Waking Bel is the third book in the Lords of Discord series by Jocelynn Drake. It was first published 2020, and from what I can tell, it is self-published. It is, like the previous book in the series, a MxM paranormal romance, focusing on the vampire family Varik.
This book follows one of the twins, Beltran Varik directly after the end of the second book where he meets two wolves that once belonged to an enemy of Varik. After Bel killed their master, the wolves has never left his side. He soon finds out why as they both turn into humans, two very gorgeous men asking for his help and protection. They are outcasts, thrown out of their packs because of their love for each other and are hunted for it. The kind hearted Bel cannot say no, and start being attracted to the two but soon problem finds them as a pack demands the two wolves to be killed. Now they need to protect each other and find allies among the vampires to handle the situation.
Bel is the mad scientist of the family, ackward and logical but also very kind and full of empathy. He is protective of those who needs him, despite not liking conflict, isn’t afraid to fight if need be. The two new characters , the Alpha Wyatt and his mate River, are a new addition. Wyatt being gentle, but dominant and protective. River being a bit more insecure, after all the abuse he has gone through, and despite a wicked sense of humor, he comes across as a bit antisocial.
The author makes a try to give all three characters enough screen time in the book, unfortunately, both Wyatt and River comes across as a bit undeveloped. That is always a risk when you add to many perspectives in one book, and it shows here. It’s a problem that wasn’t present in the previous books, at least not in my opinion, so I would guess that the author just had a hard time juggling three perspectives rather than the two that is the common rule for authors, and that the author stuck to previously.
Maybe because this book is the third one, but this one comes across as a bit more, fan service, compared to the first book. The second book hadn’t been up to par with the first book either, and that makes me wonder if these books wasn’t planned but written after the first one became popular. I mean, going from a story about a boy whose family was murdered by a vampire and falling in love with one, to a Romeo and Juliet story to a story about a mad scientist having a threesome.
There are some serious topics in the second book, such as the vampire society’s tendency to abandon those they think is weak even though they are the one who created them. Even killing them off. This book has a topic about homophobia, but unlike the first one where grief and revenge was the driving force. This book just used homophobia as a subject, not really caring about overcoming it. The second book had a similar problem though not as prominent. This is one of the reasons why I suspect that the two later books was more of a rush project than the first one.
So, if you are looking for more smut, and the feel of fanfiction, then this one is an easy read. It is still well written, just not as complex story as the first book or the second one. I gave the first book a 9 out of 10, the second book a 6 out of 10. With that in mind, I will give this one a 5 out of 10. It is average. The characters didn’t really appeal to me, the story was more towards the sexy, and it was missing the deep and dark storyline of the first one. Though I would recommend the first one, this one is one I would skip if I were to reread the series.
With Kind Regards
Senefer.
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