Jac K's Reviews > Soul Avenged

I’ve been reading several of K.L.’s books recently, and read an author’s note that said PNR is her comfort zone, so I wanted to try one of them. Soul Avenged is the first book of the Sons of Wrath series. I had skimmed a couple reviews, so I knew it would have a Black Dagger Brotherhood/Underworld vibe which sounded promising, but unfortunately the h pretty much ruined any chance I had for loving it. (view spoiler)[

Ayden is a super kick-ass Selene-ish warrior Lycan hunter. We know from the blurb that she wants to KILL THEM ALL, BUT I underestimated just how much she HATES Lycans. Although, I love strong h’s; she’s just SO bitchy, aggressive, hostile, cruel, abusive to Kane the H. We learn much later there’s somewhat of an explanation, but she spends over half the book HATING him which was such a buzzkill. She keeps him handcuffed to a bed, slaps/punches him constantly, internally chants Kill him. Kill him. Kill him. While repeatedly threatening to cut off his head and rip out his spine. Then, POOF! they sleep together and it’s 💖💖. I have no idea how he even developed feelings for her. Also, much of the storyline up to that point is her reminiscing/hanging with her past lover Gavin. (who is totally awesome… but not the H) For almost 60% it felt like Gavin was the H. The issue with this (setting aside that I don’t want OM/h page time… I want H/h page time) was that Ayden’s anger is because her life was destroyed when she was attacked/bitten by a Lycan, BUT Kane’s life has also been blown up because he was attacked/bitten by a LYCAN… AND he hasn’t changed into a Lycan, so I couldn’t wrap my head around ALL the hate she had towards him. It also didn’t help that he’s a pretty decent dude that works with cancer patients, so her lack of feeling, understanding made her tough to like.

Bottom Line- This was just “ok” for me. It had potential, but it wasn’t paced/developed fluidly. I really enjoyed the last 30%, but IMO the hatefest was overplayed and went on WAY too long taking up page time that should have went to the development of the couple. That being said, the secondary characters (the Wrath brothers) were great, so their books might be better.
(hide spoiler)]