Christina

As always I loved being in Manna's world. She continues to intrigue me with her new plot lines.

The only drawback was that I wanted more Warrick! I missed him. I know I'm being greedy, but I want it all.

Innocent Blood: 4.5 Stars. This was Toreth at his best. Once again he's put into an impossible situation where he has to find a way out. Add in the possibility of a mysterious new plot direction and you get one hell of a story.

Weekend Plans: 4 Stars. Fun, fun, fun. We get to see what everyone's been doing since the last book.

Constellation of Falling Stars: 2.5 - 3.0 Stars This threw me off because I didn't know what was going on at first. There should have been some link to the next story.

For Your Entertainment: 4 Stars. I was worried about reading this because I always thought B-C was kind of flat, but I was pleasantly surprised to see the many different facets of his personality come out. I enjoyed being inside his head. There's this boyish charm about him that you can't help but like. He's sensitive and is constantly questioning himself. I kept comparing his decisions to what Toreth would do and how he'd react to what B-C was thinking. This made it all the more fun :D

This was ok. It started off pretty well. Nate is an idealistic cop who meets Caesar at a party and then finds out that Caesar's side business is breaking into houses, which is quite the problem for the cop. Caesar and Nate end up in the middle of a dangerous investigation. I really enjoyed the first 50%-60% of the book. There was suspense and action, but unfortunately it fell flat after that. Most of the second half of the book was all sex and then all we got was a nice neat wrap up for the ending. Even though I liked both Nate and Caesar, I was bored by the end.

This was a nice read, especially before the three men got together. That’s where the book lost me.

Let's start with the good. I loved the format. We got to see Charlie's life through his scrapbooking memories. It showed me a piece of Charlie's heart every time a new picture was added. Charlie is sweet as can be and proud of who he is. He makes no apologies for the way he dresses or for the things he likes. Charlie and Scott made a cute couple. Scott was the perfect boy next door. He is smart, cute, and played football. He was Charlie's first love. Then many years later he meets Adan. He's rude, insensitive, and cocky. A total opposite to Charlie, but Charlie sees something in him and gives him a chance. It was hard at first to accept Adan after the loving relationship Charlie had with Scott, but I quickly warmed up to Adan. Yes, he was a complete ass to Charlie, even up until the very end, but I understood where it was coming from. Adan was fighting preconceptions from his upbringing. I didn't like it and I hated that he hurt Charlie, but nevertheless I understood it. Charlie stood up for himself every time and never let Adan get away with anything. He gets hurt, but he doesn't compromise himself in the process.

Here's where it all goes downhill. So much was dedicated to the individual relationships in the first 70% of the book, that when all three met up again there was not enough time to work out any of the issues or they were simply ignored. It felt like the author was rushing through everything in order to get to the big sex scenes. We get a pure chance meeting between them and no explanation as to how Adan and Scott got together. We get nothing of their relationship together except their problems in the bedroom. They know right away that they want Charlie in their relationship. No discussions, no compromises, nothing. How does that work? It felt wrong on so many levels. There's a couple of scenes where they reacquainted themselves, but it's mostly about how much Adan and Scott want Charlie in bed. They make it clear that it's more than that, but that's not the focus. We get nothing of Charlie trying to work out how both his ex's are together after all these years and how he is dealing with it all. That was the most important part! We are told that 6 months go by before Charlie gives in, but really that meant nothing to me because what we saw was Adan and Scott showing up, apologizing to Charlie, and then making up. Very disappointing.

This is a suspenseful story, full of intrigue and deceit. The man behind this deceit is Joseph Van Aardt. He’s a master manipulator. He’s rich, powerful, arrogant, and gorgeous. Everyone in the office fears him and he uses anyone and anything to get what he wants. And what he wants is to hire Ryan at his law firm. Ryan is an ambitious upcoming lawyer that wants nothing more to become as powerful as Joseph. Poor naïve, eager to please Ryan. He gets sucked into Joseph’s world and never sees what hits him.

The sexual tension is high between them and Ryan tries to resist and stay faithful to his fiancé, but there’s just something about Joseph that he can’t stay away from. Even though Ryan is naïve, he is not by any means innocent. He made his choices. They begin a sexual relationship and Joseph puts Ryan on the biggest case of both their careers. People begin to die and lies come to the surface. More and more, you begin to question Joseph’s motives and his intentions towards Ryan. On the surface it looks like he wants Ryan, but of course it’s not that simple. He’s a bit of a contradiction. He’s fighting for the little guys and you begin to see signs that he may actually care for Ryan, but then in the same breath he seems to be using Ryan’s attraction to him to get him to do what he wants.

The last 20-30% kicks into high gear. Secrets come out and in the end I was left with more questions and not many answers. Surprisingly this didn't bother me. I usually need some answers, at least to the glaring questions, but in this story I liked coming up with my own conclusions. So be warned - there are many unanswered questions.

Also, this is not a romance. Yes, it has some romantic undertones, but it has more of an erotic feel to it, even though there isn't a lot of explicit sex.

This was a 4 star read up until the epilogue. A half a star is added for the pure shock value. I love a book that can keep me guessing and allows me to come up with different scenarios in my head. This book fit the bill at every turn.

Sadly, I was underwhelmed by A Taste for Poison. It was a nice wrap-up to all the lingering questions, but unfortunately everything was summed up too neatly for my taste. I missed the action and tension from the first two books. I missed the intrigue and the Scorpions in the thick of battle. Everything moved too quickly in this book, and being in Kendras' head was boring and repetitive. None of the major scenes were developed, so there was no time for me to latch onto what was happening. I was disappointed we didn't get to see more of

There wasn't enough build-up in the conflicts.

I was also disappointed in some of the side characters, namely Graukar. I was so intrigued by him in the last book, but nothing came of him. He was flat. He only served as Kendras' love interest and as the final catalyst for Kendras making up his mind about Adrastes. There was nothing dynamic about him and what bothers me the most is that there was every opportunity for both Graukar and Shadow to develop into amazing characters. The storyline was there for the taking, but alas, neither of the brothers were dynamic. Lasty, I was hoping to get more from Amrash. He makes an appearance, but it was more of the same. Nothing new was brought to the character.

Kendras grated on my nerves as well. I never minded him doubting his abilities or questioning himself as the Officer, but in this last book it irritated me. I really wanted him to be more forceful and standup to Adrastes with more authority. He did what he had to do and faced Adrastes, but it always felt like he had his head between his legs. And why did he take so long to deal with Blood? Geez.

Even with all my problems with the book, it was nice to be back in the Scorpion world. I enjoyed the prophecy surrounding Kendras. That was an interesting touch. Of course it's always fun to have Widow and the other Scorpions around, but again I yearned for more from them.

To sum up, I got the answers to my questions, however it wasn't in the fashion I would have liked or have come to expect from Voinov, especially since I love his works!