It was great to be back with Sabina and her pals in this, the fourth instalment of the Sabina Kane series. I very much enjoyed the first three books and was desperately wishing good things on Sabina and Adam in the previous book so that they might finally get it together. ('cause, you know, if you wish for something hard enough, it will happen). And how good was the end of Green-eyed Demon? So good, is the answer to that. Sabina finally stopped being a Fraidy Cat and admitted she loved Adam after nearly losing him to mad Maisie, and we all breathed a sigh of contented relief.

It was a slight disappointment then, after all the high emotion and drama from the end of that book, to discover that three months later at the beginning of this one, they have morphed into the world's dullest couple. Adam is being Mr. Judgy Von Holier Than Thou about Sabina's vamp side. And their shows of affection are mostly limited to unromantic pecks on the cheek and an occasional arm draped around a shoulder. I realise once the main couple get together the sexual tension part will be missing as we move towards more comfortable togetherness, but surely there should still be sexual attraction? I would have liked to think that after only a matter of weeks they still find each other more appealing than this.

And it wasn't until much further into the book that I began to understand the possible reason for Wells writing them this way, and by the midway point, the drama stakes for these two have been upped almost beyond bearing for both of them. And all was forgiven. I still love Adam and Sabina as a couple despite their problems and now having finished the novel I am back to being optimistic for them at the very least. Who ever said love was easy, eh?

The mystery plot was also a little slow to get going. I have to say if this book was a football match, all the goals were scored in the second half and I did have a moment in the middle wondering what had happened to these characters that used to be such fun. Even the ever glamorous Pussy Willow has turned from a fun-loving cross dressing fae with a heart of gold, to a drag queen bitch diva from hell. Her and Gighul are having some kind of "issues". I'm not at all sure what's going on there but I hope we get the old PW back soon.

All in all, not the finest of the series so far, but a must read in terms of plot development. This is one of those occasions where I wish for half stars because I would give it 3.5, but since the end was so good I'll round up to 4.

4 Stars! ★★★★

Review Copy: Received from the publisher for an honest review