Ruby's books: Blog Tour Book Review: Outcast by Lexi Blake

Author: Lexi Blake
Series: Hunter #4, Thieves #9
Audience: +18
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: DLZ Entertainment LLC
Release Date: December 4th 2018
My Rating: 5 Cups
Source: InkSklinger PR
Blurb (from Goodreads):

On the hunt for a vicious killer, Kelsey discovers that the true threat lies closer than she could have ever imagined.

It’s been months since Trent Wilcox was sentenced to exile, but Kelsey hasn’t given up on finding a way to bring him home. Grayson Sloane doesn’t share her enthusiasm. Loving two men is challenging enough without them being at each other’s throats, and she is unwilling to compromise on the future she knows is meant for them.

Kelsey’s only hope for bringing them all together comes in the form of the Hell lord who insisted on Trent’s exile – Gray’s father. Lord Sloane is willing to acquiesce on Trent’s punishment if Kelsey will do one little job for him. A stray wolf is on a killing spree in Wyoming and he’s killed a number of witches in Lord Sloane’s service. The situation is made all the more complicated by the presence of a sinister werewolf cult in the area. Lupus Solum is known for being cruel to their own kind, and even worse to outsiders.

Caught between a craven wolf cult, a brutal killer, a Hell lord, and a mounting pile of bodies, Kelsey is going to have her work cut out for her. But if she can solve the case, she might have a chance to earn her happily ever after.

*Disclaimer: I received an eARC of this book from InkSlinger PR in exchange for an honest review. This does not influence my rating or the content of my review in any way.

**Disclaimer: This book contains mature content. As a result my review may contain references to content intended for mature audiences only

***Disclaimer: This book is part of an ongoing series. Although I try to make my reviews as spoiler-free as possible, this review may contain spoilers for previous books in the series.

Finally, Outcast is here!!! I have been super excited to read this book, and to learn more about Kelsey, Trent and Gray, especially after the events of the previous book. It feels like I've been waiting for a long time for this book and I was very, very happy when I got my paws on it.

A few things happened in this book, some of which I wasn't fully expecting. First, I was not surprised to see Trent and Gray at each other's throats for the most part. Trent did kill Gray's brother, after all, and Gray can't forgive that. Gray never lets Trent forget about what he did, even though Kelsey was threatened by Nemcox, Gray's demon brother. What I didn't expect was the scenes in which Gray was trying to protect Trent, even though the wolf was more than capable of protecting himself. On the other side, Trent was far more understanding and tolerant towards Gray than I gave him credit for.

Aside from seeing the struggles Kelsey, Trent and Gray have to face as a team and as three people who are in a relationship, we also get to see the struggles they have to face individually. Trent comes face to face with his past, and he has to deal with not only being an outcast now, but also his past as a member of Lupus Solum. I didn't expect the book to uncover so much of Trent's past. I knew it was bound to happen, but it was rather surprising. It was heartbreaking, learning what he went through, and I understood him more now than I did before.

Gray has to deal with him being the dark prophet and being physically unable to help the people he cares for, even though he has the answers they need in order to survive what's coming. I will say, having a year between reading the first three books in this series and this one helped me like Gray a little bit more. I already said in my review of Sleeper that he was starting to grow on me, but now I was able to see him a little bit better without some of the previous baggage. Maybe it also has to do with him being a prophet.

Kelsey also has to face some past demons, as well as protect the people she loves most. She's still the same woman I remember, the one that will fight for the underdogs, and she wins the appreciation and even love of some surprising creatures. She showed her vulnerable side a lot more now, I feel, than in previous books. She's ready for a family, she is willing to fight for the prophecy she saw, and she'll do anything she can to make sure both of her men are safe and with her.

The book started off a little bit slow, but then it picked up in pace and I really enjoyed it. There were numerous references to events that I assume happened in the Thieves series, which I haven't yet read, but even so, Blake always manages to write books in such a way that I personally didn't feel lost. I do however plan on reading this series before the next installment of Hunter is out.

We get to meet some interesting new characters, we also get to see some familiar faces in different situations than what we're used to. The thing I love most about Blake's books is that we get to see people's flaws, even though they are heroes; being the good guys doesn't make them perfect, incapable of making mistakes, it just makes it more interesting to see how they make things right when they do mess up.

All in all, a very good book. The ending was perfect. I am very, very, very excited for the next installment in this series. I can't wait to see what happens next.

