Review: Longer is not always better, folks.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 04 7, 2012
*spoilers included*I enjoyed the previous books in the series last summer and was delighted to discover there were two more, eagerly looking forward to being taken back into the world of the Kindred warriors and their brides.However, this book just went on forever. Many times I just wanted to slap Lauren, like when she deliberately went against Xairn's warnings and TWICE got herself in danger of becoming a splice whore. (Don't ask.) Or the dozens of times when she tried to persuade Xairn to make love to her when she wasn't sure she trusted him not to get violent and hurt her. Talk about mixed messages!I get the point: Xairn was a flawed, abused character from a cruel and violent race. One could hardly avoid understanding that because he kept telling himself that every five minutes. No doubt Anderson wanted to give more time for the relationship to develop. But there is such a thing as too much, and this simply went way overboard. (The puppy was a nice touch, though.)But the final battle between Xairn and his father was far too easily won, compared to the sexual angst that both preceded and followed it. The scene with his mother seemed irrelevant to anything. The four Kindred who accompanied him seemed to have no purpose either, except to give him someone to talk to during the trip over.And it was SO annoying that Rast and Nadiah, who were working on trying to solve the mystery of the girls' disappearances, never thought to share their investigation with Lauren and Xairn, considering both of them were involved on a primary level. Huh?I've seen other authors continue a series longer than it should have gone, and I'm afraid this one is heading in that direction. It makes me sad because I have so enjoyed learning about this world and would like to hear more, but seeing it end quickly is undoubtedly less painful than watching it die slowly because of silly characters and plots. When an author has to resort to cliffhangers to keep her readers going, you begin to fear becoming victim to the Laurel K. Hamilton endless torture trick. I sense that authors who flip back and forth between series have a tendency to lose their way at some point, and Ms. Anderson admits that is what she is doing here. Maybe it's just time to move on to a new world and leave this one behind.