Finished The Red Heart of Jade by Marjorie M. Liu. This is the third book her popular Dirk & Steele paranormal romance series. Warning: There be spoilers ahead.

This one’s about psychic Dean Campbell, a D&S operative who’s chasing a vicious killer in Taipei. At one of the victim’s homes, he finds a picture of Mirabelle Lee, the girl he loved as a teenager — and thought was dead. Dean races to save Mirabelle, who’s now an archeologist. But they’re soon caught up in a hunt for two pieces of red jade that will have great power when brought together. And both Dean and Mirabelle start having vivid dreams of seeing the jade before — and fire and death …

Shadow Touch, the second book in the D&S series, was one of the best books I read last year, and I was expecting another great read from Heart of Jade. I didn’t quite get it.

Heart of Jade is a good book, full of Liu’s lush, descriptive writing and interesting worldbuilding. But it didn’t blow me away like Shadow Touch did. Mainly, because of the plot. Dean and Mirabelle were carjacked one night, and both of them were shot. Dean went after their assailant; Mirabelle was taken to the hospital. Each one thought the other was dead. This felt a little unbelievable and contrived to me, especially given how in love they were. Liu offers an explanation for it at the very end of the book, but it just didn’t gell for me.

Then, there’s the other part of the plot. Dean and Mirabelle are basically soulmates, and a piece of the red jade is in each one of their chests. Their vivid dreams are of a past life, when a great evil took over (old) Mirabelle and (old) Dean had to kill her to keep the evil from using the jade in both of them. And of course, Dean is faced with that choice in this life, as an evil possesses Mirabelle when they finally realize the jade is in each one of them.

Maybe it’s me, but soulmates and past lives just aren’t my favorite plot devices. I also had a little trouble with the ending. Basically, throughout the whole book, there is an evil spirit/person/thing possessing a dragon shapeshifter and getting the dragon to do its dirty work, like hunting Dean and Mirabelle. But Liu never tells us who the evil spirit/person/thing is at the end of the book. I’m hoping it’s a plot thread that’s resolved further in the series, but I would have liked a little more information in this book.

Don’t get me wrong. This is still a good book. Liu’s elegant writing alone is worth the price, and I really liked some of the secondary characters, like Koni, the shapeshifting crow. Liu also gives readers a real feel for her exotic locales, and she has some nice action scenes. It just wasn’t as good as Shadow Touch. Still, I’m looking forward to the rest of the D&S series. So thumbs up.

Up next: Tripwire by Lee Child.

Books in my TBR pile: About 15.