Rogue Descendant by Jenna Black

Title: Rogue Descendant
Author: Jenna Black
Series: Nikki Glass #3
Release Date: April 30th, 2013
Publisher: Pocket Books
Buy: Amazon

Goodreads Summary

No longer the leader of the Olympians, Konstantin has now gone into hiding. Konstantin is vulnerable, and Anderson believes now is the perfect time to destroy his nemesis. He orders private eye Nikki Glass to use her powers to locate Konstantin, and she balks at the idea until a series of attacks leads her to believe that Konstantin is gunning for her and Anderson instead of remaining safely in hiding.

Nikki’s search is complicated by Cyrus—Konstantin’s son and the new leader of the Olympians—who threatens retribution should his father be killed. The complications mount up as Nikki begins to suspect that Konstantin might not be behind the attacks after all. The only person who hates Konstantin more than Anderson does is Anderson’s estranged wife, Emma, who has joined the Olympians. And Nikki knows Emma would be more than happy if Anderson and his people embroil themselves in an all-out war against the Olympians—a war they cannot hope to win.

As Nikki tries to figure out who the true enemy is, she deals with her tumultuous relationship with Jamaal, who struggles to control his death magic. But being loved by a descendant of a death goddess is the least of Nikki’s worries…

This won't exactly be a review, since my focus is going to be Jamaal (or is going to start of that way... being who I am.. I am probably going to end up talking about something else).

Jamaal is a very interesting character in the sense that my feelings for him have changed so much over the course of the three books. 

In the first book, when he was first introduced, my reaction wasn't exactly positive. I didn't want him to be a love interest. I didn't want Nikki throwing herself at a guy who was more of an asshole then anything else. In fact, throughout the first book all I wanted was for Blake and Nikki to get together. That didn't happen though (I am going to get back to the whole Blake thing later).

In the second book I was starting to warm up to Jamaal but I still wasn't exactly comfortable with him. He seemed too much like those annoying tortured boys you find in YA. 

The 3rd book changed everything though, I went from being okay with him.. to developing serious feelings for him. It's because there is so much more to him than the classic bad boy. There is a certain depth to him that wasn't really explored until the 3rd book. We know he is secretive about his past and all that jazz and isn't exactly a social bee, but it wasn't until the 3rd book that it finally hit me that I had to stop blaming him, if he were the guy who fell in love with someone trying to save him right away and became a mushy gushy weirdo, it would take away the essence of his character.

After being alone for so long and not trusting anyone, he cannot just become unglued at the smallest act of kindness, there is going to have to be more than that.

I appreciate how determined Nikki is though, if the author decided that maybe she should add another complication to this mess by making Nikki's attention fray to someone else, I would have been extremely pissed. I love how she is determined to break that shell of his no matter what. It shows that she really cares. Plus I love how it isn't all about the attraction. She admits that she is a bleeding heart and feels a connection to him because of how SHE grew up and feels the need to fix him.

Although I admit to hating every single one of the interruptions that happened throughout this book but that's how things were sadly.

Back to the topic of Blake. I was majorly disappointed when Jenna forced Blake and Steph together. First it seemed too easy. Second, they cannot ever be happy together unless Jenna does something to extend Steph's life, which will piss me off so much. I don't want things to be so neat. Which is why I really do not want them to end together. I keep on hoping that there is something else going on b/w the two of them that we don't know about but who the hell knows.

Enter Cyrus and that seemed like the perfect solution. I WANTED Cyrus and Blake to get together because it seemed like they still had feelings for each other. After this book I am not so sure if that will work out. But.. I swear if Cyrus were a girl instead and if this book were a YA, what he did would have been romantic and that is what freaks me out the most. 

The plot in this book was umm (give me a sec to think, I need to get Jamaal out of my head) good. For me the charm of this book was Jamaal and Nikki's budding relationship. The plot was well paced and fun to read but nothing out of the ordinary. 

I am so glad though I finally finished this book because it gave an uplift to my downward spiral of bad books.