Review: Well-developed and complex; a great follow-up to Hotblood
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 8, 2014
I would like to thank Juliann Whicker for providing me with a free EBook in exchange for an honest review.First of all I have to say that I love the world that Juliann Whicker has created in her House of Slide books; it is well-developed and complex, and it truly draws me in as a reader. And I really thought Hybrid was a great follow-up to Hotblood.I really liked the storyline of this book. It picks up very soon after where Hotblood left off. Great first chapter. It gives some excellent background information, and after the twist in the last book, it is weird (and unsettling at times) to have to get to know Dariana and her abilities again. She is different, and I'm not always comfortable with this new version of her. But then again, neither is she.There are a few places in the book that could have used more careful, concise explanations or a clarification of details, because things got hairy for me as the reader in a couple of spots.*** Small spoiler***Also, I was a little disappointed that the trainer just up and disappeared when Lewis stepped back into the picture. After our introduction to him in the first chapter, I expected him to pop up in other places with tests and random training. The fact that it didn't happen was OK ultimately, but with such a set up, it seemed to follow that he would actually be a part of this book.***In a couple of places in this book, Dariana got a little too...Bella. I felt like Dari was dangerously close to losing her identity in Lewis in this book - more than in the first one. I'm sure that it is a result of her lack of world experience and learning, and hopefully this will go away in the next one, but...in places I was fed up with her, which didn't happen for me in the first book.I liked the direction that the author chose to take the story. I liked the fact that enough questions were answered to make me feel like this book was complete, yet it does make me look ahead into the next book and the answers to more questions with anticipation.