New Book Alert: Desire's End (The Desire Card Series Book Five) Predictable but Satisfying and Cathartic End
By Julie Sara Porter
Bookworm Reviews
Spoilers: If you haven't yet, I insist that you read either my reviews or the books themselves: Immoral Origins, Prey No More, All Sins Fulfilled, and Vicious Ripples by Lee Matthew Goldberg before reading this review. This review contains MAJOR HEAVY DUTY SPOILERS!!!!
Ready? Then let's go.
Now we finally come to the end. The Desire Card and its depraved demonic leader, Jay Howell AKA Clark Gable come to a satisfactory completion.
This book is pure resolution, where all loose ends are tied, all things are revealed, and the characters meet their final destinies. All previous volumes have led to this moment and head towards the final successful pay off.
If you have grown to detest Howell as much as this Reader has, it's quite satisfying to see him brought down in a schadenfreude sort of way. On the run from his various enemies, he attempts to kidnap Gracie, his granddaughter and unsuccessfully rebuild his empire. This goes quickly awry and he is forced to hide out in the jungle.
In hiding, he encounters a female shaman who gleefully shows him the eventual ruin of his empire and his life.
Meanwhile, three other people are fast approaching, all familiar to the Readers: J.D. Storm, former assassin turned enemy, Monica Bonner, police detective who investigated Gracie's previous kidnapping and cannot stop her investigation against the Desire Card, and Helene Howell-Stockton, Jay's daughter, a philanthropist who has finally realized that her father is a monster who needs to be stopped. Even the shaman has her own pound of flesh to take from the corrupt CEO/Crime Boss.
It helps to take satisfaction in Howell's end by not making him sympathetic. He's a weasley bully who uses everyone around him in the beginning and is a weasley bully who uses everyone around him at the end. No part shows this more than the chapters between Howell and Gracie.
Gracie was an unwilling pawn in Vicious Ripples but during her captivity from J.D., she displayed some potential sociopathic tendencies that suggest that she was meant to become Jay's little heiress.
In the previous book, she cold bloodedly shot another kidnapper.
In this book the young lady displays her worst qualities as almost a way of saying, "Look Grandpa Jay, look what I can do. See what a good little girl I am?" She manipulates girls to join her grandfather's prostiution ring and uses her ballet skills to create a dancing school front for the ring. Even when she is separated from Howell, she still inherits his evil tendencies by selling hard drugs to schoolmates.
Of all the things that Howell did in the five books, his manipulation of Gracie is the worst. He made the choice to take a life of crime as an adult, fully aware of the potential paths that lay before him. He chose the path of easy money, notoriety, and luxury.
Gracie is a child surrounded by adults who come to her grandfather like he's the Pied Piper of crooks. She has been groomed to become a criminal with no choice or chance to be normal. Now that she knows, she can't live in denial. Her innocence has been forever ruined by Howell's actions and choices. Her own agency and control for her future had long been taken away from her.
J.D., Monica, and Helene are as wounded as ever and are ready to end Howell's hold on them once and for all. The book covers a period of several years, so there are moments of hope and sadness. Helene loses some important people in her life, but finally becomes closer to her hippy boyfriend, Peter. She is trying to rebuild a new life and wants to cut her former life as a Howell and a Stockton.
Helene was a philanthropist just to make her family look good. Since then, she became involved in philanthropy in earnest because she knows about loss and pain. She sees others sufferings. She has a chance to be a better person and she won't let her father take that from her.
J.D. and Monica also find a new life in a surprising place….with each other. It's a pairing that seems abrupt but considering that they have suffered tremendous loss and have a shared history (even if it was once as opposite sides of the law), the initial weirdness disappears.
J.D.'s girlfriend, Annie was killed by Desire Card operatives, feeding his thirst for revenge. Now his vengeance is gone, he just floats along, finding a place of quiet and solitude.
While Monica's son died from an illness, her grief fuelled her search for Gracie and put her right into Howell's orbit.
She also resigned her police position and is trying to live a stress free life.
Monica meets J.D. trying to rebuild his life and the two hook up. Despite their burgeoning relationship, they can't put their past behind them until they face Howell one final time.
Another character with her own interesting backstory is the shaman. Her story is too enticing to reveal in this review but let's say the series finally comes full circle and if anyone has a major ax to grind against Howell, it's her. She uses intimidating physical threats and her supernatural abilities to show the literal and figurative monster that Howell is and why so many people would like to see the back of him. The shaman gives Howell his final comeuppance in a way that is long predicted but ultimately satisfying and cathartic.
Desire's End is the perfect ending to an exciting and suspenseful series. After all the twists, turns, duplicity, and betrayal, it's great to see this card get canceled on a high note.
