Review: 880 long long dull pages or Get a Plot!!
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 04 4, 2014
Normally I make a comment about the one stars because I feel they're unfair.  This time I have to take issue with the five stars.What the heck?!  Five stars?  Really?  This is not Lord of the Rings, this is not Noble House.  I don't care about the 6 bucks.  I do care about hours and hours of my time spent on a very so so read.  Stories are about character growth or conflict and resolution.  The character growth was rather like a sequoia.  Nothing you'd want to stick around to watch.  And very slooowwww.  The conflict was non existent except for some unnecessary drama by Malora acting like a witch again (I'd love to use a stronger word).  Given the title I doubt its a spoiler to say that Beria is groomed to be Chief.  Much of the tension is because she is unaware of the fact.  This is just plain ridiculous.  Surprise, you're mayor!  Surprise, you're President! Nobody grooms a leader without the candidate being aware of it. There was no logic to blindsiding her with this.  This book is a long long series of mildly amusing scenes from Beria's life and Amazon life.  Punctuated with unamusing dull scenes of Beria's life.  Which would be fine for 30 pages but not hundreds.Roseau is one of the very few authors I re-read.  There are often charming bits I love to browse back on.  But the author has this tendency to go for cheap angst by having friends or loved ones blindside and torture the main character with very feeble justification and its really causing issues with the books.  The trial in Fox Dish.  The purple dye in Amazon Challenge.  Paper thin excuses for ignoring the heroic actions of the characters and focusing in on "insubordination" and then putting them through the wringer for it.  Often the justification is a singe word: Politics, Pack Politics, Vampire Politics.  I'm screwing you over to shame the witnesses into testifying but I couldn't tell you that's what I'm doing ( My favorite for worst justification ever in Free to Love).  I utterly loath Malora and am starting to dislike Lara.  Which would be a shame because I enjoy the heck out of the Foxverse usually.  if you MUST torture the main character have a VILLIAN do it.  Not friends or lovers.  That's what villains are for.The tournament toward the end of the book was worthwhile.  But 80 good pages out of 880 could not save this snore-fest.