Review: Great potential and so-so execution...
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 09 19, 2013
I have loved many Lackey and Edghill books (writing together or separately) and I loved the premise of this one.  It takes characters from other books to set the backstory, and brings in a new school and new, young characters.  For the old ones it's nice to get a 'where they are now' type of thing going.  If you've never read any other the other books set in the 'world' you should be fine, but it does help to know a bit of who those folks populating the background are.If you are tempted to buy this one as an inexpensive/YA oriented intro to the world that holds the Elvendude/Bedlam/Guaridans etc, well this is only sort of so-so.  Too much of the characters explaining themselves to themselves as a way for us to learn what is going on...too much stereotyping (like the main character being pigeonholed due to being 'just like other Hispanic males' in terms of behavior and attitude, having the smart, yet intelligent girl become really shallow at the end until the affection of a nice guy makes her realize how all she needs is someone else to love her before she can figure out that whole emotional growth thing, etc).  And in an apparent effort to show the progression from newbie to learning the ropes (yay for trying), it just felt like too manufactured.  Oh, and of course the dude ROCKED at fixing cars, almost to a Mary Sue degree.It could have been soooo good, and was just meh.  Flesh it out.  And for the love of Pete (who is this Pete anyway) DO SOME EDITING.  Not just an editor who will make the flow more realistic, but also will make sure WORDS ARE SPELLED CORRECTLY (yes, 'hawt' was used to describe a guy's appearance, but when shooting fire the word needed is hot--spell check/substitute all let you down) and not mixing up he and she, etc.  I'm not a grammar or spelling queen, so if it was bad enough for me to notice, then it's significant.  And distracting.  And unexpected from normally high caliber authors.  For me, it just drove home that editing was lacking in general, if even the copy stuff was getting through.Oh well, as a fan of the various interconnected stories and books I'm glad to have read this.  If the series will continue, well I hope it shows a little more effort and polish.JTG