Mel reviews A Hunger So Wild (Renegade Angels #2) by Sylvia Day

Elijah Reynolds is the most dominant of lycans, a rare Alpha whose skill on the hunt is surpassed only by his primal sexuality. When the lycans revolt due to the iron fist of angelic rule, he steps into command, becoming both enemy and coveted ally in the conflict between vampires and angels.

Vashti is the second most powerful vampire in the world, a lethal beauty with a path of devastation in her wake. Tasked with proposing an alliance between vampires and the lycans who killed her mate, Vash approaches Elijah, whose need to avenge a friend demands Vash's death even as his passion demands her surrender.

Soon, their enmity erodes beneath an all-consuming desire. Elijah has never encountered a woman whose warrior spirit and fierce sexual appetite rivals his own, while Vash is faced with the one man strong enough to be her equal. But as war looms, each must decide where their loyalty lies--with their own kind or with the enemy lover they can no longer live without.

I loved A Touch of Crimson, the first book in the Renegade Angels trilogy, and the reluctant alpha lycan, Elijah, grabbed me the second he walked onto the page. When I found out A Hunger So Wild was about him I was soooo frakkin excited I couldn’t stand it. Downside? Having to wait for what seemed like an eternity for his book.  Actually, it was about 9 months but it really felt like an eternity.  I was so drawn to the brilliant world that Sylvia Day created that I needed more, like NOW.  Waiting that long for a book is seriously hard on a book nerd.  Not that I need to explain myself as I’m sure you are all in the same boat when it comes to certain authors and/or series. The anticipation for Elijah’s story was sky high so his book was in my top 5 most anticipated PNR reads of the year.  Being a book reviewer has its perks.  I was lucky enough to get an ARC through NetGalley (SQUEE!!!!) so I was able to read the book early.  Now I get to share my crazy, gushing and sometimes incoherent thoughts with you.

A Hunger So Wild is the second book in the Renegade Angels trilogy.  Though you do get background on some of the characters and a pretty good description of the world, the buildup to this book is important so A Hunger So Wild is not a starting point. In the Renegade Angels world, lycans and vampires are former angels that fell thousands of years ago and Sentinels are an elite special ops unit of angels that are responsible for enforcing the punishment of the Fallen.  Sentinels hunt down rogue vampires with the help of the lycans whom are little more than slaves.

A Hunger So Wild picks up right where A Touch of Crimson left off. 

Vashti is the second most powerful vampire in the world, she’s cold, vengeful and bad ass with a katana.  She’s still devastated over the loss of her mate who was viciously murdered by lycans sixty years ago and blames Elijah for it.  She’s angry over the death of her brother’s mate and the disease that’s reducing the vampire minions to nothing more than vicious monsters.  Somehow through all the anger and bitterness she manages to hold it all together.  Sorta anyway.  I’ll just say that Vash is a bad ass who’s a little on the crazy side, which is one of the many things that I loved about her.  Now she’s been forced into an alliance with the one person she knows she can never trust, Elijah, the incredibly rare lycan Alpha.  At this point, Vashti has no choice if she wants to learn more about the Wraith Virus that is killing her kind and could possibly lead to their extinction.

To get a little insight into how the vampires feel about the lycans, here’s what Vashti thinks of the creatures she is now forced to work along side of.

She was now dependent on the trustworthiness of a creature whose breed she’d long reviled for its treachery.  The lycans had once been Watchers.  Instead of taking the same punishment as the rest of their brethren and becoming vampires, they’d begged the Sentinels for leniency.  Adrian had given it in the form of indentured servitude as lycans.  With transfused werewolf blood sliding through their veins, they’d lost their wings but retained their souls…and their mortality.  They lived, they whelped, and they died as slaves which is the least of what they deserved.

Elijah and Vashti were a given as far as POV goes but one of the many things I love about this trilogy is that the books all seem to be from the point of view of the leaders and their significant others.  Not only do we get Elijah (Alpha of the lycans) and Vashti, we get Adrian (Captain of the Sentinels) and Lindsay, and Syre (vampire leader extraordinaire).  I don’t recall ever reading a PNR series where we get right back inside the heads of characters featured in the prior book.  I gotta say I really, really liked it.  It was nice to know that just because they managed to overcome the odds and end up together, than Adrian and Lindsay’s relationship isn’t all sunshine and roses.  I feel that if it were it would make the forbidden aspect moot and, in turn, would make the series less thrilling.  If my thoughts are correct, the final book in the trilogy, A Taste of Seduction, should be about Syre. *crosses fingers*

Getting an insight into everyone’s head lets us know just how each of them feel about the Wraith Virus and what they think needs to be done to stop and/or cure it.  Who would release a horrible disease into the vampire population, push the lycans to rebel, and open the Sentinels up to a vulnerability they have never known?  I need to know like NOW.  I think I know who one of them is, but I have no idea who the other one is or why in the frak they are doing what they are doing.  That is world building at its finest.  I’m itching for the finale of this series even if it will be bittersweet.

There’s a thin line between love and hate.  Cliché, I know but it’s true here.  Elijah and Vashti hate each other with a bloody passion (yes, I went there) yet there’s an attraction that neither one of them can deny.  Elijah and Vashti were a very unlikely couple but they fit together so well and the chemistry between them was OFF. THE. FRAKKIN. CHARTS. I mean seriously.  There were a couple of smexy scenes that were so scorchingly hot I was thankful my AC had been fixed earlier in the week or I may have spontaneously combusted.  When it comes to the smuttacular goodness, Sylvia Day delivers.  Believe me and consider yourself warned.  Reading this book may result in waking your significant other in the middle of the night for a little midnight nookie, taking a very unfulfilling and icy shower or wishing you had a fan and a little something else that buzzes because you feel like you just might explode. *sinister grin* Mmmm Elijah.  Sorry my GMS is out of control for this guy who has most certainly been bumped up to being my favorite lycan in the world.  It’s super sexy guys like this and phenomenal writing that make you wish that fantasy was really reality.

A Hunger So Wild was such an exceptional read that I refused to go to the grocery, do laundry and most importantly I refused to sleep until it was finished.  As you can tell from all the gushing, I lurved every single second I spent in the Renegade Angels world.  I can’t wait to see how the trilogy ends and if Raze, the only angel what didn’t fall for love, will get his HEA.  Every minute I waited for this book was worth it and I will be awaiting Syre’s book with baited breath.  Sylvia Day knocked it out of the frakkin park with this installment and I’m beyond excited to see how she ties it all together.  A Hunger So Wild gets 5 stars and two snaps with a twist from me.  I apologize for my retreat into the 80′s and one of my favorite In Living Color skits but it so totally fit.

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• Tags: A Hunger So Wild, Angel Mythology, PNR, Renegade Angels, Sylvia Day•