Prince of the Other Worlds Series Overview
by Kara Lockharte & Cassie Alexander

**Spoilers are going to run a bit rampant in this. I might also be more sarcastic than usual.**

This interlude focuses on the paranormal romance/urban fantasy series from Kara Lockharte and Cassie Alexander. It’s a quartet with an imaginative plot but also felt like a patchwork of different movies and shows. Rifts, doorways between realms, appear and monsters come into the mortal world (think Pacific Rim) while a rag tag team of paranormal beings try to prevent their entrance and the destruction of earth (think Ghostbusters without ghosts and the team is made up of a witch, dragon shifter, 2 werewolves, and a human with machine parts–pretty much a cyborg but mostly human). There is a cheese loving cat and a fire that erases memories of the supernatural as well as reverses the destruction caused by the supernatural to a certain extent (think the kids show Miraculous and Cat Noir’s miraculous who loves cheese). Of course, I didn’t mind it too much because it was good–at least in the beginning. While all this is going on human nurse Andie Ngo and dragon shifter billionaire Damian Blackwood fall for one another. It’s instalust/instalove under the guise of having found their mate with lots of open door bedroom scenes that sometimes aren’t in the bedroom at all.

The first book was a fun read, introducing me to Andi, Damian, and the rest of the gang. Andi’s personality shined here and she was quite witty. I immediately liked her. While life has not always been kind to her, she is not exactly the woe-is-me type and she still cares about the well-being of others. Being a nurse is a perfect occupation for her. This book had some funny scenes and I liked some of the banter between Damian and Andi.

The second book is more angsty with a remedied case of noble idiocy (Damian) that has now been overridden by a fear of being hurt again (Andi). What is noble idiocy you say? It’s the I love you but I’ll only hurt you syndrome which leads whoever is the noble idiot to then end up hurting who it is they love under the ruse that this is what is best even though it was to protect that individual from getting hurt in the first place. Andi is fighting her feelings for Damian and Damian is wondering why he put himself in this position. Monsters are still trying to come over from the other side(s) and Andi is still searching for her brother, although she might be getting closer this time.

The plot thickens in Dragon Fated but it gets overshadowed by how frisky the leads are. I’m guesstimating that nearly half of the book was all sex. Just about every time Andi and Damian were together, they were going at it. I get it. After so much time away from each other (I think it’s only been a few weeks from the time they first meet in the first book), it’s natural to want to be all over each other; however, the plot is originally what led me to continue with the series and I was disappointed I wasn’t getting my questions answered.

Things got even more complicated in the final book. There were so many different things going on that it felt like the book spread itself too thin. The ending left me with more questions and the answers given to my other questions were not satisfying at all. The closure didn’t feel much like closure to me. All of a sudden people who probably wouldn’t work together were working together (what?! why?) even though the reasoning was somewhat flimsily established earlier. Sure, it’s possible that this can happen–you know, the enemy of my enemy is my friend–but I didn’t really believe it. Part of my disappointment is that I was hoping the fourth book would take a different direction. Book 3 hinted at the possibility of entering into a different realm and that doesn’t happen, so I was disappointed. Now I feel like there’s a loose ending floating somewhere.

Overall, this was an imaginative series that sets up the possibilities of additional books potentially set in different realms. It’s also possible for more Damion and Andi (Dandi? Andian?) centric stories. Despite having passed on the series a few times in my list of recommendations, I took a chance on it. I’m glad I did because at least the first two books were entertaining. I was disappointed in the last two books. I was left with an ending I didn’t really like, which then subsequently made me frustrated with the series.