Chelsea S. (PengQueen) reviewed on 6/1/2010 + 114 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 2

To be honest I didn't finish this one. The book is about 330 pages long, I made it through about 290. That was the point when I realized I didn't care even the faintest amount what happened next and was probably wasting my time forcing myslef to continue. So this review is based on the first 90% of the book.

To begin, I've been on the fence about this series since I started it. For the most part I rated the first four novels (I have not read any of the E-books) as average--good premises, decent characters, but weak or downright sloppy execution. I continue trying anyway. I think part of that is that, like many people, I like the series factor--repeating characters, continuity, etc. So my first caution to readers about this book is, if you are thinking of reading based on it's value of fitting into the series you are going to be disapointed right off the bat. It takes place in Las Vegas and has none of the same characters or plot threads introduced in previous books that I'm aware of.

The premise of this book is actually very interesting. Kitty finds out that she's a werelion, a trait inherited from a father she never knew. She travels to Las Vegas to meet him and learn what it is to be a Leo. She her father, Martin, and discovers that he's dieing. She meets and falls in love with Martin's second in command, Max. Martins family are hostile toward her, she struggles with her new and comlex emotions, and tries to find a place for herself between the human and Leo world.

I liked Kitty. I liked Max. I didn't feel that either one underwent a tremendous amount of developement (which is disapointing, considering the plot) but at least I liked them. The romance is even decent. I can't say spectacular, because frankly the instantly in love and choosing you as my mate thing has been done in the genre way to much. As it appears in this book, it seems like a cop out for the author--it means she doesn't have to take the time to actually build the chemistry and the relationship. But I can live with it, because it's sexy in it's own way.

The best way that that I can explain this book is that it's a lot like a soap opera. There is in fact a scene where Kitty looks at the melodrama unfolding and thinks just that, that everyone is behaving like soap stars, and its ironically accurate to the entire book. At the core of this are the "villains" Drusilla, Nadia, and Peter--Martins ex-wife and two children respectively. They are so much like fairy tale stepmother and siblings that it's laughable. Shallowly written, painfully simplistic one dimensional characters who exist only to make the heroine's life difficult. The problem with this is obvious--the character's are flat and predictable, so the conflicts are flat and predictable. Again, I think the author chose to show that these people are just plain bad, rather then showing them as layered complex characters who change and develope. I was pretty disapointed that the relationship between Martin and Kitty, the one conflict with a lot of interesting potential, petered off without what I would call satisfactory resolution. Nope, everything is surface level, mindless,simplistic. Why bother?

This book may have finally ended my efforts to continue with this series. I had hoped it would only get better.

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