Sorcerers Always Satisfy

It bears me repeating that I came to this series via the sequel series. This is very important because this book is the story I was wishing for while reading the sequel series. ... Or, at least, it was supposed to be.

I did have some issues with how action-less the action scenes are. It's like you witness things happening, but the author went out of her way to present it as far removed from the action as possible. Things were happening, but the POV character was barely involved and then the final, climactic moments were just... whimper instead of a bang.

However, if that was my only issue, this book would have still gotten a three or four stars because while I was disappointed, I was still mostly enjoying things.

Except for the romance. The romance is terrible.

I knew David and Caolan from the sequel series. I knew them as a rather boring but stable couple. (In fact, they were the only ones that I could have been able to tell you were actually in a relationship and who they were dating.)

In this book, you get to see how things start. Well, it starts with insta-love and Caolan deciding he's going to befriend David with the sole goal of getting in his pants.

...

I'm sorry.

The insta-love/lust was bad enough (and David regretting the days that they didn't date) but then for Caolan to go after David - after David turns him down, though David's ‘friends' are encouraging Caolan (which makes me hate all David's ‘friends' just a little) against David's wishes - with the sole intention of using a friendship to turn it into a romance, to woo him? It feels so skeevy. I mean like really, really skeevy.

And, honestly, towards the actual start of their relationship, it felt a little like David knew he was never going to shake this barnacle and just threw in the towel. (Ala at least somebody love me.)

... Probably done with this author now. (Except for my rereads of Conspiracy of Dragons.)