Lord of the White Hell, Book 2

Liked it a lot, didn't quite love it. Not sure it was worth 700 pages to get to the bittersweet ending (Kiram and Javier are definitely together, but they are forced to live in exile, away from friends and family). Proud, tormented heroes aren't really my catnip, but Javier redeems himself from a fair amount of asshole behavior in part 1, and Kiram is just wonderful from start to finish. The relationships between the Hellions are some of the best parts of the book, and I appreciated especially how Kiram and Nestor are finally able to tell each other how much their friendship means (in an appropriately male way of course). Some of the plotting seemed odd - I wish we had seen Javier's training with Alizadeh, and the abrupt way that Kiram learns the identity of the bad guy felt like a cop out - but the exploration of the different cultures and belief systems was fascinating. Not sure I am ready to jump into the next two books ([b:Champion of the Scarlet Wolf, Book One 19455351 Champion of the Scarlet Wolf, Book One (Champion of the Scarlet Wolf, #1) Ginn Hale https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1405289342l/19455351.SY75.jpg 27542593]) because they are a significant time investment, but I'll keep them on a list of books I would like to read on vacation.