Review: White Knight by Kelly Meade (Cornerstone Run #3)

White Knight (Cornerstone Run #3)
Kelly Meade
Published: Jan. 20, 2015 (InterMix)
Purchase: Amazon
Review source: copy provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review

Reviewed by: Margaret

Rating (out of 5): 4 stars

Note: While review will be spoiler free, it does make reference to previous books in the series.

At the end of Gray Bishop, loup-garou Shay Butler—the sole survivor of an attack on her Run two months ago—was kidnapped by her half-sisters, the vampire-loup hybrids Allison and Desiree. In the month since, she’s been kept in a windowless cell with a baby she is forced to take care of by the sisters. The lack of sunlight, proper nutrition and freedom to shift are taking a toll on her sanity and making her desperate to escape, even if it means leaving the infant behind.

Meanwhile, Knight McQueen, her mate in her heart if not yet in real life, is struggling with the trauma of his own abuse by the hybrids and the pressure of being an empathic White Wolf when his people are in turmoil. Missing Shay is only pushing him closer to the edge of a breakdown.

When the Magi leader Archimedes Atwood proposes an alliance with the Loups against the hybrids, the McQueen brothers reluctantly agree. The Magi created the hybrids, who then escaped from their lab and started attacking Loup settlements. Once they’ve finished destroying the Loups, the Magi will be their next targets. And it’s about time that Atwood helped clean up the mess he created.

White Knight is an emotional rollercoaster. I felt like weeping for most of the first half. It probably also needs a huge trigger warning. Not only is Knight a rape survivor, but more information also comes to light about the abuse suffered by the hybrids before they escaped.

Knight and Shay’s romance is a little odd because they’ve both decided that the other is their mate before the book starts. So the story is not about them falling in love, but about them each overcoming their ordeals so they can be together. They bond by helping each other deal with the trauma.

At the end of Black Rook, the first book in the series, I really wanted to know more about the other supernaturals in the Loup’s world. So I was happy that Kelly Meade returned to the Magi in this book and answered a lot of questions about the hybrid experiments and Atwood’s involvement. There are also portions of the story told from the other McQueen brothers’ points of view. It was nice to check in with those characters from the previous books, especially Rook and Brynn who play a big role in this one.

I really enjoyed the world of the Cornerstone Run trilogy and the unique twist that Meade gives to some familiar supernatural creatures. I like the fact that these books don’t feel like typical paranormal romance. The romance is often secondary to the overall story; I usually feel like romance series get repetitive, so I found that refreshing. I’d like to see Meade return to this world some day and explore the vampires or the Magi in more depth.

Sexual content: sex, references to rape