DNF @ 19% of the audiobook.

I knew it was over when I was almost to work and just started laughing and asking "what the fuck?" out loud in my car as the narrative kept going. It's trying so hard to be serious and a thriller but it's hitting all the same cliched beats that every other hijacking thriller hits, just more boring. Even this early into the story, there was a LOT of suspension of disbelief I couldn't give. Facetiming constantly with the hijacker on the plane??? With the shitty plane wifi? No sir. 

Thanks for our short time together, Steven Weber. You're a pretty good narrator, but not even you could save this. 

This entry gave me so much of what I've been wanting in terms of moving the macro world plot forward, but the trade off was SO MUCH FILLER. 

Adria and Riaz's set up as a couple faced something that is an interesting question in this universe: Riaz found his mate, but she was already in love and married. Adria is not his mate, but they have a pull toward each other and eventually get together. So what does that mean, in the grand scheme of things? 

Obviously they stay together because this is a romance after all, but I liked the questions it brought up about who fate picks and who they choose as their partners. Because Riaz is hurting about his mate, however, made his actions and the way he lashes out at Adria in the beginning INCREDIBLY AWFUL. I was mad, fuming at him, and he did not apologize anywhere near enough for my taste. They just let their hot flaming passion take the wheel. I did like that they both eventually came into the relationship being open about their hurt and their pasts, but that first tinge of rage at Riaz didn't really clear up for me. I loved Adria, though. Loved everything she was going through, loved how she decided to love herself and Riaz, loved her reintegrating into the pack, loved it all. 

Ostensibly this is a book about Riaz and Adria. Both were living away from the Den and are reintegrating back into pack life so it makes sense that there is a LOT of pack stuff, but so much of it could have been cut. In this book, we: learn about the sea changeling consortium and an alliance starting to be brokered; catch up with the Human Alliance and what they've been up to; continue with Sascha & Co. and their project; follow the Arrows as they continue to do whatever weird shit they're doing and learn a LOT more about them; follow Kaleb as he continues to hunt whatever the fuck he's hunting; follow Hawke/Sienna as they adjust to being mated/talk about the future/deal with Sienna being targeted by Ming; learn Riley and Mercy are pregnant...it goes on and on. 

(There was soooo so so much Sienna/Hawke and I have already made my feelings on that pairing known. Spoiler alert: this book continues to have the characters/narrative tell us that Sienna is soooo grown up and mature and strong for her age to be paired with the much older Hawke. Barf.)

I do love the world and pack and family building MUCH more than the romances, but wow there was so much in this. A lot of the extra world stuff could have been cut or some of it started two books ago. (Especially in Play of Passion where nothing else was happening.) 

As for the ending with Kaleb...good thing I found out his book is next in the series because WHAAAAT THE FUUUUCKKKK IS GOING ON THERE???

Trying to sort my feelings on this entry in the series...on one hand, I haaaated the romance between Hawke and Sierra. On the other, it really kicks the war into gear and SO MUCH stuff happens on the macro plot level, which is the driving force behind why I'm still reading this series so voraciously. 

No matter how much the narrative and every other character says Sienna is adult and mature and had to grow up fast, or that she can "handle" how alpha Hawke is, it doesn't change the fact that she's 19 pushing 20 and he's what, in his 30s? At the youngest? He became the pack alpha at 22, and it's taken a decade for the pack to stabilize, so he's 32 at LEAST. Add the dynamics of Sienna being a soldier in a pack where he's her alpha, and the Sexy Dominant Alpha Male trope that's the bread and butter of the romances, and it all gets gross for me. 

Wild that Lara and Walker got their own mini romance plot in this...but I liked that a lot more than Hawke and Sienna. I suppose having more of a focus on Walker was important, in the end. 

The reveal of Sienna's power and how it's "fixed" by the end...so that's a thing. It's going to be veeeery interesting seeing that come into play in the future. 

Which leads me to THE MACRO PLOT!!! War is finally here, bitches! SO MUCH happened in terms of finally kick starting the war. The alliances that have been building up for the last 4-5 books have really come into play. It's wonderful seeing everything come together like this, and incredibly satisfying.

I died at the reveal that

Alice fucking Eldridge was in cryogenic sleep and is alive now. WTF??? Would the 2nd manuscript have been TOO deus ex machina-ey for Sienna, so the author just decided to have Alice herself come back instead?? I'm so here for these wild-ass shenanigans.

 

Loved all the pack interactions, and seeing the huge cast of characters I've grown to enjoy over these 10 books interact and come together to defend their home. 

And the baby!!! 😭😭😭 Loved it all. 

Finally: WHO THE FUCK IS THE GHOST, I NEED TO KNOW. I wish I even had suspicions of who it could be but I am BLIND.

 

 Woooowwww this is was a disappointment from start to finish. 

This was an okay installment in the series. The romance didn't do it for me, and unfortunately the larger macro plot didn't do much to advance the greater story. The only thing I really enjoyed in that area was the final meeting,

where all of the San Francisco races finally realize they need to protect their area from the Scotts and Pure Psy. And Nikita!! WHEW. I'm so interested in where she's going as a character.

As for the romance, meh. Drew and Indigo kept getting in their feelings about what they THOUGHT the other was thinking/feeling and it got very annoying, very quickly. Good for them in the end, I guess. 

Really good first volume to an intriguing horror story. It plays with some familiar tropes but everything is intriguing enough to make them all work. Super into this series and I'm glad the first 3 volumes are on ComiXology unlimited because I'll be moving on to volume 2 right away!