Wednesday, May 25, 2016

#Wednesday Review - Divine Descendant by Jenna Black (Urban Fantasy)

Series: Nikki Glass # 4
Format: Kindle, 228 pages
Release Date: May 16, 2016
Publisher: Pocket Star
Source: Amazon, Kindle
Genre: Urban Fantasy


For Immortal Huntress and cunning private investigator Nikki Glass, vengeance trumps all in the final novel in acclaimed author Jenna Black's addictive urban fantasy series!

What happens when fertility goddesses go on strike? Nothing much—except maybe the end of the human race.

When private investigator Nikki Glass became immortal as a descendant of Artemis, she never dreamed she’d find herself playing marriage counselor to the gods. But she doesn’t really have much of a choice when the crazed ex-wife of Anderson Kane—a god in disguise who just happens to be the son of a Fury—decides to enact revenge by wiping out all of humanity. Somehow, Nikki must convince the two to kiss and make up, but with Anderson now gone AWOL, she'll have to find him first. To top it all off, the cat’s out of the bag that Anderson killed Konstantin, the Olympians’ deposed leader. Now their new boss—Konstantin’s son—is out for blood.

With every mere mortal’s fate now resting in Nikki’s hands, can she outsmart the gods…or will she be doomed to spend the rest of eternity in a barren and desolate world?
 





Divine Descendant is apparently the final installment in author Jenna Black's Nikki Glass series. Things have been rather curious for Private Investigator Nikki Glass over the past three months. She found out that she was a Descendant of Artemis, the supposed goddess of the hunt, chastity, virginity, the moon, and the natural environment. Now, apparently immortal, she's a member of Anderson Kane's Liberi group which is heavily outmatched in numbers by the Olympians, lead by Cyrus Galanos, son of Konstantin who offered Nikki no amount of trouble and heartache. 

Even though Cyrus is the supposed enemy, she finds that perhaps they have common ground, especially when fertility goddesses fail to do their jobs, and Kane's ex-wife Niobe shows up with vengeance on her mind. The fact that Nikki isn't all that happy with what happened in Rogue Descendant, and Kane's very public revelation of who he really is, and then his abrupt disappearance, makes for an interesting temporary alliance with Cyrus. The one thing that is apparently clear right from the onset of this story, is that Nikki has taken the leadership role in Kane's group. Nikki's group of Liberi includes Logan (Ares Descendant), Jack (Loki), Maggie (Hercules), Blake (Eros), and Jamaal (Kali). 

Let me say that if I were a person new to this series, I would definitely be eager to start from the beginning with Dark Descendant. Nikki is a very developed character at this point. She's tried to keep her humanity in the face of major challenges in her life, and that of her families. She is far from a character who makes silly and stupid mistakes. She's also not entirely sure of her powers at this point, only that they are stronger at night and with the moon. Nikki has kept her bleeding heart sense of mortality almost from the beginning when she was shoved into her current position. 

What has made this series interesting for me, is that Black finds ways of twisting things until they actually make sense. Who could have imagined that the first descendants of the Gods were immortal, but subsequent generations of mortal descendants are able to take their places by killing them? You would think that only immortals can kill other immortals, but you would be wrong. Black's world is far from being black and white. The good guys are not necessarily all that good, but the bad guys are truly despicable and evil. Look no further than Konstantin's search and kill mission of all mortal descendants. 

Even though it has been three years since Rogue Descendant released, I am fully onboard with the way Black wraps up her series. Hell, I am damn happy that she was able to come back to this series after that gut wrenching ending to Rogue Descendant and not just abandon her readers to the darkness of feeling unsatisfied. I am more than happy with the romance that finally, yes, finally develops fully between Nikki and Jamaal who has absolutely grown from being the angry dude who wanted to kill her. I am extremely happy that Black didn't use rape as a weapon this time around. I can't ever support rape as a weapon under any circumstances. I am also happy with Black giving Nikki not only hope for the future, but someone she can spend her immortality with.




1 comment:

  1. Nice! I can't wait to read this one either! Can't believe it's been 3 years since the last one! I can't remember much at all about it sadly. That was before my notorious note-taking skills! LOL! Hopefully enough will come back that I can enjoy it! Yay for series finales!! Even if they take some time to come about! Great review!

    ReplyDelete