So I liked coming back to these characters, but one the story kind of meandered loosely grasping at straws to connect it to the previous book in way beyond bringing back familiar characters. It was convoluted rather than an organized sequel with clear direction. That said I probably would have gone along with it until the devil showed up. Don't get me wrong I like his character, where his appearance went wrong was his one upping Sam's abilities.

Sam is a mix of many divine and magical entities. He has serious power in his own right. Bailey's cindercorn abilities are kind of what brings her on level with him. The devil gives him the cindercorn from which doesn't hurt to shift into and out of because of his other shifter abilities. He doesn't need a transformative pill to take that form, he also can talk the same as with any other form. He can consume napalm with all the positive results without becoming drunk on it. He's bigger than her and can basically do all that she can do without any of the weaknesses. Oh and if he actually took a transformative without the devil present he's also a dragon. Bailey gains some minor extra powers too and does get to do most of the killing but it doesn't change the fact that her male counterpart trounces her abilities. It read like it was impossible for Blain to accept the concept of the female lead to even be suspected as stronger than her spouse. And to say that aspect of the story pissed me off is an understatement. I HATE when authors, even when they write a strong female have to make her weak in comparison to her male counterpart. About the time men start birthing babies out their penises is about the time I might be convinced to view them as the stronger sex. There was no need in the story to add those elements to his character. Many of the scenes where the form was even used were used to depict Bailey as a child needing management. Which again completely pissed me off. Not having a penis doesn't make you and oversized child in need of management and the implications that it does are beyond offensive. Like there aren't even curse words strong enough to depict how angry scenes like that make me.

Finally in the effort to create all these convoluted connections between this book and the first in the series Blain creates a ton of open ended plot points that aren't really resolved appropriately at the conclusion of the book. It's like she got bored of the actual plot and just wanted to play around with the characters some more. And the depictions of children as well as the immediate families she's creating give the strong impression that Blain has little to bo experience with actual children, only ideal of how she would be with the imaginary children she pictures in her head. Real children have much stronger and louder emotions than the child characters. They don't just meekly fall into line and read adult novels to amuse themselves. The children depicted here as just beyond unrealistic to the point of downright laughable. Being a parent isn't freaking easy and it should never be portrayed that way. Children on sitcoms are usually way more well behaved than real kids and the kids in this book make those kids look like heathens. They don't instantly connect to new parents after losing their own. They have these huge complex feelings they don't know how to manage when faced with death and upset and they often deal with those feelings in ways that don't directly relate to the real problem. Parenting is like trying to interpret a language that you don't know and that makes no sense and is only spoken in the form of random behaviors. And doing it while trying to stay calm and hold on to your sanity. Sure it's worth it, but anyone who thinks parenting is easy has never had kids. The sunshine, rainbows and puppies moments are great but those don't come nearly as often as the sleepless nights, temper tantrums, general insanity and constant anxiety of wondering if you're going to blink wong and permanently screw up the little beings left in your care. All these kids did in the story was make Blain look completely clueless.

Overall I like the characters but honestly this is one of the worst books by Blain I've read and seriously didn't do those characters justice.