Book Review: A Blaze of Sun

Two left, friends. I have two books in this section of the series that I want to finish and then I'm done! Thankfully this one was a really fast read!

A Blaze of Sun - Bella Forrest

Welcome back to The Shade... 

"Of course you know who I am. I'm a daughter of the darkness just as surely as you are his son..." 

Ever since his brief encounter with Emilia at The Shade, Derek's thoughts and dreams have been haunted with images of the mysterious, beautiful brunette. Plagued with guilt, he struggles to understand why he is so drawn to this dark stranger from his past. 

When Emilia suddenly appears again on the island, Derek is both terrified and intrigued. But this time, he is determined to involve Sofia and discover who this woman is. 

If only Derek and Sofia knew, Emilia is a mystery that should be left undiscovered...

I feel like this book had a lot of momentum in the plot which honestly made me fly through this one faster than the others. This book brings us Emilia, a threat to Derek and Sofia surely, but a greater threat to The Shade as well. Once you find out who she is you fully understand why she's here and why she's so focused on Derek and being the part that fulfills the prophecy. It kind of worried me because she's basically everything perfect and amazing that Derek could want so really, what would stop him from choosing her over Sofia?

Sofia, for her part, is less whiny in this book and puts more trust in Derek and his love for her and that was refreshing. This book finds Sofia trying to reconcile with her parents while at the same time trying to run The Shade while Derek is gone with Emilia to fulfill his one week obligation. That ends up being a colossal mistake and thank god Aiden was there when he was. Aiden kind of redeems himself, I think, and it seems the more he's around the vampires the more his attitude is changing.

We also learn of the elder who is basically king of all vampires, we meet Arron (leader of the hunters), and we find out that Kiev (Emilia's brother) wants Sofia for his own for his own shot at redemption but he's put to the test by the Elder to bring Derek and Sofia's future children. A lot of foreboding for the next couple of books which means I want to dig in as quick as possible. (That might take a hiatus because I have one review book and a bunch of shorter back list titles I want to get to first so we'll see. )

Overall I'm giving this book a solid four. I liked that the plot was quick and didn't linger too long on one aspect, we have some lose ends tied up, some characters finally meet their end, new ones are introduced and I feel like Bella Forrest is really shaping a complex but really great larger story.