Purpose

Title:
Author: Andrew Q. Gordon
Cover Artist: Paul Richmond
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Publisher Buy Link:
Amazon:   Purpose
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Length: 270 pages
Rating: 3 stars out of 5

A Guest Review by Andrea

Review Summary: The action and paranormal parts were great, but I wasn’t feeling the romance.

Blurb:

Forty years ago the Spirit of Vengeance—a Purpose—took William Morgan as its host, demanding he avenge the innocent by killing the guilty. Since then, Will has retreated behind Gar, a façade he uses to avoid dealing with what he’s become. Cold, impassive, and devoid of emotion, Gar goes about his life alone—until his tidy, orderly world is upended when he meets Ryan, a broken young man cast out by his family. Spurred to action for reasons he can’t understand, Gar saves Ryan from death and finds himself confronted by his humanity.

Spending time with Ryan helps Will claw out from under Gar’s shadow. He recognizes Ryan is the key to his reclaiming his humanity and facing his past. As Will struggles to control the Purpose, Ryan challenges him to rethink everything he knew about himself and the spirit that possesses him. In the process, he pushes Will to do something he hasn’t done in decades: care.

Review:
For the last 40 years, Will has been the host body for what he calls The Spirit of Vengeance. His Purpose seems clear, he feels the pull from innocent souls demanding vengeance, therefore, delivering it is his Purpose. In order to do that, he had to become a killer himself. Will has kept his sanity by becoming a new man, Gar. Gar is heartless, emotionless, and can deliver vengeance in the cold blooded way Will could not.

My thoughts after finishing Purpose are all over the place. There were some things I really liked, and other things which I didn’t like at all. I guess the best way to start is by talking about the things I liked.

When I first read the blurb, it was the premise which intrigued me. After reading the story, I was completely won over by that. I loved the paranormal aspect of Will being host to his Purpose. How it drove Will to act on its needs and the reason it inhabited him worked very well. The action and adventure was also a big plus for me. Gar had been operating as a meticulous killer for decades. His actions had been noticed by law enforcement, and they were after him. I really enjoyed the action of those scenes, as well as the acts of deception both Will and the law enforcement officers engaged in.

What didn’t work for me was the romance. I didn’t feel any chemistry between Will and Ryan. The sex scenes were mostly fade to black, but I didn’t mind that because I never felt any passion between them anyway. My lack of belief in the romance made those parts of the book very slow. I’m sure it didn’t help that I wasn’t a fan of Ryan. He was too stubborn and put himself in harms way too often for my taste. He pushed me so many times that I finally ended up dubbing him as being “too stupid to live.” He annoyed the hell out of me and I could have cared less if he lived or died. The only reason I ended up hoping for an alive Ryan was because losing him would have destroyed Will.

My other issue with the book was that the mystery of figuring out the Purpose didn’t grab me. It seemed as though Will and Ryan spent much of their time stumbling around without any clear goals or plans. The wanted to figure out their connection as well as the requirements of the Purpose. I got that, but the way they went about it was too chaotic for me to enjoy. I found myself feeling confused and irritated.

I told you my thoughts were all over the place. :doh:  I would give the paranormal 4.5 stars, the romance 1 star, and the mystery 2.5 stars. There was a lot going on and the different threads didn’t interconnect well for most of the book. Eventually, the paranormal and the mystery did come together, but I was still indifferent when it came to the romance.