Evil's Unlikely Assassin by Jenn Windrow

Description From Goodreads:

Vampire Alexis Black is on a mission - to rejoin the human race.

Coerced into signing an ironclad contract by an Angel-with-attitude, Alexis must hunt down and assassinate at least one vampire, werewolf, or creepy crawly every night for fifty years to become human again. Too bad the contract didn’t mention the badass vampire who now rides shotgun in her brain, insatiable bloodlust, or her new I-hate-everything-with-fangs sidekick. If she can fulfill her end of the bargain, her humanity is restored, if not she will be destroyed.

But when a revenge-seeking bloodsucker threatens her city, Alexis must risk everything to ensure there’s a humanity to return to. Since her vampire nature is her greatest weapon to defeat the monsters that threaten her friends and future, Alexis must choose to accept her inner beast or watch those she loves die.

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My Review:

I just want to say, I really did want to love this book. It literally had almost every trope and component that I love in supernatural/paranormal reads. This book just really did not do it for me. Lots of people liked this book so minor spoiler warning if you're interested in reading this book!

First, the pacing was super fast. Like someone important to Alexis dies within like the first couple of chapters in a very descriptive way all because of a hunger she has to feed every night or else she dies. I had no chance to feel anything for this person because I have absolutely no clue who he was to her besides a quick mention about being a mentor or friend. There's also essentially a fight scene every few pages and honestly they all kind of blended together for me. I felt there was no chance for me to learn anything about the characters or for them to form connections with each other. Even those were rushed. For example, Julian is introduced as scared of Alexis but then they end up making out a chapter or two later. I mean I'm not saying that you can't be attracted to something you fear, but it just wouldn't allow me to get into it. I just wanted to skip anything to do with lust or romance because it felt just so forced.

Second, is the lore of the book. At first, we are introduced to Eddie, Alexis' vampire "persona." It was introduced in a way like how in a lot of werewolf novels the person has a wolf "mind" as well. I was very interested in the concept, however, the name Eddie and how he acted gave me Venom vibes and it was a little difficult to get into. Later on, we find out it's actually a spirit that shares Alexis' body which was interesting but also never explained. In the beginning, we know that Alexis is serving this government body so that she can become a human again, but we know nothing about her sentence and how she made the deal until about halfway through the book, and even then it was confusing for me.

Finally, the writing style. It wasn't bad, but I feel like it was more straight to the point than it needed to be. Kind of one of those situations where some things needed to be shown in action than told. I think with a bit more editing it wouldn't have bothered me at all.

Overall, this book had so much potential. Like the concept is really good, it just needed a bit better execution in my own opinion. High school me would have hands down liked this book and probably would not have had one complaint, but now it just isn't my cup of tea. I am still definitely interested in reading more books by this author. I have Struck By Eros sitting on my TBR cart as we speak. So, keep out an eye for that!

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