Willy W. reviewed on 4/5/2011 + 503 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

Mixed bag.

I really like John Matthew and this book is worth the read for his development alone. JM/Xhex never really worked for me. But Xhex, although not very feminine in any way, was still a strong character and it is nice to read a heroine written with such power and self-possession.

On the other hand, we have Blay and Qhuinn - a gay "couple" who can never connect. It is by far the best part of the book. You can't help but root for them, cry for them, wish they would get their own book. It is the saddest, cruelest, and most "romantic" part of the entire story.

You can very easily skip every section with Lash, with the random TV people in another state, and skip all the Darius back-story. If you just read the last two sections of the italicized Darius story, that is all you need to know. A complete waste of paper, IMO.

The real disappointment was that to connect all the dots in the John Matthew story, you know that he is Darius reincarnated (established book 1). Which means that Beth is not only his sister but his daughter. So why is she not in the story at all? To bring the series full circle, from the very first book, it seems like these connections should have been made. It was a terrible disappointment and felt like Ward almost forgot that relationship. We've seen this connection in several books, but now in the JM book we only read about a long-lost story of how Darius came to know Xhex? Which is not revealed until the last chapter? I felt cheated.

A good installment but almost feels like the series is running out of gas.

3 stars

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