Helpful Score: 4
Once again I stayed up all night to finish a book in this series. It's just so readable, with one exciting thing leading fluidly to another. The characters are the obvious strength of the piece and our favorite group of secondary characters are around to support Janet. What I really loved about this book is that *finally* most of Janet's friends and allies are working cohesively together for, rather than against, her. It's a satisfying conclusion to the tensions and varying agenda's of the disparate personalities that made up the first two books. Everyone is uniquely their own person with their differing agendas but now directed a little less violently toward Janet. As much as I loved meeting these characters in Stormwalker and Firewalker and watching Janet whip them into shape, I think it would be too exhausting for the reader, not to mention the plot, for the characters to continually be at such striking odds with each other.
My favorite relationship in this series is between Nash and Janet who have a grudging and prickly understanding and admiration for each other. But other characters surprised me too with how integral they were to the plot and so very interesting. Nash is my favorite male character but I'm also developing a slight crush on Drake, the dragon, as well. Janet's half-sister Gabrielle is also very amusing. So characters who held no appeal for me prior to this book are now part of an essential partnership that is so fascinating because of its diverse parts.
Even Mick was more interesting to me in this story. I'm actually not a fan of his "romance" with Janet but it works for me in this scenario because I'm more interested in the byplay between all the characters rather than who ends up with whom. So though the romance portion of the plot holds very little interest for me, I'm fine with it because I actually think the Stormwalker series is more of an urban fantasy that happens to be written by a romance author. The romance is a plot device that works. I just don't *feel* the passion between those two characters. There is something very cold about Mick to me and the way he keeps leaving Janet so it served me just fine that he wasn't that physically prevalent in the book until the end. Nor was there much of their particular brand of borderline S&M sex. I warmed up to him only during the last quarter of the book when he broke out of his enslavement and proved his caring for Janet. But their relationship is still my least favorite of all the relationships in the book though now I'm marginally less actively disliking it . . . which is still a huge accomplishment on the author's part.
Other things I loved about this novel . . . Creepy petroglyphs, amazing Southwestern imagery and mythology, and I just love the cover (my favorite so far).
My favorite relationship in this series is between Nash and Janet who have a grudging and prickly understanding and admiration for each other. But other characters surprised me too with how integral they were to the plot and so very interesting. Nash is my favorite male character but I'm also developing a slight crush on Drake, the dragon, as well. Janet's half-sister Gabrielle is also very amusing. So characters who held no appeal for me prior to this book are now part of an essential partnership that is so fascinating because of its diverse parts.
Even Mick was more interesting to me in this story. I'm actually not a fan of his "romance" with Janet but it works for me in this scenario because I'm more interested in the byplay between all the characters rather than who ends up with whom. So though the romance portion of the plot holds very little interest for me, I'm fine with it because I actually think the Stormwalker series is more of an urban fantasy that happens to be written by a romance author. The romance is a plot device that works. I just don't *feel* the passion between those two characters. There is something very cold about Mick to me and the way he keeps leaving Janet so it served me just fine that he wasn't that physically prevalent in the book until the end. Nor was there much of their particular brand of borderline S&M sex. I warmed up to him only during the last quarter of the book when he broke out of his enslavement and proved his caring for Janet. But their relationship is still my least favorite of all the relationships in the book though now I'm marginally less actively disliking it . . . which is still a huge accomplishment on the author's part.
Other things I loved about this novel . . . Creepy petroglyphs, amazing Southwestern imagery and mythology, and I just love the cover (my favorite so far).
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