When Pleasure Rules
The Shadow Keepers, book 2
J.K. Beck
Bantam
September 28, 2010
ISBN-10: 0440245788
ISBN-13: 978-0440245780
Seven innocents have been brutally murdered in Los Angeles, yet the Shadow Alliance has no suspects and no leads. As the body count mounts, the age-old feud between vampires and werewolves threatens to explode.
Lissa Monroe—a strong-willed, ravishing succubus who entices men to surrender their souls—agrees to go undercover for the Alliance. Her mission: infiltrate the mind of werewolf leader Vincent Rand, a ferociously alluring enemy who exerts a powerful hold over her. As the City of Angels teeters on the brink of apocalypse, these two adversaries must join together in order to survive an even more lethal enemy hidden in plain sight.
In When Pleasure Rules, we meet Lissa. She's a succubus who has fought for centuries for her freedom. As succubi, they're owe by traders and are reborn into that system every single time they die. In her latest lifetime, she's a successful owner of the only club that others can come and be with a succubus for the small price of a piece of their souls. Needless to say, Lissa would do anything to make sure her and her girls - the other succubus who worked for her - keep their freedoms and when she find herself between a rock and hard place, she doesn't have much choice.
Lately, people have been found savagely murdered and the Division, or the group of people that police this shadow realm, have no clue what or who is killing them. But something they do know is that there have been some rumors going around that the Alpha of the werens, or the werewolves, might be involved in this. That's when Lissa comes in. She has a special talent in that she can get into people's head when she takes their souls. While she's done her best to hide this, the Division knows and they'll do anything, including make Lissa get into the head of the Alpha's right-hand man Rand, to found if they're involved in the murders.
While Lissa is more than just apprehensive about this, she doesn't have much choice in the matter and when she first meets Rand, something immediately clicks and their instant attraction ignites. Rand's in town in order to put a stop to the rumors and find whoever is killing but he never counted on Lissa and how she would make him feel. Both Lissa and Rand are in the middle of this hot mess of political intrigue and raging murders and if they don't do everything possible to get out, either one of them could find themselves being the next victim.
When Pleasure Rules is the second book in the new Shadow Keepers series and the best installment yet! I highly enjoyed the first novel but there was a lot of setting done, which is understandable since it was the first book in a series, but in this one it's more about the main characters. Right from the get-go, Lissa and Rand's story grabs you and won't let go. These two have seriously been through a lot and that's only made them stronger. I really liked their story and it was incredibly easy to cheer for them because they're such great characters. When Pleasure Rules is a super fun, action-packed, and let's not forget sizzling story about two people who try to make the best of their options and they might have ended up finding the best thing that ever happened to them. I really enjoyed the story and I'm looking forward to the reading more!
Lush Rating: 4!