Review: The Mephiso Kiss by Trinity Faegen!

Hardcover; 448 pages
Published September 25, 2012 by EgmontUSA

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The eyes never lie. No one’s eyes are darker than Eryx. Not even the Devil’s.
When Jax and Sasha first see Jordan Ellis, they know she is no ordinary teenager. She’s the daughter of the President after all, but she’s also Anabo – a descendant of Eve.
What they don’t know is that Eryx plans to kidnap Jordan and force President Ellis to pledge his soul. If Eryx’s plot succeeds, the consequences would be catastrophic.
But the Mephisto brothers do know about Jordan’s secret identity. And for one of them, she could be the match that leads to their soul’s salvation.
Now it’s a desperate race against time to save Jordan and prevent Eryx’s haunting eyes from discovering her true identity.
A thrilling story of romance, danger, and intrigue, THE MEPHISTO KISS continues the marvelous mythology that began in THE MEPHISTO COVENANT.

I fell in love with The Mephisto Covenant, so I was excited to get my hands on The Mephisto Kiss. I love these sons of hell that Faegen has created. Despite my love for them, I didn’t love this installment.

My biggest issue with The Mephisto Kiss was the pacing. It jumps right into the action, then slows down to snail pace where it seems like nothing important is happening, then finally kicks it up a notch to a pace that had me glued to the pages, only to speed up even MORE. The ending felt rushed and incomplete, and I felt like some things just came out of nowhere.

I loved that we see a lot of Jax and Sasha in this book, but that also left me wishing I was reading about them. Jax is still that same character that I came to love in The Mephisto Covenant and Key just didn’t catch my attention the way Jax did. I liked Sasha, but I didn’t like Jordan. She was very fickle and made some big mistakes. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at her over and over again.

I realize it’s probably unfair for me to compare this book so much to the first, but unfortunately, that’s the way my mind worked while reading The Mephisto Kiss, and to me, it was lacking in comparison to the first.

Another thing that bothered me was that the characters are pretty much one sided. Jordan’s good, so she’s almost always good, having everyone’s best interest at heart, and it bothered me that she never wavered or thought about herself. Eryx was fun to read about but he’s all evil all the time, and it bothered me that he never has a genuine moment.  There was also a scene where he made it sound as if humans who aren’t hoping for heaven or fearing hell have no reason to resist evil. This rubbed me the wrong way, as an atheist who feels she can see the difference between right and wrong without hoping for heaven or fearing hell. Maybe it was just the character’s beliefs,  I’m not sure, but it still bothered me a bit.

I do believe it is worth three stars because despite my problems with it, I couldn’t put it down. I wanted to see it through to the end, and I still love the Mephisto boys.

I will probably read the next installment if there is one, because I’m interested in reading about the characters I believe it will involve. But I will be honest. My distaste for a lot of this book has left me questioning whether or not The Mephisto Covenant is what I think it was.