Review: Not feeling this volume as much as others...
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 28, 2013
I am in total agreement with another reviewer who noted her disgust with Nico's behavior in this volume. The first chapter of this volume easily allowed the reader to understand that the theme of this volume is trust, the trust that Selange and Alfonzo have been working to rebuild and he holds steadfast to, the trust that Geo and Shanda have never really had (and he doesn't deserve), and the trust that Nico tried so hard to get back with Ari, but so easily trashes. While I can appreciate that perhaps the author is trying to inject some element of realism in these stories by having the characters as fallible  and imperfect, I honestly think that she has gone so far off target with Nico that I no longer care what happens to his character. What was the point of him going after his wife, remarrying her, and trying to rebuild their family, if he is so weak and dark that he would cheat on her again? What about honor, loyalty, and trust are so foreign to him when it comes to his wife, that he can continue to devote himself wholeheartedly to his family and this secret of a long dead king and his African queen? There is simply no consistency with this character and I hope that in the end we find out that Ari was stepping out on him as well, and was not as big a fool as this author seems intent on making her. I was also very disturbed at the level of disrespect that Shanda and Ari have to suffer at the hands of these men that we are supposed to be invested in as heroic or sympathetic characters. When is enough simply that, enough? I didn't really expect as much from Geo because he is a scoundrel, but even his heightened level of conceit and disloyalty to the fiance that he went all the to Brooklyn to retrieve, was kind of inconsistent and hard to stomach. At least in the end Geo comes to some understanding of how his actions have tainted anything that he and Shanda could have had, and is himself repulsed by his own actions.Overall I skipped through most of the actual story just to see what was going to happen in the end as I was really too disgusted by the treatment of Ari and Shanda, and didn't find too much to hold my interest at all. As far as volumes go, this one is right near the bottom with the one where Selange cheats on Alfonzo. I'm not sure if maybe this series and I have run our course together, but i will try to hang in there, if only to see Nico get what is coming to him.