I’m fairly sure I picked up Etched in Honor (by Carrie Ann Ryan) as an Amazon freebie. I read it on my Kindle. Hunted in Darkness, however, I won at some point.

About Etched in Honor:

I thought I’d lost my fated mate until he shows up years later. Only with no memory of me. Or us.

As Beta of the Aspen Pack, I was forced to watch our former Alpha turn to dark magic and destroy the bonds of our people.

I nearly died trying to save us, but I broke the biggest taboo: I told the others that cat shifters existed and almost lost everything in return.

Now we have a new Alpha, a new future, and a dangerous and mysterious enemy threatening our stable balance. And a new Tracker.

The man who looks like my dead mate.

My Review:

Honestly, this just wasn’t very good. The writing is super sloppy and very repetitive. I seriously think that if everything that was said more than once was said a single time, the whole 300-page book would literally be 25 pages long. The copy-editing might be fine, but a content editor would make a grand difference here.

The thing is, though, that it has interesting characters, a world with a lot of potential, and an intriguing plot idea and romantic pairing. But it is extremely obvious that this is a spin-off, and so many characters are introduced from other books (even up to the end), and important past events are mentioned that at no point did I feel settled into this plot. The whole thing feels like a protracted prologue. As if it were a recap reminding readers of what happened before getting into a new story, when this is supposed to be the new story. The bad writing I might have forgiven. But combined with being too enmeshed in other series to stand on its own, it was more than I could forgive.

About Hunted in Darkness:

I knew I wanted her the first time I saw her. Only problem? She can’t be my mate.

I’m a son of a traitor and former Alpha and I know it’s the legacy people see.

But I must be the Alpha of my Pack and protect them from the new threat to our world: Vampires.

Valac and the others are still in the shadows, and we must find their lairs before we lose more than we already have.

Only every time the enemy attacks, Skye puts herself in jeopardy. I’m the dominant wolf, but she’s the one with the most to lose.

She’s the Pack princess. The daughter of legends.

And I know she’s not my mate.

But I want her. I need her. And now I must convince my wolf. Or break the most sacred rules of the moon goddess.

Again.

My Review:

I think Carrie Ann Ryan’s books just aren’t for me. I read this, despite disliking book one, because I hoped the series was suffering first-book syndrome and it would get better. It did not. What’s more, I disliked Hunted in Darkness for much the same reasons I disliked Etched in Honor. The writing just isn’t very good. It is almost entirely dialogue or internal monologue with very little description. There are far, far, far too many references to other books, characters, story lines, etc. I never felt like I could sink into this story because I was so often reminded I was missing others. The book-level romance suffers from artificial obstacles, while the series-level arc moves very little, and calling the villains caricatures is being generous. All in all, to each their own, but I won’t be continuing the series.

Other Reviews:

The Reading Cafe: Aspen Pack