Wren
How could doing the right thing turn out so goddamn bad?
Another attempt to scratch the itch left by the Big Bad Wolf series by Charlie Adhara, and sadly a failed one despite some surface-level similarities. There’s far more action here than mystery, and the relationship progression between the MCs felt so rushed, except for those couple of moments where it randomly came to a halt. I did like the initial testosterone-fueled meet-not-quite-cute, and the initial animosity was interesting. But then I felt like Sloane began warming up to Dex too fast given his backstory. On one hand, it made for some fun moments because while he was warming up, he also so clearly didn’t want to, and I liked what it added to the dynamic. On the other hand, there was still that factor of things moving too fast for my tastes.
That factor affected other aspects of the book, too, not just the central relationship. Like the way Dex immediately psychoanalyzed everyone on the team after meeting them for the first time, or certain aspects of the external plot. At the same time, now and then the fast pacing got bogged down a bit by infodumps, especially in the first half of the story. The second half was a lot smoother, and I liked how the twists and reveals in it were set up. I also liked the villain, in the sense that their methods and goals were appropriately villainous, but at the same time I could empathize with their motivation.
Overall, this was a fun enough action flick with a cool cast of side characters, but I don’t know if I’ve been pulled in enough to want to continue the series.
How could doing the right thing turn out so goddamn bad?
Another attempt to scratch the itch left by the Big Bad Wolf series by Charlie Adhara, and sadly a failed one despite some surface-level similarities. There’s far more action here than mystery, and the relationship progression between the MCs felt so rushed, except for those couple of moments where it randomly came to a halt. I did like the initial testosterone-fueled meet-not-quite-cute, and the initial animosity was interesting. But then I felt like Sloane began warming up to Dex too fast given his backstory. On one hand, it made for some fun moments because while he was warming up, he also so clearly didn’t want to, and I liked what it added to the dynamic. On the other hand, there was still that factor of things moving too fast for my tastes.
That factor affected other aspects of the book, too, not just the central relationship. Like the way Dex immediately psychoanalyzed everyone on the team after meeting them for the first time, or certain aspects of the external plot. At the same time, now and then the fast pacing got bogged down a bit by infodumps, especially in the first half of the story. The second half was a lot smoother, and I liked how the twists and reveals in it were set up. I also liked the villain, in the sense that their methods and goals were appropriately villainous, but at the same time I could empathize with their motivation.
Overall, this was a fun enough action flick with a cool cast of side characters, but I don’t know if I’ve been pulled in enough to want to continue the series.