Duke of Sin

Sigh! I really, really wanted to like this but it's a no go. The only thing I liked was the writing (Hoyt writes relatively well) and Briget (in the beggining. Towards the end she acted inexplicably.)
Why the novel didn't work for me:

1. I found Val a very unlikable hero. Heck, if he existed in real life, I would've run the fuck away. He's a very damaged individual; he's a narcissistic psychopath, plain and simple. And I generally don't find psychopaths romantic. He slit a man's throat in front of Brigette and then kissed her while covered in the man's blood. He killed his pet cat when he was a kid because he didn't want his dad to kill it first. He kidnaps and blackmails people on a regular basis because he is a) bored b) wants power. Sure he's charming and ‘funny', but so was Ted Bundy. And I sure wouldn't date Ted Bundy.

2. Brigette lost her marbles halfway through the book. From wanting to stop Val's machinations to, sure, let's have lotsa sex. All I have to do is tell you what's right and wrong to keep you on the straight and narrow. The magical vagina has thus “purified” our wayward hero. NOT.

3. As a result, I felt absolutely no chemistry between them because I don't understand WHY an “honourable woman” like Brigete would want to shack up with a murderous, manipulative bastard like Val.

4. The “we should excuse Val's behaviour because he had a fucked up childhood” trope just doesn't work with me. We shouldn't excuse a character's bad behaviour and evil actions because he had a terrible childhood. I'd like to read stories of people overcoming said nasty childhoods, not using that as an excuse for their behaviour. “Mummy and Daddy were mean to me so I'm mean to others too. Waah.” Puhlease.

5. His constant reminders to us that he's twisted, damaged, evil is tiresome. Who talks like that about themselves in real life??

6. WTF is Val doing with the Lords of Chaos at the tail end of the novel? It demonstrates that he remains unchanged and is as narcisstic, sociopathic and self-centred as he ever was in the beginning of the book. No character growth = bad storytelling.

I soldiered on for 10 books in the Maiden Lane series. Most have been MEH reads for me (except Vol.8 which I loved), but this book is tempting me to give up on the entire series - even if there's only two books left to the series.