Raven in the Grave - Rae Hachton

Pretty In Black #3

"Nevermore Will Never Be The Same

     Marcus—the Vampire from Nevermore and Walter—the Gargoyle from The Land of Naught join forces to defeat a common enemy. But nothing is as it seems.

The Second Violin

     Marcus is back, and he's ready to fight. 

Forced to Kill, His Thirst takes Over. He wants Ellie, and he wants the Throne. He Won't stop until he can...

     Rule The Darkness."

The third book in Rae Hachton's Pretty in Black quartet was a hard book to find, but I finally found it. And it was just as beautiful and poetic as the rest of the series. Marcus and Ellie's love for one another is truly the most romantic of any literature I have read. Their utter need and desire for one another is, at the time, rather sultry. They are addicted to one another in such a way that most people would only ever dream of having a love like that.

This book is told from Marcus and Walter's perspective. While Marcus spends his days and nights with Ellie preparing her for the future they want together. Making sure her remaining days are as normal as possible and she spends as much time with her family as possible. Walter struggles with his feelings toward Jillian. After discovering his connected past with both Jillian and Marcus in Black Satin, and his promise to end Jillian for trying to kill Ellie, Marcus, and Walter, as well as helping create a demonic army that was meant to destroy Nevermore, and The Land of Naught. Walter sees her for the first time in a century, and he realizes that he still loves her, making it impossible to kill her if there is even a sliver of a chance that she was actually innocent in everything.

I would have liked to learn more about Jillian and Walter, seen more of what they were doing, or at least more an of even balance in the stories being told. Most of what Marcus and Ellie were doing was trying not to devour each other, and Marcus struggling in not draining her since he tasted her blood at the end of the last book, he gained a slight addiction to Ellie's blood. But we learn that Jillian isn't just a crazy chick filled with jealousy, She's still crazy and jealous but there's much more to it than that. She's just a sad depressed girl that was scared nobody would ever love her, and that made her do irrational things. We learn more about Marcus and Ellie's shared secret past and how they were destined to fall in love. And how Marcus's family is descended from a Hunter bloodline, but since he was born a twin with Vivian the hunter gene didn't pass on to either of them.

We get a new villain in this story, or perhaps it was the same villain the whole time we just now get to have a name and face behind all the terrible things that were happening. Grotto, one of the original immortals, his plans to turn Nevermore back to the darkness of Vampiric blood-lust. And destroying Marcus and Ellie in the process. We also learn that the hunters are working with him, and they had been turned into demons in the process. Marcus and Ellie destroy the Hunters, and as far as we know Grotto has also been destroyed, but considering how ancient he is it's possible that he has power the Evermore's don't know about.

I seriously can't wait for the last book. I just wish I didn't have to wait so long. These books are just so poetic and beautiful. It really does feel like reading a symphony the way they are written. I love the story and the characters.