Review: Disappointing and disjointed
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 23, 2012
I'm afraid I'm going to have to take this author off my automatic buy list. It's almost as if another, newer writer has taken over the pen name and the quality is just not there.There were so many things that didn't make sense that I found myself constantly being thrown out of the story.For example, we're told that when Rayne was 5 years old there had been a letter from the wife of the High Ruler of Katzmann. But in the first book of the series we're told that she was killed 30 years before the series was started. Ok, so Rayne should be at least 35 years old when the story starts, right? But he's referred to as an adolescent during the first real chapter -- so what's up with the timeline?Then we find Rayne (supposedly a bruter and confined to his family estate) going to a clinic run by Saris (from the second book of the series) so what, are they on Katzmann or Elquone? And what's Saris doing running a clinic on Elquone? Does that mean this story is set before the second book - but no, we find out it's after the third so what's Saris doing on Elquone?Suddenly it seems like Elquone and Katzmann are next door to each other - but that's completely inconsistent with the first and second books. And suddenly it's ok to sign a contract with a bruter - but that's also inconsistent... you get the picture.Then, Hassan couldn't be more of an ass to Rayne outside the bedroom - I mean that I got whiplash from the changes in his behavior.There are so many non-sequiturs in this book:o The pridehome is supposedly way out in the mddle of the desert, but Rayne can ride across a road and reach another pride within an hour... and there are roads in the sand? since when?o Bogden and his new bruter mate live in the same house as Hassan and Rayne, but somehow no one takes responsibility (financial or otherwise) for the household except Rayne. Where the heck do Anjali and his brother go during the day? Why aren't they also responsible for the pridehome?o There's a real attempt to make this a Bedouin type civilization, but the neighboring Shaikh is named Angus McGuffery -- I kid you not! And Rayne's name is Rayne McCarthy. So the scots settled both worlds? Really?Essentially, this book seems like a rush to capitalize on the quite interesting and successful Katzmann series -- unfortunately the author seems to have 'phoned it in.'After the equally unsatisfying Lady Blue Crew series, I'm no longer going to automatically buy this author's works -- I'd rather have fewer books from her than this mechanical and poorly constructed flotsam.