Reviewed by Vicki
Series Review of the Partnership in Blood Series
AUTHOR: Ariel Tachna
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
TITLE: Partnership Reborn (Partnership in Blood Final book!)
LENGTH: 306 pages
BLURB:
All his life, wizard Raphael Tarayaud has dreamed of a vampire—first as a friend, then as a lover. His search for his missing soul mate brings him to the attention of Sebastien Noyer, one of his childhood heroes. While Sebastien isn’t his soul mate, he could be the perfect partner for Raphael’s best friend Kylian Raffier.
As strange coincidences mount up, Raphael offers his research expertise to try and help Kylian and Sebastien understand what is happening to them, though the more he learns, the less he likes it. But it won’t keep him from fighting with everything he has to secure Kylian’s future.
When he finally meets Jean Bellaiche, former chef de la Cour and grieving widower, the meeting is disastrous, but Raphael can’t let it go. He doesn’t stand a chance with Jean—who could compete with the ghost of Raymond Payet?—but nothing can stop him from dreaming.
REVIEW:
This will be a hard review to write…. Partly because I don’t want this series to end, partly because I don’t want to give away the plot, and partly because I was really not sure if I approved of the plot!
As we know, I have been reading and reviewing the whole series. I am a HUGE fan of Raymond and Jean, and very much still in their world, since I finished the last book and went straight in to this one. But the blurb had me very concerned. “Grieving widower”? What the fuck did you do Ariel? Why is Sebastien looking for a soul mate? Who the hell are Raphael and Kylian? I did not want to see this at all. I have been chatting with Ariel on Facebook for a good portion of this process, and we really picked up going in to this one. She asked me to trust her, and I tried so hard to do that. But….
I’m not going to talk much about the plot, there just isn’t anything that I can say that won’t ruin it for someone. Other than to say we get new characters that bring light and lightness to the series, in the form of Raphael and Kylian. They are good characters, very young, and very different. They live in a different time, safer and relaxed. They are so good for the two old guys. I get it now. There are little sneaky surprises, you need to watch carefully or you’ll miss them. I thought I knew what was going on pretty early, and was happy it was confirmed as I went along. I was able to let go of my fear and enjoy the story. Good things happen, and sad ones, I laughed and cried. A lot. I cursed Ariel a bit too! She is not allowed to write epilogues or prologues ever again!
There is a lot less sex in this book than in the others, and a simpler plot. It is just focused on the four men, it’s all internal drama and angst. We get very little about Paris as it is for them now, and that was really ok. When the couples do become physical, it was absolutely perfect. Just as it should be. There are glimpses of other characters, but not many. That may be my one complaint, I wanted to know what had happened with other people we have followed for so long.
So this is a very good book. A VERY good book! Even with a prologue that broke my damn heart, even with all of my concerns, it was perfect. I should have just trusted Ariel to do the right thing with her characters. She loves these men too, I should have trusted her to treat them right.
I am sad it’s over, it’s been a fantastic ride! I’m so glad I reread the whole series instead of just going straight in to this book. It was a big commitment, but soooo worth it. I also enjoyed seeing Ariel’s talent improve over the five plus years of writing these. I think she was a good writer when she wrote the first one, but she has improved since then. I don’t have the knowledge to explain how, but this book was very well written. It was a smaller story and more controlled, fewer characters and more focused. The last few have been that way. I enjoyed the chaos of the first four certainly, but they were busy. These last few have been focused on fewer characters and I liked that. Not that I didn’t like the first ones!
Read them. Read them all, start at the beginning, and do it! Vampires and wizards, and werewolves, oh my!
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
Great job Vicki! You finally made it to the end!
Great review! I love this series and hate to see it end. I enjoy her contemporary work but this series is, to me, her best work.