Envy ~ JR Ward

Envy by J.R. Ward
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Police Detective Thomas DelVecchio has been living in the shadow of his infamous serial killer father for his entire life and is considered something of a loose cannon at his new job in Caldwell NY. Finding himself alone at the scene of a vicious attack on a suspected murderer, "Veck" has no memory of what happened and finds himself beginning to lose his precarious grip on reality. One of the only people who believes in Veck's innocence is Internal Affairs officer Reilly, the person ordered to keep tabs on him.

This series started out so promising with the first book, Covet which I absolutely loved, but then fell apart in spectacular fashion with the second book Crave. This third book sort of falls somewhere in the middle.

The character of Thomas DelVecchio was first introduced in Ward's other (and far superior) series The Black Dagger Brotherhood, when he showed up in Lover Unleashed. To be honest, I was not a fan of him there. He came off as cocky and snide, and when i found out he was due to be the focus of this book, I was less than thrilled. However, I found myself being surprisingly drawn to his character in this setting. Although you could argue he was just another one of Ward's signature tortured heroes, I found myself liking him more and more as I read the book.

Reilly was another story altogether. She came across as very two dimensional and her constant flip-flop decision making was totally unbelievable especially given her profession working in Internal Affairs. Ward usually writes her heroines as strong no-nonsense woman, but with Reilly (as with the heroine in Crave, Grier) she has delivered a very forgettable wishy-washy female.

The main reason I keep sticking with this series is because of the character of Jim, the Fallen Angel and the heart of each story. His passion and determination to make things right has kept me coming back to these books even when I feel like walking away for good. I honestly wish that the focus of the series would be more on Jim and his band of Rebel Fallen Angels, than on the sometimes boring humans he spends so much time trying to save.