Review: Good romance, fun adventure, excellent follow-up
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 26, 2014
I picked this up after reading the first one, despite its flaws, because I liked the characters and thought there was a lot of potential in their story.I was pleased and impressed at how much the author's style had improved between books. The occasional issues with confusing viewpoint are gone, and the narrative much more streamlined; while there's still a certain amount of tell-don't-show going on (especially in the recaps of the previous book), it's generally in short enough chunks as to be unobtrusive. We're also introduced to a number of side characters who, while perhaps not given as much character time as the leads, promise to make for some interesting stories in the future, and help Lord Crane's and Stephen Day's respective social circles feel rather more fleshed out. The bedroom (or office, or hallway, or convenient alley) scenes flow much better in this one; the chemistry between Crane and Day is much clearer. And then there's the dialogue, which had potential in the first story, and here is better-framed and flows naturally and several times had me stifling giggles in public.The plot, involving Crane's old Chinese acquaintances and Sumatran giant rats, more or less takes a backseat to the romance, and that's fine - the romance aspect is largely what we're here for. But if the author's skills keep improving at this rate, it won't be long before I'm recommending this series even to non-romance-fans.