Xing

Blood & Stone is the third and final entry into the Venom Valley series. Now that Josh and Dex are reunited, they are set with the final battle against the vampires. In this book, the POV expands to include Walker. That makes it four characters we are head hopping between: Dex, Josh, Glory and Walker. Honestly, as much as I like Glory, I was getting really tired at this point with so many people sharing word space (any chapter that contains Gloria's POV always has “the warmth of Ohanzee” repeated like ten times and was getting on my nerves). I literally felt that Walker's POV did absolutely nothing to enrich the story. Sure, it gave us more insight into his past, but that happens pretty much at the very end of the book – at that point, I really could have cared less. I also felt like one-third or even half of the story could have been deleted, and it would have been even BETTER. Most of the book was literally preparing for the fight, which got boring fast. The vampire/wolf fights were also losing its touch and felt like a repeating scene throughout the book.

Was Blood & Stone all bad? Nope. I still really enjoyed the times when Josh and Dex were able to find time to themselves. Sure, the sex was great, but I loved the non-sexual intimacy between them while they fight for their lives. While Glory annoyed me with her POV, reading about her from Josh and Dex's POV was fine. I did enjoy most of the side characters as well, since they became part of this little vampire-killing family living out in the West. It really is a cast of very diverse people.

So overall, the series was “okay” for me. It had a prominent beginning, which fizzled out in book two mostly due to bad pacing, but recovered somewhat in book three. It had a charming (and not so charming) cast of characters that were mostly engaging. The story itself was solid, though its execution wavered while the story progressed. The Venom Valley series isn't perfect, but you should give it a try if you're a fan of historical paranormal stories.