and her place in this new world.

This series has some fantastic characters. Emmie is a thrall, and is such a sweetheart, you can't help but love her. Ander, a hunter turned werewolf, then taken in by a vampire and his thrall, is strong and protective. Luke, a living vampire, and the other side of the love triangle, is 200 years old, and having been in torper (deathly sleep), for 100 years, is again learning modern ways and speech/saying with some humorous results. Naomi, is new to the series, and in the beginning, I didn't feel I was going to take to her, but she was so nice and kind hearted to everyone, it wasn't possible to dislike her. DJ and Five, two characters that didn't stand out as much as the rest, but play their part in making this awesome story.

This book is written from the POV of Cicely, Ander, Luke and Emmie and is extremely well done. Laura's writing style is enjoyable with no long winded descriptions but enough to let get a feel for it. A great second book in an awesome series.

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