Listened to the audiobook for this. I’m so bummed that I’m writing a 2-star review for this book. I really loved Walk On Earth a Stranger. I haven’t read many Westerns, especially not YA Westerns. And this is a YA Western with fantastical elements. I thought it was very strong and gave it 4 stars.

Unfortunately, I feel like this series went downhill with each subsequent novel. Truly, the second and third book had so much filler that they could’ve been combined into one and it would’ve been a much stronger story.

What I liked:

1. The cover. This series should win some sort of award for most beautiful series covers. Just gorgeous.

2. It’s obvious that Rae Carson has done a lot of research on this time period and area. I appreciate that.

What I didn’t like:

1. Plot
This third book has a heist element to it, but I didn’t feel the high stakes and tension I wanted from that. Honestly, this book was boring.

The worst part was probably the end, after the heist had been carried out. The characters spent the last hour of the book explaining to a guy who wasn’t in on their plan all the ins and outs of what was going on. In reality they were explaining it to us, the readers. It was info-dumping, pure and simple. We were kept in the dark about their plans and all of these secrets, but the story is told in first person through the perspective of someone who was instrumental in the planning, which didn’t make sense at all to me. If the story was told in third person this structure may have been more successful, but as it was, it made for a clunky narrative.

2. Characters

I didn’t feel like the characters grew at all. I didn’t like Lee in the second book and this book did nothing to change my mind. The romance between her and Jefferson wasn’t successful in my mind. I preferred the Major and Becky’s relationship and wouldn’t have minded more of that as opposed to pretty much everything else in this second book.

Another issue I had was that the villains in this series are all so one-dimensional, especially Frank, who is evil just for the sake of evil.

3. Hypocrisy

!!!!SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!

So Lee and all of her friends decide that they need to take this guy Hardwick down. And he is not a good guy. He has caused A lot of hardship for a lot of people just to gain more wealth and power for himself. He surrounds himself with really morally objectionable people including murderers in order to obtain his goals. In theory, I understand why Lee and her friends would want to bring him down. However, the way that they end up doing this makes them just as guilty as he is in a lot of ways. First by stealing a safe full of money that Hardwick stole from other people, then by sinking his boat as it was sailing away from the bay.
As this act is being described, my first thought was, “What about all the innocent people working as deck hands on the boat?” Later on we’re told that everyone made it safely back to shore, which Lee gives a passing thought of thanks for. But what if they hadn’t made it back?! They obviously felt like it was a chance they were willing to take in order to exact revenge. Then, we watch as they split the money they stole from his safe. Lee mentions that it doesn’t come close to equaling what they had when they arrived in San Francisco. My first thought was, “What about all of the other people who Hardwick swindled?” And that is never once given any consideration. I’m sorry, but Lee can sense gold in the damn ground! All of her friends has the means to be very wealthy people when they get home. I doubt any of the other people who were stolen from have the ability to sniff out gold...but to heck with them, right? As long as our characters pull one over on the big bad?

This book just bothered me so much. It could’ve been over 100 pages shorter. In reality, it was completely unnecessary. I would’ve been completely satisfied to leave this as a stand-alone to be honest.