Review: Forgive us
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 24, 2014
I struggled with how to sum up my feelings about this story. I LOVED the first two books in the series and have read both multiple times. I've also read Don't by Jack Pyke. So I was BEYOND excited that the two were collaborating on the third book in the series. I waited, not at all patiently, for the book to come out, snatched it up the day it came out, and immediately began reading. Afterwards... Oh gawd, the feels! I love all the characters and Trace was my favorite. But I think Trace suffered from the bad-ass build up syndrome. When a character is built up over a series of books as the ultimate bad ass to slay all bad asses, it's hard to actually live up to that promise. Trace, on the inside, is a softy. This is completely intentional on the author's part. But the explanation of his external and internal conflicting personalities is not very strong or particularly developed. We read pages and pages and pages of poetic monologue from inside of Trace's head that don't necessarily really explain anything. In this book, Gray takes over the role Trace played in the previous books and the transition is not necessarily seamless or realistic. Trace was the bad ass. Except he's not. Now Gray is the all seeing, all knowing, all powerful bad ass, because he knows some guys who knows some guys, therefore making him infallible and one to be feared. I felt like we were being asked to suspend disbelief a little bit too much.Things I did like: I liked the resolution of Darrek and Kyle's shared plot line, the resolution of Gabriel's plot line, the development of Trace and Micah's relationship, and the pull between Darrek and Jan. Overall, I thought the book was good, but it would have benefited for having about 100 pages worth of rambling pulled out. I fully plan to by Antidote and find out what happens with Gray, Jack and Jan!