I have to say, I was never really a fan of a Tohr book...the whole mate death thing just made me feel too sorry for him to really envision him as a sexy guy. So I knew starting this that I was just reading it because it's a BDB book.I think what held me back from loving this is the fact that No'One is quite the doormat, which I hate. The woman is raped and bad bad things happened to her...like a hundred years ago!!!! Time to literally get a life again, lady. To go so far as to call yourself No'One makes it seem like you enjoy your purgatory a little too much.Then there's the tormented Tohr. The man is still so in love with Wellsie...and it takes the threat of her eternal torment in order for him to even begin to somehow, maybe try to one day move on. This is not a good start for a relationship. I just never really bought that he could allow himself to mourn for...what, year and a half? Over his shellan of two hundred years? "Okay, time to move on....trot, trot...OH, there's a broken shell woman! You must boink the ever living shit out of her and forget about your dead spouse before said dead spouse can move on from the fade. If you do not do that which is forced upon you, your beloved will forever be in agony of mind....."This isn't romance to me, it's just not.I DID, however, enjoy the Band of Bastards, Xcor and Layla thing... I never liked Layla even remotely until this book, but she and Xcor have a great connection!!!Xhex and John Michael...I thought they already had their own book?! I can see showing a few marital problems, but they took up almost more page time than Tohr and No'One, and I just didn't like the conflict there. So, this goes down as one of my least favorite BDB books, just because I really didn't enjoy ANY of the stories. It was almost a transitional book, in my humble opinion...Ward's way of switching tactics. Still readable for fans of the series.
