Spoiler heavy review.

I was really excited for this book. I’d listened to the previous three, and the collection of short snippets that was also released. I knew Constantine and Isaac were going to happen, and I was really interested to see how their courtship and relationship would develop. I didn’t have any issues with Isaac’s addiction or recovery, and think the whole thing was handled pretty well. Care and research definitely did go into the character’s troubles and his treatment.

I did enjoy a fair amount of the book, but the core romance… I just didn’t. I kept asking why Constantine loves Isaac. Hell, Isaac even brings it up in a session, rhetorically asking his therapist why Constantine loves him. And even though his therapist says he should ask the vampire, he doesn’t. Oh, he brings up his insecurities. He asks _how_ Constantine can love him, being confused, and messed up, and broken as he is. But that isn’t a why. And Constantine doesn’t give him a why either. He waxes poetic about how he loves Isaac, including all those things, that they won’t drive him away. But not a why.

Constantine is a wonderfully supportive partner. He’s attentive, and caring, and would do anything that Isaac needed of him. He is a good partner for Isaac. But he’s also written to be that. The flashbacks of his history don’t allude to these characteristics being core to his person. His protection of the young man he slept with in the past wasn’t out of love (specifically not love), but because he would have been a hinderance in battle. Other than setting up for the conflict, the flashbacks had very little point, and most of the information could have been expressed through natural dialogue much better, and often still was since other characters needed to receive the same information anyway. I would have liked to see more of Constantine’s behaviour towards Isaac hinted at in the fairly frequent flashbacks to make it clear this is the type of person he is at his core.

But I still don’t know why Constantine loves Isaac. We know he literally had the Salvatores investigated when Simeon informed him of his interest in Angel. So…basically stalking, as Isaac himself points out, just with middlemen. Constantine _knows_ a lot about Isaac, in terms of likes/dislikes, facts, etc. And, hell, there is mention in one of the books about how the blood clan didn’t know Isaac was magical during a clearly less…in depth investigation. I really do wish the stalking didn’t get glossed over so much. But that isn’t knowing the person. So why does Constantine love Isaac? I honestly don’t think he says a single thing about why he loves him. Not how strongly he feels the world. Not how he is willing to risk himself for those he loves. Not his strength in wanting to seek help with his addiction. Not his perseverance to stay in Nevermore, even after the hellish accelerated treatment. He does reassure Isaac. He does make sure he knows that the things that Isaac thinks are repellant about him are most certainly not. But the entire love affair still rings hollow.

Constantine and Isaac were essentially plopped down in the perfect relationship that Isaac needed, with no history, no build up, and no retrospective to make any of it make sense. By contrast Simeon and Angel feel like they have much more history. Even without a lot of it being presented to us as it happened in real time, we learn very early that Simeon was interested in Angel two years prior to them getting together. We know that Angel assisted the blood clan during those two years and interacted with the vampires. We know that Simeon was waiting for a time when Angel felt comfortable enough with what he was before really making his intentions know. This implies a history between the two, a building up of becoming aware of each other, of developing interest. The history is at least implied. They also spend a fair amount of time actually talking or thinking about how they do feel about each other.

I did like Isaac; his character, his personal struggle, this coming to terms with himself, and facing unknowns and fears. I don’t think he spends much more time than Constantine on his actual romantic feelings. He’s insecure, and the unconditional acceptance is something he needs. I do wish we would have seen more awareness of how essentially allowing Constantine to handle everything does remove Isaac’s ability to take agency over his own life. But based on where Isaac is right now in his mental health, the unconditional support is fine, as long as in the future he continues to work on himself, which he may well do.

And I like Constantine; his calm demeanor, his logic, his attention to those he cares about, and his dutiful leadership of the blood clan. I don’t think his flashbacks do anything for him, really. His flashbacks don’t show who he is today, and they barely show who he was then. But the character given in the present day is compelling, and the kind of person Isaac needs. The sheer amount of “winter apple” scents was also annoying. I could have done with about 3/4 less of that. And the fact that apples are also associated with his mother is just strange. I already dislike the trope of people’s natural scents behaving more like cologne, but the fact it comes up so often is just repetitive, as others have mentioned. The “ice and fire” things is also pretty trope-y. So it’s just a _lot_ all rolled into one.

I just don’t like that I kept asking why. I don’t feel like there is any substance to their love. I don’t feel like there is any reason for they bond to have formed so ridiculously quickly. I don’t think enough attention was paid to the pros and cons of the bound and the consequences. We may know them because of Angel and Simeon, but Isaac certainly doesn’t, and in his incredibly fragile state he would have been far more concerned about how he could hurt Constantine, especially when he didn’t even know how he felt as the bond was starting. He was incredibly concerned about the potential for his fire affinity to hurt Constantine but nothing about the fact that breaking the bond would destroy Constantine so much it would lead to his death? It is so surface level, so insubstantial. And that is frustrating because what we are told is a good relationship for Isaac. The support is what he needs. But it happens so fast, and without real thought. And everything is explained by this mate bond that apparently decided to get as strong in a few _days_ as most take years or decades to achieve. No one seems to consider the fact that Isaac is an addict and that his insanely fast attachment to Constantine could literally be his addictive personality latching on to something else. Relationships when one person is an addict, or especially when both are, are big deals. And entering into relationships during or soon after treatment is a big deal. And none of this is even touched on. I don’t know if that just didn’t come up in the research, or if everything just defaulted to “well, it’s fated mates, so it’s fine”. I never got the impression that the bond was akin to the insta-love commonly seen in shifter romance, and after 3 books where that was clearly the case, it felt weird to suddenly be met with essentially the same thing, breaking all previously understood history in relation to the bond.

Angel’s accelerated mate bond was explained due to his affinity, due to Angel drinking Simeon’s blood, by Angel forcing it. Isaac seems to strengthen it as well, but how? Can all bonds be forced stronger like this and no other vampire-practitioner pairing has ever thought to do it? What is the point in setting the precedent of years or decades for this incredibly important thing to happen, reinforce it constantly, just to break it? Because these two are special? Why? It’s clearly not their blood since we have an example of another Salvatore in a mate bond with a vampire and in their little flashback (which was also pointless and literally only was in there to tell us another future book pairing) they reinforce the years long mate bond necessary for the drinking of the practitioner’s blood. It basically all comes down to fated mates. Constantine muses in one line about it. And it’s entirely frustrating and goes against everything we’ve been told. I dislike it so much. And that’s upsetting when so much of the book is appealing.

This book also makes me wary of an obvious Rory/Daniel book as well, because I also have no bloody idea why Rory glued himself to Daniel so quickly. And if their book is anything like this one then we’re never going to know.

TL;DR

If you don’t care about a relationship having any sort of logical build up before the love sets in, and just want to bask in the adoration and fluffiness then the book is a good addition. The portrayal of their romance is good, on the surface, so if you don’t care to look below that, or are partial to insta-love without reason, then you will have no issue with the main pairing in this book.

If you do care about relationships having more to them than just the icing on the cake then you are going to be annoyed with Constantine and Isaac’s romance. But the book on a whole is still well deserving of a read or listen. As much as I wish we would have seen the depth in this book that would have really elevated it, and pretty much lost all the flashbacks, it’s still a good book, and a good continuation of the series overall.