I’ll admit that I picked up a freebie copy of Brianna West’s Awakening (Promiscus Guardians #1) in order to cheat on a reading challenge a little bit…kind of. I set out to read eight books titled Awakening. I called it the Awakening Challenge. (I know, not overly creative). But as time went on, I picked up an extra Awakening or two, until I was at the end and had read eleven books. But that bothered me. Eleven just felt like such an odd, awkward number. So, I went in deliberate search of a free book named Awakening, so that I could finish the challenge on an even number. It’s kind of cheating because the point of the challenge was to read all the books called Awakening that I owned.

Izzy is on the fast track to nowhere. Being ordinary really blew sometimes. That’s until she meets Lucas–a man that’s unlike anyone she’s ever met. Mostly because he isn’t actually a man. He is a supernatural creature that proclaims to police the Light and Dark in order to protect humans.

And Izzy–well–she isn’t the human she thought she was. She is actually a supernatural being as well. And now Lucas is going to do everything in his power to find out what she is and protect her from the Dark lurking around the corner.

Awakening follows Izzy as she navigates this new world of demons, vampires, angels, and many other supernatural creatures. Recruited by the Promiscus Guardians and partnering with the most brooding and devilishly handsome man she’s every met, Lucas, Izzy is suddenly knee-deep up crap creek. Discover the secret behind her power and why it’s such a commodity in her Awakening.

Warning: there’s a pretty big spoiler in here.

Man, this was a serious disappointment. I’ll state for the record that the writing is readable and the editing, while not without errors, is passable. But the characters and plot… no, thank you. I thought Izzy was an unpleasant, judgmental cow. All the gay jokes were bad enough (and they were noticeably frequent and gross). But the fact that the sole gay person in the book also turned out to be the villain was just beyond the pale when paired with them. The romance doesn’t really develop; it just kind of appears. And the hero is toxically jealous and not even particularly romance-worthy.

But worst of all, there’s a whole good versus evil war going on IN THE BACKGROUND, while the book focuses on Izzy’s navel gazing, how hot the men around her are, and how neglected her ‘lady parts’ remain. For half the book, I was just annoyed by this. But as it went on for almost 400 pages (far too long) and the plot spiraled out ridiculously, I just wanted it to end and put me out of my misery. And that’s if I overlook the giant plot hole of why the villain didn’t just take Izzy when she lived with him.