The living cannot be allowed to infect the dead.

Adam Binder has lost what matters most to him. Having finally learned the true identity of the warlock preying on his family, what was supposed to be a final confrontation with the fiend instead became a trap that sent Vic into the realm of the dead, where none living are meant to be. Bound by debt, oath, and love, Adam blazes his own trail into the underworld to get Vic back and to end the threat of the warlock once and for all.

But the road to hell is paved with more than good intentions. Demons are hungry and ghosts are relentless. What awaits Adam in the underworld is nothing he is prepared to face. If that weren’t enough, Adam has one more thing he must do if he and Vic are to return to world of the living: find the lost heart of Death herself.

How was it?

It’s a weird thing, to like a series and its individual books – White Trash Warlock, Trailer Park Trickers, and even this one – enough to be positive about them but still struggling to sound like it.

Since it is the final installment of the Adam Binder series I guess I can be a bit clearer about some of my comments about White Trash Warlock and Trailer Park Trickers. But first I have to note that the first book was a bumbling intro to Adam’s world and once I got used to it in the second entry, the underworld – essentially a world within a world – is introduced. Come on, it’s not even funny at this point.

The road trip to hell to save Vic introduces a new environment with new rules for the majority of this final installment when we – I should speak for myself – when I barely got a grasp of the other world Adam can see and has access to. As well crafted as this underworld adventure kind of is it just tips the balance of the uselessness of the fae and goblin aspects of the series. Argent, Silver, and all the creatures we were introduced to didn’t need to be fae or even mentioned. Unless there’s a spin-off series set in that world centered on the fae and other creatures of this series the whole thing had little to no point being in this series.

Adam could have been a Witch, raised in a family who didn’t want to believe in it, trained by a fellow Witch in the mental institution he was sent to, or better yet the spirit of a witch – if the whole trip to underworld is kept for the last book. There’s little to no reason for the fae to be in this series, even the Tarot thing. I guess for many the Tarot, the Fae, and most of the fantasy things in this story blended well but not for me. With this book, it seems that big chunks of White Trash Warlock and parts of Trailer Park Trickster were filler disguised as worldbuilding. It wasn’t a chore to read about all of it but in the end, it seems like a bit of a waste.

When it comes to the romance, as sweet as the longing between Adam and Vic was, the bulk was their relationship is “off-screen.” I did not need heated scenes but seeing an actual relationship between queer men would have been nice, instead of just the idea of it. Again this is a middle-grade level MM romance, and I’m beginning to think that the plots were designed to keep these two exploring their relationship in the story.

The complicated relationships between the characters, their raw emotions toward one another, and their history is a big strength of the series and also this book, but it was at times drowned in – I can’t believe I’m saying this – too much fantasy.

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