The Unleashing is a raunchy paranormal romance with a healthy dash of Viking mythology and Malibu soap opera. It was such an easy read, I thought I’d give the full Call of Crows trilogy a whirl. All the books follow a different female warrior in Los Angeles who has been resurrected by the goddess Skuld. These fighters are called Crows. Their clan is notorious for being vicious due to their vengeful roots. The other clans and even most of the gods don’t like to mess with them.
In The Undoing, Jace Berisha is the protagonist that finds unexpected romance. She was one of my favorite side characters from book one, so this was a delightful surprise. She is the LA clan’s berserker known to have the most strength when enrages. On most days, she is a superbly shy bookworm. Her abusive cult leader husband killed her. When resurrected, she nearly killed him in return. Jace is a sweetheart but can get worked up if you push the right buttons. Unfortunately, she tends to spiral out of control and ends up in a ball of tears when the rage leaves her. Thankfully, her Crow sisters have her back. Her love interest, Ski Erikson, is a Protector, which is an owl-like warrior in service of the god, Tyr. He desperately needs Jace to translate his latest trove of ancient tomes. He begins to woo her while they work together. However, getting to know the quiet woman proves quite difficult since she is not a fan of chit-chat. Weaved in with their courtship are urban fantasy elements. The evil goddess named Gulvig wants to bring on Ragnorak, which basically spells apocalypse. She is especially angry with the Crows. If that wasn’t enough, Jace is forced to deal with her ex-husband who manages to get out of jail. Jace and Ski finally get together, but they still need to defeat the big bad.
The Unyielding puts Erin Amsel in the spotlight after we meet her in book one as Kera’s mischievous mentor. Erin is an actual firestarter and loves nothing more than to start shit with just about anyone. She was resurrected after a mob boss shot her in the head. Once you die like that, not much scares you anymore. She makes a sexy connection with Raven Stieg Engstrom and tries to shrug it off. But they can’t deny their attraction while he is assigned to follow her. She is hot on the trail of Gulvig’s priestess and in typical Erin fashion, she gets in trouble time after time. Lucky for her, Stieg starts to get the hang out of preventing her from pissing off people more than usual. This comes in handy when they set into the nine realms on a quest. They must secure a burning sword, which only Erin can wield due to her fire ability. It reminded of Lord of the Rings but with sexy romps galore. Erin really grew on me in the final book. The author cleverly made her sympathetic after all the pranks she pulled in the other books.
The trilogy overall was more fun than I initially expected. The second book was my favorite of the three. I enjoyed all the bookish jokes about the protectors obsessed with keeping all books safe. Also, Jace’s Albanian grandmother was absolutely hilarious and a force to behold. Jace’s grandmother turns out to be a vital ally and my new favorite side character. Jace had a very unique upbringing and came out the other side as kind as ever. I did enjoy Erin’s story even tho I had previously found her a bit cruel. It was cute how Stieg melted her heart with his gruffness.
I highly recommend the trilogy even if you weren’t totally sold on book one. The other books promise more of Brodie Hawaii, the pitbull rescue in new weird situations. There’s also a pet goal in the final book to bring levity to the dark themes. You could probably read these as stand-alone, but it’s more fun to read the whole series. I will definitely check out her other shifter series.
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