LOVE TRIANGLE ALERT.

*sigh*

I climbed up real high on my soap box tonight to say that I truly can’t stand love triangles. They’re very few situations where I thought it worked out enough that it didn’t bother me, but most of the time I’m too distracted by the wishy-washy heroine who can make up her mind on dying for her country, but not about what boy she likes.

With that in place the rest of the story remained a struggle for me. I didn’t quite understand where the Little Red Riding Hood tale fell into place either. Rachelle wearing a red cloak and prancing through the forest were about as LRRH as it got.

The world-building was neat. I did like that and felt the time spent there was well done. There was enough to understand the politics of the game, but not so much I began skimming.

The two love interests are fine. I actually liked Eric a lot more. He was cruel, deadly, and twisted. Which always makes for a good, dark book. Armand was lack-luster and was horrible at putting any of his own plans together. He was dragged from one scenario to the next without stopping to ask if it was the best idea.

The layout changed from her first book. The extra story was put at the end of chapters so you actually noticed it, and actually understood where it was supposed to be in regards to the current plot line. This is definitely an upgrade.

Everything fell flat in the end for me. It was dark, but eroded as the book went on. At least she finally chose someone, I guess.

Overall audience notes:

A young adult fantasy book with no language. The one love “scene” is super glossed over that you barely notice it. No descriptions or anything of that nature. Some violence, lightly gory.