Lori

I had heard good things about this book and decided to pick it up and it was not exactly what I thought it would be.

Much of the book was funnier than I was expecting. The small-town drama was fun to hear about, especially in the interviews. The was a good amount of wit and snark to keep me entertained. On the other hand, the main character could at times be too snarky that she became annoying.

The book for me was mostly positive as it was an interesting and enjoyable read but the mystery was not that great. The amnesia plot point was not done well enough in this story and was quite the drag at the end of the book. It pulled you out of the intrigue when the main character doesn’t try anything to get her memories back but then they just come back so conveniently. As well something I didn’t like and that truly felt out of place was the romance in the book. This wasn’t needed and was annoying to read.

I wasn’t happy with the end. Conveniently regaining her memories, everyone trying to cover things up to help but making it worse, and that everyone believed a person with an obviously washy story over their own daughter/spouse.

This was an enjoyable read but not a good mystery. I would be interested to see what else the author has written.

This was a book club pick, and it was ok in the end.

What stops this book from being good is that the characters make such stupid decisions to the point of making every situation worse. It could have been a better book as the reimagining of so many characters is well done. I also liked that it was placed in a more modern setting.

This was supposed to be a dark romance but its really about people with daddy issues getting together with some BDSM type (but not really) thing going on. Its much softer than I thought it was going to be with the description of how dark and tormented the main male lead is.

The book is too long and felt like it could have been an article instead. There is a lot of clarification but like most organizational books I have read it doesn’t have many actionable items. The examples were plenty but they said a lot of the same things. I wish the examples shared more of the way some people make digital notes and better practices to distil the information. I already have a lot of digital notes and their organization can be too much or too little to always be helpful.

One last note is that the writing isn’t bad but its reads as a motivational book instead of an organizational one.

This has so far been the least enjoyable book in the series. This could have been a smaller story then part of the main storyline.

There is still skillful writing as shown throughout the series thus far, but the story is what’s lacking. The book truly didn’t need to be the length it was and a lot of it was unbelievable. I know this is a Sci-Fi novel but before this book everything else made sense for the structure of the world they built. In this book it was more like they added any idea that came to their head.

I will not lie that my spouse who has already read the series let me know some of what will happen next, and this book is really a bridging episode that will link to future storylines. Makes so much more sense now.

There are still good parts of this book, but it didn’t feel inline with the rest of the series.

This was a great read. Now that we have gone though all the set up in the last book, we really get to enjoy the story this time round.

The authors are great at creating engaging characters. The main cast are all interesting on their own but there are stand outside characters. Millier was fantastic in the first book and now we have a great line up of Avasarala, Bobbie, and Prax. This line up is used to great advantage as now we get multiple POVs.

With so many POVs the grasp of each character having defined personalities is commendable. You don’t feel frustrated with the switching POVs instead they are used to advance the story while maintaining a steady stream of information.

The expanse of the world and characters is perfectly done. There is a great balancing act though out this book in order to provide readers with information about the universe and progressing the story.

I can not wait for the next book.