Review: Also includes "House of Thebes" novella
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 4, 2012
Luckily I discovered it soon enough that I was still able to return the separate copy I'd bought!I'm not sure if it's the books, or if it's just me, but I've noticed when I read a series where the books start up right as the last one left (rather than a few weeks or months later), I tend to lose patience about halfway through the second book. "Bloodstone" is about the third series I've read that that's happened, but the odd thing is there are tons of series I absolutely adore. I have to think it's the style. Maybe I just get too annoyed stretching any one "problem" out over 4 books. So, read this review bearing that in mind.I liked this series, but I wont be rereading it. I loved "Every Last Kiss" (the first) enough that I went and bought the complete series. I liked "Fated", but halfway through "With My Last Breath" I started wanting to slap Harmonia (it went downhill from there, though I did it make it all the way to the end). Two things:1) I get that she's the goddess of peace and contentment, but since when does peace and contentment mean you spend half of your time weeping and swooning? (Yes, swooning. Sometimes she did the full faint, but most of the time I pictured her as a 'dainty lady' caricature, swooning into Cadmus's brawny chest.)In the beginning of the 3rd book, Hecate says to Harmonia, "Everyone's been waiting for you to get your spunky nature back." - Wait, what? I think the author needs to read a few books on .... actual spunky females. They dont give in the first time the bad guy says "Give in or else!", even if they tell themselves they're doing it to save everyone. They sneakily trick the bad guy, make up excuses or whatnot to buy time so they can come up with a plan that doesnt actually require that they sacrifice themselves, cuz theyre not complete doormats. Sometimes all the tricks fail and they have to actually give in, but Harmonia never tried anything. The bad guy would go "I have taken various-person-very-important-to-you. Surrender!" and Harmonia would go, "Alright" ........... and surrender. This happened, I kid you not, 7 times. Anyone in her social circle needed kidnapping insurance because give it a few pages... they were going to get kidnapped.2) I love romance as much as the next romance-book-reading girl, but good lord. At least once a page Harmonia mentally commented on how much she loved Cadmus, or said out loud how much she loved Cadmus, or he said/thought it to her. We get it. You two are soulmates, and so ridiculously in love actual cartoon hearts spontaneously manifest. You dont have to remind us every page (I might be using a bit of hyperbole - it was more like every page and a half. :)) I never thought I'd be rolling my eyes and thinking "Get on with it" when the heroine told the hero she loved him, but I apparently just needed a book where it happened once a page.I think I liked the premise the author had initially better than what it turned out to be. That is, the more truth that was revealed, the less I liked the story. So while I'd rate the first book a solid 5, and the second one a 4, if not 4.5, the third and fourth would only come in about 3s.My review will probably get skewered, I almost feel like I'm insulting Twilight on a Robert Patterson fan club website. This will not be pretty...Ah well :)