Review: Feels like a partial book, but still 5 stars
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 18, 2013
I just felt like this was a placeholder somehow.  It's as good as the other three, but felt much shorter, and less defined.  The tone has changed from the prior two books.  This entire book, for the most part, is just concerned with one subject.  It bridges the gap between the disaster at the end of the second book, when Tegan became caught in her plots to reclaim Rebecca, which resulted in the destruction of her relationship with Ethan, and his ultimate forgiveness of her.  We knew this was bound to happen, but I felt that more should have been accomplished in this particular book.  I came away with the feeling that it was designed to simply set up the premise for the fourth, and final book.Yes, some other things did take place.  The stories of Tegan's father, Theodore and Rita have been enlarged upon, but not much.  Finn has moved more definitely into the position of rival to Ethan (although he's become the one not chosen).  Ira has become a much more important character.  But, all in all, the only real substantial movement has been in the characters of Ethan and Tegan.Some of the reviewers here have said that they were surprised at the ending, and the choices made by both Tegan and Ethan.  I saw this coming at least half way through the book.  I wasn't sure it would happen, necessarily, at the end of this one, but knew it would come either here or at the beginning of the fourth.  It's been foreshadowed heavily throughout the first two.  It was clearly going to happen to a vampire, and the only vampire who made sense was Ethan.  So, I don't see what all the surprise is about.The fourth book is coming out in December.  That's a really long time.  The wait for this third one was also long.  My recommendation to everyone out there is to wait to read all of them until the series is done.  I had to reread the second to remember who many of the characters were.  The plot was still strong in my mind, but not all the peripheral people.  If I'd known these books were going to be this good, I'd have waited.  When you care so much about the characters, it's hard to interrupt the flow of the story.  I'm actually getting kind of tired of all the trilogies and serial stories out there.  If a book is good enough, you don't need to build momentum with readers to sell it by chopping it up into pieces and publishing them a year or so apart with irritating cliff hangers at the ends.  The word will travel.