Needless to say spoilers abound in Scarlet for Red.

Have I mentioned how much I love the covers? No? Let me digress into that for a moment. We got to see Gina/Red on the cover of Red and we got to see the deliciousness that is meant to be Morgan's naked chest as well. On Scarlet we get more Gina/Red looking badass in black and red leather plus Morgan looking badass with injuries, a fierce look on his face and unfortunately completely covered. The third book, Crimson (due out in November), promises to have a beautiful cover as well. I'd be down for prints of those covers if I thought I could get some.

Back to business. We left Gina and Morgan ready to embark on their new relationship after the threat of Morgan's cousin Kane was eliminated, Gina stepped down from IPTT to find out more about her Other self (her werewolf side) with Morgan in Nuria and Roark Mongomery is three fingers down and swearing revenge left, right and center at Gina and Morgan.

Montgomery is like those classic villians who are willing to threaten anything and everything to get what they want. He doesn't scruple to abuse his power (discreetly) or drug people into compliance or blackmail people into compliance...hell he doesn't even scruple to have them tortured and killed if it suits his goals better. The man has no 'this is going to far' switch at all. The only thing that keeps him in check is making sure things stay as secretive and far removed from him as possible. The only moves he wants made are the ones that can be used to deceive the public into doing what he wants. Quite frankly I can't stand the man at all, but I appreciate the unrepentant evil that he represents. The future is bleak, barren and little better then desert tribes for the most part--that sort of atmosphere deserves a man who will do whatever it takes to grab power.

It also deserves a hero and heroine who will do whatever it takes to make it better and Gina and Morgan fit that bill mostly. They are both preoccupied with personal problems throughout the book--Morgan with his dead wife and kid being cloned and Red with her feelings of uncertainty and uselessness. Red's head is definitely more in the game then Morgan's is for this volume. Morgan runs headlong into what anyone with half a brain would recognize as a trap. That left Gina alone in Nuria, with half the town convinced she had purposely gotten rid of Morgan, the other half convinced that she was dangerous because she couldn't control her werewolf side and all of the town convinced she was sleeping around.

The Nurians surprised me the most I think in this book, but then again Morgan is their Alpha. He is the one who kept them in line with just a hitch of his shoulders. The rumblings from last book of wanting to replace him I think never completely went away and with him running off without a word to anyone but Gina, it must have made folks very worried. Scared too. Add to it the frame job that made Gina look like a murdering slut...well...

I bought this book and read it within the same 10 hour window. I am eternally grateful that I have Crimson from BEA to read next because I'm not sure I could wait until November. The end makes for some interesting dynamic shifts and power struggles, not to mention personal developments I am intensely interested in. ( )

I like the fact that Red and Morgan stayied together.. need to see if they can stay alive in book 3 ( )

The premise: after the events of Red, Gina Santiago has settled in the town of Nuria with her werewolf boyfriend, Morgan. She's trying to control her own abilities, but can't, which makes her an outcast in the town of Others. It makes her job of forming a Nurian tactical team even more difficult, but everything goes to hell when Morgan is called away on an important but personal mission he won't tell anyone about but Gina. Now, Gina has to run a town of people that resent her, and what's worse, someone REALLY has it in for her: dead bodies start piling up, and all the evidence points to her. She's got to find a way to clear her name and get Morgan back before something far worse happens.

Waste of Time & Money: yes, it was that bad. What I loved about the first book, Red, wasn't even remotely present in this book, and so much about the plot and character motivations seemed contrived, not an organic part of character, setting, or story. The romance was obnoxiously labeled as love when it was obviously lust, and Gina is not the same character from before, which is frustrating as hell, because I don't want to read about a moping heroine trying to cope with her missing boyfriend (wait, isn't that what New Moon is about?). Too many POVs litter the landscape of 292 pages, and the story is nothing if not predictable. Certainly, it's a transition to the third and final book in the trilogy, Crimson, but I have no interest in reading forward, this book bothered me so much. I would've stopped reading if it hadn't been such a FAST read, and frankly, I wish I had. There's a scene towards the end that reminds me of what I've heard my romance-reading friends complain about: you know the trope where the "hero" rapes the heroine, and until the rape scene, she hates him but suddenly loves him because the "rape" is so good? No, that specific scene is NOT in this book, but there's a scene that very much reminds me of that trope. Consider that a warning to those readers who are fed up with rape or anything alluding to it in genre fiction.

At any rate, if you enjoyed the first book for its gritty horror elements and solid, tough-as-nails heroine, don't bother with this one, because neither element is present. Don't get me wrong, there are points in the book where it TRIES to bring those elements back, but not enough and far too late. Save yourself and skip this one, or if you must read it, I'd try borrowing it from somewhere.

Review style: stream of conscious, with spoilers. It's taken me six days to actually sit down and review this book, and yet I still feel the need to rant. So if you're up to it, click the link below to my journal for the full review. As always, comments and discussion are most welcome.

REVIEW: Jordan Summer's SCARLET ( )