Review: ‘Fight For Me’ by K. A. Last

“How can I fight for you when I don’t know what I’m fighting for?”

When Grace Tate became one of the fallen to protect a vampire, it got her into more trouble than she’d bargained for. She’s angry at Charlotte for hiding the truth, and with Josh living in the city and Seth missing, life is harder than ever.

It’s about to get a lot harder…

Grace doesn’t want to leave Hopetown Valley, but when Josh ignores her calls she decides to go and search for him. She doesn’t expect to run into Seth as well.

When she reaches the city, Grace learns that Charlotte is the most hunted vampire in Wide Island. The city vamps want her blood, and the angels are after her soul. Grace gets caught in the crossfire of a battle she never wanted, but to win one war, she has to fight another.

Torn between the one she gave up everything for, and the one who sacrificed everything for her, Grace has to face Charlotte, and the past, if she wants to fight for her future. But how can she fight for someone who doesn’t want to fight for her?

Every choice Grace makes becomes a battle, and in every battle someone has to die.

I read this book last October, but as it comes out next week — 17 January — now seems like a good time to post my review. That also means it counts towards my 2015 Aussie Women Writers challenge, and I’d already beaten the 2014 one. Winning!

Fight For Me is the sequel to Fall For Me, a series about a protection angel named Grace Tate and her human twin brother, Archer. Grace reincarnates over and over as a twin of the Tate boys, down the family line, an arangement that means she has a telepathic link with each one and lets them be an awesome vampire-hunting duo.

Everything’s going swimmingly till Charlotte shows up and drags Archer, Grace and Josh — Grace’s boyfriend — into her mess. Fight For Me picks up after the dust settles. Of course, the peace and quiet don’t last long.

While Fall For Me was a good read — fast-paced, with a plot twist at the end that made me gasp — Fight For Me is great. I think Kim really hit her mark with this one, maybe because the initial worldbuilding has been taken care of and she can really sink her teeth into the story. (See what I did there?)

In the first book I didn’t like Josh very much; he got super jealous of Grace and her love/hate relationship with fellow fallen angel Seth, and his attitude kind of bugged me. Fight For Me is dual POV between Grace and Josh, which worried me at first, but although Josh is clearly still very troubled in the second book (because spoilers), seeing it from his perspective made me understand him better. He’s still not my favourite — if I had to choose a boyfriend for Grace, I’d choose Seth. But Josh still redeemed himself somewhat in my eyes.

My favourite character in both this book and the previous one is Archer, Grace’s brother. He’s a total smartass, and isn’t afraid to tell it like it is when Grace is getting a little overwrought. But at the same time he’s protective of her. He’s basically what Xander from Buffy would be if you made him a slayer too.

As with Fall For Me, Fight For Me had an awesome plot twist at the end, and again I didn’t see it coming, although in hindsight the clues were there. I love that!

Finally, the epilogue makes it clear there’s at least one more book in the series, which is always exciting. I love a trilogy!