Makepeace

More like 2 1/2 stars, rounded down: see below.

I would usually preface a review with something like: the length of time it took me to complete this book is not indicative of how much I enjoyed it. However, this time, it really is. This book single handedly put me into a reading slump for over three weeks. It's...really kind of awful at times.

This series is shaping up to be quite a disappointment for me - especially after I rated the first book ‘only' four stars because I thought the series would improve and I wanted the chance to show how much better the sequels were.

Yeah.

Okay, look, Bennet is a solid enough character, but his personality is so standard that there's nothing about him to allow him to carry entire books on his own. And that's almost what he's expected to do. The first book was co-narrated by Flynn and, while the writing was choppy in places, the characters were solid and interactions between the two narrators and even the rest of the cast were good. The second book left me personally very angry, but we did get Caeden - Bennet's father - as a narrator. To me, his was the only other POV that added to the book (Joss and Rosie certainly didn't).

In this book, for the third time, we change the people Bennet is around. And that's the thing about this series: The secondary characters are unmemorable and they change EVERY BOOK.

The characters around Bennet change from book to book and...Look, some books can pull it off. A great - also military sci-fi - example for me, is Tanya Huff's Confederation series. At the end of each book, the number of survivors are pretty much numbered in the single digits, and most of them you never see again, but each book makes you care about the people, and gives them personality. This series? I can count the number of people I actually care about on one hand: Bennet, Flynn, Caeden, probably Cruz and, maybe, Liam. The rest of the run the gamut from supremely dislikable (Joss, mostly, but also Rosie with her Bennet infatuation at times) to irrelevant (mom, sisters ect. You know, the people that are supposed to have the most emotional connection to Bennet) to cardboard for plot reasons (everyone else, especially everyone in the military)

Now, before I had this little rant, I had another point I wanted to make for this review: people are so overly emotional in this book. It's like everything is to the level of soap opera dramatics. I was not expecting this of military sci-fi.

Also, the romances? Blech. Bennet and Joss was unhealthy from day one and every time they are around each other, it just shows how bad they truly are. Bennet and Rosie...could have been great, but Rosie is so much ahead of Bennet in the relationship (until she's not) that it kind of seems like she was desperate to get him and he just wanted companionship. (...As I type that, I realize that while Bennet sometimes puts me in mind of M!Shep, Rosie is everything bad about F!Shep in ME2.)

After these two romances, I'm not even sure I'm going to be able to support Bennet and Flynn - because either they'll be just as bad and uncomfortable, or they'll be seen as a ‘one true love' setup where everything is perfect.

Honestly, I think I'm going to have to find myself some spec fic that doesn't have romance or strangle me with the red string of love. Because between this book and the other one I'm in the middle of, I am so sick of bad romance plots.

Side note: I keep forgetting to post it, but what is up with literally everyone having only one name? I mean, we have Felix and Liam and Flynn and Bennet so these names are not unusual - but the only one that doesn't follow this pattern is Van Trion. (Who, 95% of the time, is referred to as Van.) I have so many questions about this.

The good news is, there is more action-y plot to this book than the second one.

The bad news is, the characters are even flatter. (At least Joss makes me feel something. ... That something might be homicide inducing rage, but that's something.)

If I didn't already own the sequels, by now I'd be seriously considering dropping this series. However, it seems like book four might get Bennet back with Flynn and Caeden (you know, people with actual personalities that I don't hate) and we're going to get more of little sister (which might be a good thing - though considering the women in the series, possibly not) so I do have some hope that it might not be a total failure for me.