Deceived By the Others: H & W Investigations Series, Book 3 (H&W Investigations) [Kindle Edition]

Be warned that spoilers of Book #1 and #2 might occur, so if you haven't read those yet, you might close your eyes and skip reading this review.

My Thoughts: Deceived by the Others is the 3rd book in Jess Haines' H&W Investigations series and after the terrific ride of Taken by the Others, I was excited to dig in and see how things would go on after the bang ending of Book #2.

Unfortunately Shia does what she does best: she avoids dealing with uncomfortable situations, so of course she hides from Royce (just a little warning for all of you Royce fans out there: Shia won't speak with Royce until about way after page 250). So sadly I didn't get in Deceived by the Others the big confrontational talk between Shia and Royce after the blood bonding and their dealing with of where they go from there, but I keep hope I'll get it in Book #4.

So to get back to Deceived by the Others: Shia is debating whether to take her relationship with Chaz to the next level and sign the contract binding herself to an Other. As an attempt to rekindle their relationship after Shia's bonding to Royce in Book #2 which took its toll on Chaz, Shia and Chaz are going for a short vacation in the mountains to spend a few days with the whole Sunstriker pack during full moon.

Before I started reading Deceived by the Others I have glimpsed plenty of outrage exclamations of fans and warnings that there will be some pretty shocking revelations, so I was on the lookout constantly for the big fallout. I have to say I wasn't that surprised because I haven't liked Chaz from the beginning. He seemed phony and superficial to me, his interactions with Shia didn't seem deep or intense, so I can't say I was stunned by what he did and his plan. I never cared for him, and I have to say I'm even a bit glad because this way Shia can finally forget about him and look on to new and greener pastures (*cough* Royce *cough*). ;-p

Though there was plenty of mystery and dubious events taking place, and even though Jess Haines managed to keep the nail-biting excitement and thrill up I somehow found the mystery plot of Deceived by the Others less formidable than in the previous two books. But then with the conclusion Jess Haines revealed that it was more of a prank, the humour of which I appreciated, but would have loved to have a more serious and bigger evil in the works too. I know, I'm greedy :-)

I think Jess Haines was very brave in undertaking to have most of Deceived by the Others without Royce appearing on the pages until about page 260, but of course the exciting character of him and especially his interaction and crack up dialogues with Shia were sorely missed. Though they clearly are the spice of this series and what makes it outstanding, Shia's humour and sarcasm on her own is still remarkable and just as funny as before:

Maybe I could crack the thing's skull before it tore out my insides. Right. And the tooth fairy would swing by to play backup for me next.

Coitus interruptus does not a happy camper make.

"You should be afraid," Gabe said his voice gone deeper, guttural with anger. [...] "You aren't one of us. Don't you know what we could do to you?"
"Try me, Fluffy. I've fought your kind before. You kids don't know who you're messing with."

Verdict: All in all Deceived by the Others was an exciting page turner peppered with the usual entertaining witty humour of Jess Haines' heroine. And if it didn't succeed Taken by the Others I might have rated it higher, but I just loved Book #2 so much that I was left a bit disappointed I had to miss out on the Shia & Royce goodness so much. But I really hope they'll get their time to shine in the next books and Jess Haines will reward us with plenty of yumminess :-)

Plot: 6/10
Characters: 8/10
Ending: 8/10
Writing: 9/10
Cover: 10/10 - finally! It was about time this series got a great cover and I love the cover of Deceived by the Others! Atmospheric yet colourful and finally Shia looks normal and not like some leather-clad hooker. yay!

Book 3 in Jess Haines' H &W Investigations series. And it's definitely worth reading books 1 & 2 first!

Shiarra Waynest is contemplating entering into a contract, binding her to her boyfriend Chaz Hallbrook, alpha werewolf and leader of the Sunstriker Tribe. The contract will allow them to sleep together (forbidden by law since Chaz came out as a werewolf, one of the supernatural 'Others' living alongside the human race) but will also allow him huge rights over Shia: including the right to turn her into a werewolf with or without her explicit consent.

Shia is, understandably, nervous about taking this step but feels that she owes Chaz a symbol of her faith after his support for her during the trials of the first two novels in the series. As an initial step in accustoming herself to Chaz's werewolf existence, she plans a vacation with him and his pack over the course of the full moon. So when she receives messages from Jack (a member of the White Hat league against paranormal beings) and from enigmatic Master vampire, Alec Royce (to whom she is already contractually bound) both denying any responsibility for what might be about to happen to her, Shia becomes uneasy to say the least.

Although I enjoyed this book, I was disappointed by the amount of time which is spent on the werewolf retreat scenes and the development of Shia's relationship with Chaz. This relationship was virtually sidelined in Taken By The Others (H&W Investigations) - to the point that I found myself sceptical about Shia's interest in binding herself to Chaz... until it becomes clear that much of this is motivated by Shia's misplaced guilt over the blood bond she had shared with Royce, rather than her depth of feelings for the hitherto rather cypher-like Chaz.

Despite much of the action taking place away from New York and the vampires, there is still time for development of the Shia-Royce plotline. And for once, it seems that the controlling, manipulative vampire is capable of an act of truly unselfish generosity.

Not my favourite source of action for much of the book, but nonetheless an engaging read with lots of intriguing plot twists, something of a cliffhanger ending and plenty of scope for development in the sequel.

Deceived By The Others is the third book in the H&W Investigations series by Jess Haines. If you haven't read the first two books Hunted By The Others and Taken By The Others I strongly advise that you do before reading this book, and please do not read this review any further as it will contain spoilers for the two previous books.

DBTO starts off with Shia about to sign a contract between here and Chaz, her werewolf boyfriend and Alpha of the Sunstrikers pack. They are both going away for a long weekend with all the pack members so that Shia can get to know the pack and watch them shift into their other forms. Shia is concerned how the pack will react to her as she has a contract with Alec Royce the master vampire with whom she was also blood bound too. The vacation doesn't go as planned with somebody out to get Chaz and pack members not wanting Shia there with them for the full moon. I won't go into any more of the story but suffice to say there is a massive shock in the story.

I have really enjoyed the three books by Jess Haines, the stories are not anything we haven't really read before in the Urban Fantasy genre and they are very quick and easy to read but for some reason I cannot put them down. Ms Haines creates good chemistry between Shia and Chaz and Royce so much so that I just keep turning the pages to see what happens next. DBTO does not have a big fight scene in it unlike the earlier books and I liked that about it.

I thoroughly recommend this series and I cannot wait to get my hands on the fourth book. For the earlier books and the beginning of this I have been Team Royce all the way (I always pick the vamp) however as the book progressed I changed sides toTeam Chaz. But what Team was I in the end? Why don't you read the book and find out for yourselves?