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EXCERPT

“How does that make you feel, Gray?” Felix Day was in full-on shrink mode as we sat in his office, the late afternoon light illuminating the soothing interior.
“It makes me feel like murdering Trent.” Gray was using his calmest tone. Well, his most sarcastic tone, but it was also calm. Mostly. He wasn’t pleased with his current occupation.
“And Trent, how does that make you feel?” Felix asked.
“It makes me feel like I’m wasting my day pass, man.” There was nothing calm about Trent. He was perfectly exasperated. It was obvious the day had not gone according to plan.
But then what had he expected? Probably not thruples therapy.
As for me, I just wanted my guys to get along. It had been a full six months since my wolf guy had killed my demon guy’s brother. Now that sounds worse than it really is, a fact I’ve been trying my damnedest to get Gray—the demon hottie—to see. Gray’s brother had gone by many names on the Earth plane, but Stewart had been his most frequent alias. On the demonic plane, he’d been known as Nemcox and had been totally evil. He’d learned a secret about the king’s son…
I’m moving too fast. Like I said, it’s been a while. I should catch you up. I’m Kelsey Owens. I’m this weird thing that happens when a lone wolf forgets to wear a condom and humps a human lady. I’m what’s known as a Hunter. It basically means that I’m pretty strong and have a lot of werewolf senses, but I can’t actually turn into a wolf, though I do have a demon arm—and that’s another story entirely. I work for the King of all Vampire, who also happens to be the king of the supernatural world. I’m his Nex Apparatus. It’s kind of like a combo sheriff and assassin, with a dash of therapist thrown in. I’m involved with a gorgeous half-demon named Grayson Sloan and an insanely hot alpha wolf named Trent Wilcox. We had a few super-sexy encounters together and then came the aforementioned murder. But I didn’t see why that had to mean the end of our threesome. After all, the king and his wife and partner had gone through a ton worse and still got it on all the time, and in fairly public places.
I might be horny. Super horny. And my bio clock had started ticking. I wanted some baby making, and I couldn’t do that while my men were fighting, hence the therapy.
“You’re here on sufferance, wolf.” Gray was using his super-superior voice, the one he used when he knew a suspect was guilty and he could prove it. In the last few months, he’d gone back to his original job. Gray is a Texas Ranger. Not the baseball-playing kind. He’s a cop of the highest order and he works in the Ranger’s specialized crimes unit. By special they mean weird shit no one else wants to work. Basically he deals with supernatural crimes.
We’re kind of coworkers when you think about it.
It was his other job that worried me. Gray is also a dark prophet. Every now and then his eyes go midnight black and he starts to speak in what I like to call prophet rap. It’s usually a jumble of crap that doesn’t actually make any sense at all until you’re on the other side of it, but it impresses the other demons. Especially Gray’s dad, and he’s the one I worried about.
“I thought I was here to discuss potential parole,” Trent shot back with a shake of his head. “I thought you were willing to talk to me and find a way to work this out.”
Trent used to be the head of the king’s security. He had a great career, benefits, job security. Then he met a girl.
Yeah, I kind of wrecked that for him. Again, hence the therapy.
“This? You refer to the murder of my brother as this? I don’t want to work this out with you,” Gray replied, sitting back. “You misunderstand me, wolf. There is no parole. The king is high if he thinks my father will allow that to happen. The only reason you weren’t killed in the first place was to keep the peace. You will never be allowed your former place. And I have my reasons for helping Kelsey see you on a regular basis. I want Kelsey to fuck you out of her system so we can go back to normal.”
We were far from normal.
“I don’t think that’s going to happen,” Felix said, taking in the three of us with an academic air. “Kelsey is dual natured, as you know. Unlike most were creatures, she’s not fully integrated. I know werewolves like to talk about their ‘wolf’ as being something that lives inside them, but that’s a euphemism. For Kelsey the ‘she-wolf’ part of her soul is separate, and she has different needs from the human portion.”
Not exactly. Honestly, the longer I live and accept the fact that I’ve got this gift, the more the she-wolf and I get along. I totally don’t lose control and try to kill people anymore. She-wolf and I kill people with purpose now, and we’re in total agreement on what we needed and that was sex.
“I’m perfectly willing to take care of all her needs.” Trent got that smirk on his face, the alpha wolf smirk. I shouldn’t find it sexy, but I do. “How about you go and talk to your father about this bullshit punishment and I’ll spend the few hours I have here in bed with our woman.”
I was actually all on board with that plan with the exception of losing Gray. I’d had a taste of symmetrical fucking and I wanted more. Not that I didn’t enjoy my sexy times with each of them, but there’s something about having four hands on my body that does it for me.

NY Times and USA Today bestselling author Lexi Blake lives in North Texas with her husband, three kids, and the laziest rescue dog in the world. She began writing at a young age, concentrating on plays and journalism. It wasn’t until she started writing romance and urban fantasy that she found the stories of her heart. She likes to find humor in the strangest places and believes in happy endings no matter how odd the couple, threesome, or foursome may seem.