ARC Review of Valiant Heart by Angela Addams

Series: The Order of the Wolf #6
Publisher: Samhain Publishing 
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: November 10, 2015
Challenges:  Finishing the Series |  NetGalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge | What An Animal |
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Blurb from goodreads:

When the choice is love or loyalty, no matter what she chooses the heart will bleed. Slay the beasts. Save the day. Such is Ariana’s role in her first mission for the Queen. She has no reason to think the rest will be any different…until, in the heat of battle, she uses her powers to heal an injured Order Huntress.Her gift doesn’t go unnoticed. Lance, her very own Hunter, zeroes in, and a differentbattle is on. Lance is hot and very attentive, but this Amazon is determined to stayindependent.

Lance has prepared his whole life to battle alongside his mate. Now that he’s found her, nothing and no one else matters. He’s not letting her go.For the Queen’s second mission—bring the Oracle into the tribe—Ariana risks takingLance’s bond to get more power. She never expected her body to crave more pleasure, her heart to lower its defenses.As the battle rages on between Huntresses and beasts, there’s a foul plan in play that will force Ariana to decide where her loyalty lies. The cost of her choice could be a life.

Warning: Contains a squirm-worthy love triangle, plus some scenes of debatable consent between a take-no-crap Huntress and a super-hot playboy with a come-hither smile and a come-multiple-times tongue. 

Bea's Thoughts:

I've been reading this series from the beginning (no worries, this works as a stand alone) and all along I've been wanting more world building. Addams has doled it out in dribbles, making me antsy for more development. Finally, we got some forward motion on the overall story arc but, the romance didn't work. At all. 

We learn more about the Order, the group that dedicates itself to hunting werewolves, even the good ones. We learn more about Huntresses, their origins and offshoots. The author's take on mythology was interesting and I found my feelings about Greer, one of the Huntresses, changing throughout the story. She starts out manipulative, bossy, rigid, and narrow-minded. Actually, our heroine Ariana is also narrow-minded and rigid as well as extremely anti-Hunter. I didn't much like Ariana or Greer to start with and I liked Lance only a little bit better. All three were utterly convinced that their way, their world view was the only valid one. Frankly, I got tired of it. By the end of the story, all of them have managed to open their minds and respect other opinions but it was a long and frustrating road there. I did like them more by the end but I can't really say that I like any of them.

Lance and Ariana spend so much of the story being rude to each other, being righteous and arrogant, that I never felt the love between them. They were fated mates so there was insta-lust and Lance felt something resembling love but Ariana was bitter and nasty. I respect that she fought the insta-love, wanted to love (or hate) him on her terms but she was manipulative and cruel and thoroughly unlikable.

And the joy of reading an ARC; there were lots of typos, wrong words, grammatical errors, and some factual errors. Overall, "Valiant Heart" was disappointing. I'll probably read the next as I am curious about her world but I hope it will be a stronger installment.

Book 1, Cursed 
Book  2, Wolf Slayer 
Book 3, Wolves Bane 
Book 4, Spell Weaver 
Book 5, Mayhem