Review: My Favorite Thus Far...
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 29, 2012
This is my favorite story thus far in the series.  Xandra has come to a place where she is making better decisions on her own and is maturing.  I appreciate that.  Kallen is also not nearly as controlling and the adults on the scene don't seem to be as tempted to try and dominate everything.  I would have liked to have known what is happening with the hand fasting situation and if Kallen is married to Xandra or the Archangel.  I assume this will be revealed in the next book.***SPOILER ALERT***I really appreciate Xandra's continuous effort to do what is right and find better ways.  That is her purpose, according to the storyline.  All of the characters seem to understand this with the exception, at least in this story, of Tabitha.  What confuses me is why Tabitha did not just explain the situation to Xandra, if she thought Xandra would intervene.  Why did she stage her own kidnapping?  I realize that the story said Tabitha wanted Xandra to see what was happening but if Xandra is moral and just as part of her core, why not just be honest and upfront?  Additionally, everyone seemed to ignore the fact that Tabitha was deceptive and staged her own kidnapping.  It doesn't seemed to have impacted the overall relationship with other characters.  That bothers me.  Everyone just accepted that action and nothing more was said about it, no internal turmoil or expression of distrust.  If someone in my life had staged their own kidnapping and caused so much emotional distress and concern and it was all for not, that would  have definitely made me question past as well as future actions from that person.  As Xandra's character is written, I have a hard time believing she wouldn't have taken similar steps to resolve the dragon food situation.  I think this is especially clear when Xandra was not present for the majority of the journey and the result was what Tabitha was seeking in the end.  Anyway,  that is a long complaint for one small section of the book that irritated me.  Though, I suppose it irritated me most because it was the base for the entire story.  Sigh.At any rate,  I liked the story because it introduced a lot more characters and species.  We learned more about the angels as well which was great.  I'd like to see more involvement or more story around Xandra (in her own body) in the angel realm and hope we see something to that effect in later books.  I'd also like some explanation as to why the angel who was inhabiting Xandra's body was limited to her powers, not Archangel power yet Xandra could tap into her witch power as well as the Archangel power and hope that explanation is forthcoming as well.  Despite my list of critiques, I really liked this installation and so far it has been my favorite.