Royal Pawn By K.N. Banet

Title: Royal Pawn

Author: K.N. Banet

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Series: Jacky Leon # 6

384 pages, Paperback

Publication: July 13, 2021

Source: Kindle Unlimited

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I’m Jacqueline, daughter of Hasan, ruling werecat of the Americas, the werecat liaison to humanity, and the lover of Heath Everson, Alpha werewolf. But I go by Jacky Leon and no one knows about the werewolf.

Some time ago, I met a fae and his family while on the run. They helped me, and for his own reasons, the fae had given me a gift. I never went looking for him. I knew the name he gave me and I did my best not to think too hard about it, him, or his family.

Life has a fun way of bringing things back because he's the lost king of the fae and now everyone knows. People who want him to take back the throne, people who want to kill him so he can’t, and people who want to hurt those he loves just to see him hurt.

And I’m the werecat he gave a gift, just in case he ever needed someone to protect his innocent human wife. I’m now a pawn in a deadly clash of fae powers the likes of which has never been seen.

Brin knows even a pawn can change the game.

Especially this pawn.

MY THOUGHTS

I took a short break from the Jacky Leon series and finally went back to it after a couple of months. Like the previous books, each installment focuses on a specific supernatural sect. In Royal Pawn, Jacky is going head-to-head with the fae.

Jacky and Heath have hidden their relationship for a long time, so it doesn’t come as a surprise when it’s used against them as blackmail. And that’s exactly what Brin, a.k.a. King Brion does, he blackmails Jacky and Heath into protecting his human wife, Fiona. Having met Brin and his family early on in the series and learning that he’s the long-lost king should have made me more excited and intrigued. Unfortunately, it had the opposite effect.

I don’t particularly like blackmail as a plot device, but more so, Brin/Brion and his entire family were extremely unlikeable. Fiona, a human who is apparently 92 years old, sits on a high horse with a lot of opinions and prejudice for someone who doesn’t know anything about Brion’s previous life or Sidhe customs. My thoughts throughout the entire book were: why did they have to be blackmailed and called to duty over someone who is not only unworthy but also likely to die sooner rather than later?

Jacky was frustrating in this latest installment. Anyone who has read this series knows she’s prone to recklessness and shows little regard for her own life, but this time around it felt more asinine than usual. She wanted to keep the relationship on the down low; she didn’t want to tell Heath she loved him because it made things too real… but she blew all of that within seconds. I normally praise Jacky for her maturity and clear, level thinking, but it was absent in Royal Pawn. I also thought Heath was a bit overkill in voicing his feelings, it started to feel like love-bombing… but with how the book ended, perhaps not? I do think it’s too soon for wedding bells, but we’ll see.

It saddens me to say this, but Royal Pawn is the weakest installment so far. I didn’t like the plot, I didn’t like the fae, and most, if not all of the characters were getting on my nerves, with the exception of Oliver, Dirk, and Landon. I hope this book was just a fluke and that the next one will be better. Otherwise, this might be the end of the series for me.

Broken Loyalty by K.N. Banet

Title: Broken Loyalty

Author: K.N. Banet

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Series: Jacky Leon # 3

368 pages, Paperback

Publication: April 15, 2020

Source: Kindle Unlimited

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I'm a member of the strongest werecat family alive; a family that commands the loyalty of every werecat that walks the face of the earth. They are the definition of power, and no one has dared challenge that for millennia. It’s not a legacy I’m always comfortable with, but it’s the one I was given the day Hasan decided to change me into a werecat. I’m resolved to do my best with my new responsibilities.

Others have been watching me and my family. Rogue werecats are now testing my territory borders and putting those I care about at risk. As the events grow stranger, I can feel the tension mount. I have this nagging feeling that my family is about to learn a valuable lesson and it’s coming for me first.

My name is Jacky Leon and my family’s enemies have a message for us.

Loyalty is worthless when it’s broken.

MY THOUGHTS

Broken Loyalty is the third book in the Jacky Leon series. After defeating the vampire nest in Washington, Hasan believes Jacky has more than proven herself to the family and deserves greater responsibility. As a result, she’s appointed as the family’s representative for North and South America. But that’s not all, the family also decides Jacky could be using her time more wisely and assigns two employees to help her run Kick Shot. Still, it’s rarely a quiet time for Jacky, especially when rogue werecats begin appearing in her territory.

This book is all about the werecats. We finally get to see and learn more about these elusive supernaturals and their complicated relationships with one another and with other sects. I was happy to see Jacky’s family take center stage in this third installment, though that did mean Heath and his family took a backseat for much of the book. Hasan finally gives Jacky some long-awaited answers, especially regarding why she was saved and not Shane. We also learn more about Davors, Zuri, and Niko. The family is eclectic, and the more I read about them, the more pleasantly surprised I became. They’re also genuinely funny, when you forget they’re an ancient and powerful race, at their core they’re just like a typical dysfunctional family.

So far, this series has been a slow burn, and I absolutely love that. I really appreciate Banet taking the time to build Jacky and Heath’s relationship, allowing the characters to truly get to know one another instead of rushing into anything. Like the characters themselves, the relationship feels authentic and real, and when things do happen, they carry real emotional weight. I am tired, TIRED of reading about baseless and inorganic relationships in fantasy, where characters jump into bed within the first book (if that's your thing, cool but it's not my preference). The gradual growth between Jacky and Heath is refreshing, and I’m excited to see how their relationship evolves over the course of the series.

Broken Loyalty is another strong and solid addition to the series, and I plan to pick up the next book ASAP.