If you've read any of my reviews for previous installments of this series, you'll know where I stand and why I feel torn about even reading the series. In my last review, I opted out of saying much in favor of just shelving the book as read, but man, it's hard when I can't not compare. However, my curiosity to know how everything turns out won't allow me to quit reading. 
 Moving on. I'm a sucker for a male PoV, and this novella is in Aiden's PoV. It was sweet to see how he internalized his feelings for Alex. If you are continuing on with this series, this story is going to fill in a pretty big gap between books 3 and 4, so you'll probably need to read this. 
 The similarities issue...series vs. series, this one followed the second half of book 4 of VA. Spoilers for this novella and book 4 of VA for my comparison. (view spoiler)[Alex being wild, aggressive and changed, while Aiden tried to find the real part of her that was buried deep inside was similar to Rose trying to find some humanity left in Dimitri when he was Strigoi. When Alex changed to subservient and docile while on the elixir mirrored when Rose was under the compulsive thrall of Dimitri's bite for that same period of time. (hide spoiler)] 
 If we stay on the same pattern, chances are we'll be seeing characters mirroring Sydney and Abe in book 4, which wouldn't be a big surprise, since in book 3 (view spoiler)[Alex found out her dad is alive and she wants to know where he is, which is pretty close to the timeline of Rose finding out about her dad Abe. (hide spoiler)] 
 Also, this isn't as big of a similarity, but I do find it interesting that there was an emphasis put on (view spoiler)[Seth trying to reach through the bond and get into Alex's head, which following the timeline of book 4, that would be when Rose was in her dream-like state and Adrian kept trying to reach into her head through her dreams. (hide spoiler)] 
 Yay, I've managed to make it through 2 reviews for these books and remain fairly zen. :)