Slade is the last cowboy-vampire Johnson brother as yet unmated. He’s the technological genius of the resistance fighters known as Renegades, a group comprised of the Johnsons, weres and others (?) who try to keep the evil Sanctuary in check. But where is an exhausted, overworked, and under-appreciated vampire expected to meet his mate when he spends all his time in his lab? Online, of course.

Jane Frederickson has only recently realized that the research she has done on curing world hunger can also be used to build a horrible weapon. She’s in her lab busily deleting data, when her internet friend, Vamp-man, comes on line demanding that Jane leave the lab immediately. Jane delays in order to finish destroying her research, feeling more endangered as each moment passes. She takes too long and Slade has to out himself in order to get her to safety, fighting off Sanctuary soldiers who have been ordered to get both Jane and her data.

Slade’s interest in Jane has many facets. He needs her research himself, in order to save his infant nephew who is slowly starving to death, unable to absorb nutrition from his formula. He also needs to keep the research away from Sanctuary, because they’ll use it to starve millions of humans and weres in a bid for power. But most importantly, as he realizes almost instantly upon meeting her in person, Jane is his mate.

I skipped the middle two books in the series, so while I know that this book pales in comparison to the first, I don’t know how it stacks up against the others. This one felt like a throwaway, maybe just to get Slade’s story over with. In 312 pages, Slade and Jane basically escape the lab, go to his house, go to her house, and then go back to his. Oh, there’s a lot of wonder and horror on Jane’s part, as she meets beings she thought were only nightmares, and there’s a lot of fighting and healing up again on Slade’s part. Along the way there’s a love scene or two and attempts to heal the baby, But, otherwise, nothing much really happens.

Even though the plot was relatively simple, I had a hard time following along. I don’t know how many times I flipped back and forth trying to figure out where and how a conversation started, or why a were was making threats, or where was Jane while Slade was doing…whatever. Eventually the effort wore me out and I just kept reading doggedly, hoping that I’d eventually figure it out. This includes the love scenes, which for me were just too darn long, although they were more sensitively written than I anticipated.

The characters were mostly inoffensive. Jane is likable enough, and strong enough to bargain with the baby’s life when she thinks her own is being compromised, even though she finds doing so revolting. Insights into Slade’s character, especially as related by Jane, were welcome, and I found him likable as well. The rest of the cast, not so much. Allie, the mother of Slade’s nephew, was okay, except that I think she gave in too easily instead of coercing Jane’s help. Her baby was dying, after all, but she was worried about bad karma. The rest of the brothers and the weres who make up the the Renegades took turns being annoying or else underestimating Slade.

There’s not much else to say. I didn’t like the cover, the story was just all right, the cliffhanger end was expected. So, while reading this book wasn’t exactly a nightmare, there wasn’t much about it to recommend either. Unless you’re a die-hard fan of the series, you can probably skip it.