Evermore - Lynn Viehl

I had a few problems with the previous story and I'm afraid things don't get better with this one.

Jayr is proud to be the only female ever permitted to serve as seneschal to a Darkyn lord. But in her centuries of service to Master Byrne, she has fallen in love with him. Now, Byrne plans to step down and hand over the Jardin to another Kyn lord-a move that threatens not only Jayr's position, but her very life...

Like in the previous book, Night Lost, I wasn't all that interested in the main characters. That was a bit weird for me because the do mention their medieval origins more in this book than in others and since medievals are my thing that could have helped but the truth is that I never felt I knew them enough to sympathise with them. Nor do we get to know the whole story, how did they went from that field in Bannockburn to being Master and Seneschal and why didn't those feelings emerged sooner. If I had known all that I guess I could have felt more about them.

And like in the previous book I found the secondary characters much more interesting. I wanted to know what was going on with Nottingham and Robin, what was the story behind them. Of course these are character we've all heard of before so it's much easier to be interested if you like the Robin Hood legend. The thing is that final twist really REALLY annoyed me, not only is the man a liar but he also let's others take the blame for him. Not hero material on my book so I'll be looking forward to see what Viehl does with him in his own book.

As usual Alexandra and Cyprien provided some of the entertainment although she is starting to seem like the only one who can get to the truth of things and Cyprien seemed very defenceless here and maybe not that accurate when separating the good guys from the bad guys. I find myself thinking that after having had their own book in the first of the series they tend to hijack all the other books because I always find myself mentioning them in my reviews. In a way this series is as much about the main characters as about Alexandra and her attempt to discover what happened to the Darkyn and if the process can be reversed.

I missed having the High Lord Richard Tremayne in the story and I wish she would write more about him. We know all about his health now so can we have his love life sorted out?

Viehl has a nice writing style and she is great at describing characters and maintaining a fast paced, suspenseful action. One really wants to keep reading and find out what's going to happen. That's why although I struggled with the problems I mentioned I'm still looking forward to the next one. Unfortunately more for what I think will be the secondary story than the main romance but Viehl did a really good job in creating the Darkyn world and I seem to never get enough of that.

Grade: C+