Review – Slay Me

Title:

Slay Me

Series:

Immortal Vices and Virtues #9

Author:

Jessica Wayne

Genre:

Paranormal Romance

Blurb:

In No Man’s Circus, the Ringmaster controls everything–even me.
Every evening, I’m forced to perform. High above a crowd of supernaturals, I fly on my lyra. Never high enough to escape my captor.
And when the lights go down and the audience goes home, it’s just him and me.
I shouldn’t enjoy it.
This obsession he has with me.
But as a hybrid in a world where power is king, I’m nothing special.
Except when his eyes are on my body.
He’s a beast whose strength is unparalleled, a creature who demands my obedience, but even as the twisted parts of me are drawn to him, I refuse to be broken.
He’ll have to kill me first.

Review

3.5stars rating
Worldbuilding:

Set in the world we know and love, this is instalment 9 already! We’re in No Man’s Land, in No Man’s Circus, to be exact. And we’re pretty much staying there for the duration of the book. The scenes and environments were clear and detailed enough.

Character development:

We already got a hint of our couple at the end of the last book (Corrupt Me by Everly Frost), and of course, we’ve seen our Ringmaster in Ignite Me (by Heather Renee). So yeah, I love it when they do cross-overs, even between different authors, which makes it so much more immersive.
Liv is a fury, a child of a harpy and a fae. Unfortunately, she is pretty low on the power scale and, with no real means to defend herself, gets into a really crappy situation which lasts years. Finally, she manages to escape, only to end up being owned by the Ringmaster instead. But at least she’s alive.
The Ringmaster, D, Dante, so many names and people still have no clue who or what he is. And that is how he likes it and needs to keep it, even if that means keeping his distance from the enticing Liv and being an absolute bastard.
I enjoyed the dynamic between the two, the obvious pull they feel towards each other, but both having (good) reasons why they should keep their distance. Unfortunately, we don’t know much about Dante’s past except for a brief explanation about his family, so that was something I missed from the story.
Characters felt real and believable, even if they could have been fleshed out more. I especially liked Fiona and wish we could see more from her (hint hint).

Pacing & Flow:

The setup and the flow were really good. However, I feel that the buildup took a bit too long, and the conclusion was too fast. Nevertheless, there was a good balance between all the actions and the conversations.

The book itself:

The book has 259 pages, spread over 30 chapters and is told from both Liv’s and Dante’s points of view.
As with the previous books in this series, there is sexual content described (if that is important to you).

Final Thoughts:

I voluntarily read an advanced reader copy of this book, and while I enjoyed the book, I was a bit disappointed with the fast ending. But I liked the author’s writing style, so I will most definitely read more of her books!