A continuation of the "War of Gods" saga ...
As the single-most powerful vampire on the planet, Xander is the ultimate bored predator with too much time on his hands. He manipulates the minds of immortals for fun and bullies around the Gods, while guarding the secret source of his power, a crystal that can wipe out the planet. But beneath the surface, he’s a shrewd creature who learned the brutal lesson of why there must be a balance between good and evil. An unwilling protector of the playthings known as humans, he knows when and where to use his power – and never to let anyone close enough to betray him. It’s easy to do, since he has the power to read the minds of everyone around him.
Except for one: Jessi, an innocent looking woman with an unusual talent who shows up unexpectedly in his life. Her sudden appearance is too convenient to be coincidence or chance. Xander determines quickly that she was sent by someone, but he can’t read her mind to discover why.
Jessi’s secret – and Xander’s – have the power to forever change the human world. Intrigued by a new sort of challenge, Xander won’t know how much danger he’s in, until he’s placed his fate in the hands of a woman whose betrayal will cost either his heart or his life. (Blurb via Goodreads)
{Details} Kindle Edition, 301 pages. Published
March 20th 2013
by Guerrilla Wordfare. Source: Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
{Rating} 3/5 - I liked it!
{Review}
"The boy ran through the crowded marketplace, dodging merchants' carts and weaving through the patrons." (page 1, line 1)
The book starts out with Xander as a child and as a young man, though not the most exciting bit, it is essential. I needed to see what happened to him and how he chose to react to it in order to care at all about him and accept the things he'd done. It's still hard to care about him, he's got a cocky attitude, and his attitude towards women: he doesn't do re-reruns (i.e. never the same woman twice). He also doesn't trust anyone or let anyone get close to him but after what's happened to him, well, it's understandable. And then Jessi comes along, someone new and intriguing. Someone who let me see there's more to Xander.
Jessi. While I liked her sass, her selfless devotion to her family and the way she bantered with Xander, most of the time I thought she was too stupid to live and definitely not someone to have a say in the fate of the world. I didn't buy why she continued to keep her secret after being told by multiple people the consequences of that decision. She put the people she loved at risk, something against her character, for what?
I thought the world was interesting, the concept of the gods, the Naturals, the Guardians, etc. but there wasn't a whole lot of information about them, probably because Xander's Chance is an offshoot of the series War of Gods. There was enough of an explanation that this book is able to stand alone but I do believe I would have gotten much more out of the book if I'd read the series first.
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