Death’s Sweet Embrace by T. O’Hara

The first in the Dark Brethren series blew me away. It had a hot romance, a fantastic story, and it’s general badass-ness had me really excited for this next installment, Death’s Sweet Embrace, by Tracey O’Hara. To be honest I was fully expecting Antoinette and Christian to continue carrying the torch for this series, and I have to say I was a tad disappointed when that didn’t end up being the case.

After centuries of secret conflict, humans and parahumans have reached an uneasy truce. But unspeakable evil now threatens the tenuous peace.

Teenaged shapeshifters are being slaughtered by a sadistic serial killer who rips their still-beating hearts from their paralyzed bodies. A task force forms to halt the madness, including the vampiric Aeternus Antoinette Petrescu, as well as Kitt Jordan and Raven Matokwe, members of enemy Animalian tribes . . . and forbidden lovers.

A centuries-old blood feud has divided their shapeshifting peoples, and if their passion is discovered it will doom them both. But past hostilities must be put aside, for the killer they seek is but the first sign of the all-consuming nightmare of The Dark Brethren.

Death’s Sweet Embrace actually deals with a whole new couple, Kitt, or Katherine, and Raven, while still expanding on the story that was started in Night’s Cold Kiss. I really didn’t feel like the couple in this story were exactly on par with Antoinette and Christian. Whereas Antoinette and Christian were exciting and sexy, Kitt and Raven were, not boring exactly, they just possessed less of the sexy and exciting. Most of that I put on Kitt, she was definitely no Antoinette. Maybe that’s the point. I mean she’s a whole new character, with a different upbringing and past. These sort of things shape a person, and it just so happens that Kitt became a more gentle and caring person than Antoinette. However I can’t help comparing the two, especially when they are in the same series, and came up with Kitt lacking. That’s not to say that I didn’t understand why she acted the way she did. Trying to get in good with her former pack means she’s gotta be the consummate good girl, but I still found myself wanting to have more Antoinette in the story.

Raven was another story entirely. He definitely possessed a sexy and exciting air. Add that to his whole ‘bad boy with a mysterious past’ thing he had going on, he quickly became my favorite. The way he cared for Kitt was also amazing. It didn’t matter that over and over Kitt tried to push him away, Raven was right there the entire time if Kitt needed him.

In fact, I would say that more often than not, Raven was put in the role of comforting Kitt rather than fighting. Not that he doesn’t fight, but with everything that happens in the story, Kitt needs Raven to lean on. In the beginning, I found that the story kind of dragged, but it quickly started picking up, and there were a lot of twists and turns that I didn’t necessarily see coming.

Can I say that I was in love with Death’s Sweet Embrace as I was Night’s Cold Kiss? Not exactly, but I will say that Death’s Sweet Embrace by Tracey O’Hara was a quality story. You still do get Antoinette, just not nearly as much as I would have liked. And Christian only makes a cameo in the story. On the whole Death’s Sweet Embrace doesn’t have me as excited for the next book in the Dark Brethren series. However, I think that I may just check it out in hopes that the next book is more like Night’s Cold Kiss rather than Death’s Sweet Embrace.