A Book Obsession..: Twilight Fulfilled (Early Review)

Twilight Fulfilled (Early Review)

, by Kt Clapsadl

Twilight Fulfilled by Maggie Shayne

Wings in the Night #18

Enemies... Lovers... Saviors?

The First Immortal Walks Again

Utanapishtim has paid dearly for the sin of creating the vampire race—imprisoned in a living death for centuries, driven to near madness. With a single white-hot glance, he immolates his descendants…and the vampire Armageddon begins.

Beautiful and deadly Brigit Poe, not wholly vampire but fiercely loyal to that shared bloodline, is called into action. She abhors yet cannot deny her destiny: to vanquish the once-great king of the immortals and save the vampire race.

Two warriors, equally matched in power and determination, are soon locked in an unwinnable battle, only to discover a passion so shocking it threatens every truth they’ve ever known—even as they must face one final battle that seems fated to end in death and heartbreak for them both.

Brigit Poe and her twin James, are the only ones of their kind. Part mortal, part vampire both having powers with one being a healer, and the other a destroyer. Brigit has always accepted that she was the evil twin and that her brother would be the savior. So imagine her surprise when a twist of fate happens making her the only one who can save her people, what little are left. Fierce with determination, she sets out to destroy the first of their kind, Utana, to stop his bloody rampage and destroy him at all costs. Things get a little tricky when she finds her heart softening towards him. She'll have to make the choice no woman should ever have to make. Her heart or the lives of her family, as to lose either might just break her.

I'll be honest that I was very skeptical at how realistic a relationship between Brigit and Utana could possibly be. There were so many things against them. The biggest being how unlikely it would be for Brigit to be able to forgive him for her family's deaths. How do you love someone that has taken so much from you. Another is that he is literally out of his mind from being captive in an unmovable state for thousands of years. I just wasn't sure how he could be capable of real love. However, after getting to see past the facade each of them wears on the surface, I realized there was so much more to both of them underneath than meets the eye. In fact they seemed to be the perfect complement to one another, making the romance very believable in the end.

I cannot imagine being having to grow up as Brigit has. While she had love an affection from her parents and her twin, the only other one of their family who treated her as more than a destroyer was her "Aunt" Rhiannon. Instead of acting like she was evil, Rhiannon helped her to embrace herself. I'm not sure how Brigit would have held up if not for this, as it was she still had a pretty hard heart. Well that is until she started falling for Utana. Of course that doesn't help her complex of feeling she is evil, falling for the immortal that killed so many of their race. I was very happy to see her finally stand up to the other's perceptions of her tell them they are wrong about her being evil. I think in time she will throw off the "chains" of those perceptions and be finally able to grow.

Twilight Fulfilled is to be the last installment in the Wings in the Night series. I feel things ended naturally and rather well. Of course I've only read the last two books in the series, so I am eager to go back to the beginning. I didn't have any problem jumping into the series with the 18th book, Twilight Prophecy, but I wouldn't recommend reading this one without reading that one first. While there was a focus change from one couple to the other, they still read like a continuation of the other rather than stand alone books. Twilight Fulfilled is a great finale to the series, that leaves you with a sense of completion, yet still leaves a little open for possibilities in the future. Perhaps someday Maggie Shayne will revisit this world, but for now I am very content with the way things have been left.

(Received a copy from Netgalley)

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