Craves The Angst: NEW REVIEW! VAGRANT (Condemned #4) by Gemma James:

"Rafe and Alex’s story ends the way it begins ... dark, sexy and totally screwed up." - Craves the Angst

TITLE: Vagrant
SERIES: Condemned #4
AUTHOR: Gemma James
AGE GROUP: Adult
GENRE: Dark Romance
RELEASE DATE: September 15, 2015
PUBLISHER: Gemma James
PAGES: Approx. 229

COPY PROVIDED BY: Purchased
MY GOODREADS REVIEW LINK
RATING: 3 Stars!
CLIFFHANGER: No

BOOK BLURB:

I’ve finally got what I want.

Rafe Mason loves me.

He’s forgiven me.

Survived for me.

Killed for me.

But is it enough?

His darkness owns me.

Consumes me.

Bends me.

Heals me.

Loving him shouldn’t be this hard.

VAGRANT is a dark romance with disturbing themes and explicit content, including sexual scenes and violence that may offend some. Intended for mature audiences. Please begin with Torrent, Rampant, and Fervent before reading Vagrant.

3 Stars!

Dark, twisted kind of love...

The Review:

I have mixed feelings about this book. First, I liked that we got a sufficient ending to Rafe and Alex’s story, but at the same time, I also think this book was tame compared to the first three. I’m glad Rafe and Alex finally got to a place where things seemed somewhat settled, but the author went full throttle with the first three books and it seemed almost like in this book, she wanted to save and somewhat redeem her characters more than letting them be who they really were. Dark, vengeful and bad-ass!

I enjoy edgy, gritty, twisted reads and this series has been fantastic since the first! I’ve loved Rafe and Alex’s journey the whole way through. I just think this book lost some of it’s edge, and could have used a bit more of what I loved so much from the first three.

Let me explain...

Story/Characters...

Rafe and Alex’s story ends the way it begins ... dark, sexy and totally screwed up. They aren’t normal and in this last installment of the Condemned series, it’s proven once again their abnormal kind of love, works for them.

Rafe is a different man now. In the three previous books, we see conflicting sides to Rafe each time. The first book, he’s bent on revenge. In book two, he’s lost his memory and a we see a softer side to him, though the darkness peeks through occasionally. In book three, we see a desperate Rafe as he tries to find a way to free himself and Alex from the clutches of madmen. And now, in this book, he’s a culmination of all three of those Rafe’s, both loving and vengeful, and determined to embrace his darkness, taking Alex along for the ride. Old enemies resurface and Rafe and Alex have one final challenge before they can fully live out their darkly-ever-after.

I’ve enjoyed this series ever since the captivating moment in the first book where Rafe steals Alex away and we slowly find out why he’s so hardened and why she’s so guilty. And I’ve enjoyed all the different facets of each character as their layers were revealed, especially Rafe’s. He’s one complex man and poor Alex is so guilt ridden (as she should be!), it’s heartbreaking. One lie broke so many lives.

Rafe loves Alex’s tears and she gives them to him in spades in this book ... almost a little too much. I’ll be honest, I got a little tired of all her “tears”. She’s a bit stronger in this book, finally accepting her role in things and seeing the damage she caused. Rafe has a choice to make a yet again, someone else is pulling his strings. But Alex is desperate to save what little bit of humanity she feels is left in Rafe. I both loved and hated that. Loved, because she showed how much she cared and how far she was willing to go for the man she loved, but also hated, because Rafe exploring his darkness is always sexy!

I also wanted to see Alex a little more on equal ground with Rafe. He's so unrelenting in this book, which is who I’ve come to expect him to be but at the same time, it also gave Alex NO room to be her own person. So see. I’m on the fence about this book.

The Wrap Up:

With a world of people plaguing their relationship from the start, Alex and Rafe finally found a way to conquer it all and find their own kind of happy. I enjoyed this book, but I think it was missing something fundamental that the first three books had. Plus the story itself just felt ... off.

Though I didn’t get the satisfying last book I wanted, I still very much love this series, love this author and know I can always count on her books to give me the darkness when I crave it!