And now we’re wrapping up… just in time to add in some random new bigger badder big bad that we’d never heard of before?

Onward!

To be fair, it’s the right time for it. Jane has managed to take control of vampire world and solidify her power in and around New Orleans. We need something to shake up that new status quo, if the series isn’t just going to end now. And really, there was foreshadowing that something like this might happen all the way back to the early books.

Still feels weird.

On the plus side, seeing the new evolution of an old character was great fun, I hope we get more of that! The battles were exciting and bloody, more of that! And seeing Jane well supported and loved is something that’s she had a long time coming and well deserved.

On the flipside… I miss the smaller stakes (heh) of the older books. I don’t really understand why Jane became the Dark Queen (either from a personal perspective or a metaphysical one), beyond perhaps that there’s no one else. I’m still not a huge fan of the transition.

Still worth the read I think. And at this point, you absolutely can bet I’m going to finish the series. Only one book left. Onward!