Former firefighter turned crime-fighting phoenix Colin Zhang knows who Evan was—is—to him, but he doesn’t know if he can give him what he wants. He just needs a little time to figure things out. Unfortunately, bringing down a demon bent on mass murder leaves little time for anything else.
The only way they’ll destroy the demon is by teaming up with an unlikely partner to infiltrate a gang of terrorists. But the only way they’ll save themselves is by finding a path back into each other’s arms—and hearts—once again.
Comment: This is the third installment in the Ashes and Dust trilogy by Jenn Burke, concluding the story of Evan and Colin.
In this story, things seem to have reached a quiet point, although the dangers of who was responsible for the killing of so many people in the previous book are still on everyone's minds. Evan is also wary about what to expect, since he no longer has a bond with Colin and he isn't certain about Colin's intention of still wanting to be with him, now that the bond isn't there. However, their personal emotions need to take a back seat when a demon starts causing even more problems on top of those they already had. Is there any solution for these difficulties, will they be able to catch the demon?
This was an interesting story to conclude the trilogy, that's a fact, but I must say I thought the overall plot a little convoluted, and the main characters didn't seem to have had the focus I imagined they should, considering how complex looking the first book was. The second was less intense, but this one, being the last, should have been more engaging and I didn't always feel that.
The plot was definitely a little confusing, because there is still the ongoing issues from the past books, but now new characters, investigators for the paranormal groups, go on a mission to try to uncover who is helping a certain extremist group accessing weapons to harm paranormals. Along with them, Evan and Colin go too as undercovers, to play the role of people who joined a survivalist group who doesn't want paranormals to live. I mean, this was interesting but... to me it felt like a prop to make Evan and Colin be in such a situation, when the story could have focused on another path.
Of course, this led the guys to act as if they aren't a couple, and to make things worse, before they go on this mission, Colin had told Evan he didn't remember - after the break of the bond - what they had felt for one another anymore, which added much drama to everything. I thought this be so... unnecessary, because here w have our attention divided into different segments and, in my opinion, none was accomplished properly.
In regards to the plot, it was always assumed the good guys would solve things, which they do, but only after some challenges and apparent struggles. I was invested in this idea of defeating the big power causing all the problems but I must confess that it felt the author had a great idea for the first book, which she could have expanded and it would work well as a single story. Having this as a trilogy means the subjects had to be spread through more pages and this made some jumps to feel jarring. I don't mind how things ended, plot wise, but I'm also not a big fan of the choices made to choose a culprit.
The romance between Colin and Evan had so much potential, especially considering how they met and the events of the first book. In this one, I just could not buy the speed in which their decisions are made, because the emotional impact, with Evan's story also, was simply lost and unbelievable to match what they go through here. The whole coming and going in how Colin changed his mind, and how they got together for real and talked about their bond, while dealing with the plot issues... the romance definitely feels like it was secondary here.
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