Stitches

I liked it, though not as much as the first book. Of the things I liked in this book, the couple is towards the top. It's a little too insta-love for me, but I liked that we actually see them courting. There are walks together, gifts given, kisses on hands. It's sweet. My absolute favorite thing though, seeming to be a theme in this series, is the community. There's this group of people that is dealing with a curse, but instead of being down about it, hating themselves for looking ‘monstrous' or taking it out on each other, they pull together, do what's best for the community and, honestly, this is almost a utopian society. (The only reason it's not is the dwindling resources and the villain.)

What I had some trouble with in this book was the villain. Not because they weren't a good villain - though becoming so obsessed with ‘love' (really, just obsessed over a person that they are obsessed over) that you turn to villainy is, without a doubt, one of my least favorite villain reasons - but because I felt like screaming at the characters to realize what was going on.

Light villain spoilers to follow:
The denouement was just one long series of me nodding my head because I saw it all coming. The only thing I didn't fully know or understand was the why of it (obsessed love) but every worst idea I had that 'oh, I think that's what they did/are doing/plan on doing' turned out to be 100% right. I mean, for two hundred pages I knew who the villain was. (Ugh.)

Heavy villain and plot spoilers to follow:
Seriously, my first thought was that Levi wasn't a construct, but a Frankenstein's Monster of the previously living. Check.I figured that Braxton was going to use Levi's body for his own soul. Check.I guessed that Levi's draught had special properties to make it easier for Braxton to inhabit him. Sorta check, what with it mind raping Levi to be susceptible to suggestion and Braxton basically making Levi fall in love with Ash.I even suspected that Braxton was the one actually behind the curse. Even that was right.Oh, and I almost forgot my first idea that Levi was the person that the Prince rescued in the previous book. I had that idea way back in the previous book and it turned out to be...as right as it could be when body parts were Frankensteined together.

So, honestly, I felt for most of the book like I was banging my head against the wall. And then we finished it up with something that never fails to give my anxiety a little kick up. (Like it doesn't usually run high enough.) Body swap.

I mean, I liked the book. I did, because I liked the characters and the society they built, but it was way, way to predictable and obvious what was really going on.