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A very sweet little novella focusing on Gail (only her POV) and her second chance at being a parent.
At long last, Bridget and A’tam get their story AND THEY GET COUPLES COUNSELING. This one is almost entirely their relationship, but it works. I love their individual issues and how they get addressed. A’tam realizing what he’s done wrong and changing is the freaking dream. There were also things about Bridget that I found so relatable.
My one small complaint is that the characterization of Steph seems to have done a 180 in the past two books, leading up to the next one in which she stars. I get that Dixon has so many characters she’s juggling here and the later ones don’t get much fleshed out earlier on, but our one previous Steph interaction really painted her as a bit of a mean girl, so this therapist angle is a bit of a swerve as a reader. But it makes me dread her story less than I did, especially as I’ll be interested to read about Juth & Pak.
ETA: Reading other people’s reviews and they are SO harsh towards Bridget. I’ve definitely been in situations where hooking up with a guy ended up terrible and the easiest answer was just to not do it again. Being not confrontational, telling someone something as brutal as that they’re bad in bed just sounds like the worst conversation ever. Also, obvious magic alien dudes are (eventually) taking notes here, but coming from a history of regular human dudes who would lose their shit over that accusation? I absolutely cannot blame her for not wanting to deal with that. And putting all the blame on Bridget and none on A’tam is basically what’s terrible about our society as a whole. I love that he puts in the work eventually, but he definitely carries his share of the blame for their relationship up until now.
My one small complaint is that the characterization of Steph seems to have done a 180 in the past two books, leading up to the next one in which she stars. I get that Dixon has so many characters she’s juggling here and the later ones don’t get much fleshed out earlier on, but our one previous Steph interaction really painted her as a bit of a mean girl, so this therapist angle is a bit of a swerve as a reader. But it makes me dread her story less than I did, especially as I’ll be interested to read about Juth & Pak.
ETA: Reading other people’s reviews and they are SO harsh towards Bridget. I’ve definitely been in situations where hooking up with a guy ended up terrible and the easiest answer was just to not do it again. Being not confrontational, telling someone something as brutal as that they’re bad in bed just sounds like the worst conversation ever. Also, obvious magic alien dudes are (eventually) taking notes here, but coming from a history of regular human dudes who would lose their shit over that accusation? I absolutely cannot blame her for not wanting to deal with that. And putting all the blame on Bridget and none on A’tam is basically what’s terrible about our society as a whole. I love that he puts in the work eventually, but he definitely carries his share of the blame for their relationship up until now.
This was another long-time coming story, and I love the flashback to Mari’s time on the island with the Tall Horn boys. Also Dixon playing with the resonance/khui rules here is interesting, and I loved T’Chai, there just wasn’t much else going on.
Big spoilers: Daisy’s arrival is wild, plus she brings the news of the end of Earth (which happens in the Dragon series? I’m a bit confused cause I haven’t read those yet) but even that was a bit underwhelming. I’m also really confused why she had to come to Not-Hoth and didn’t just settle on Risda. Methinks there is more to Daisy’s story than she’s telling.
Next book with Raven seems like it’s going to be a swerve from what we got from the epilogue, so I’m excited for that.
Big spoilers: Daisy’s arrival is wild, plus she brings the news of the end of Earth (which happens in the Dragon series? I’m a bit confused cause I haven’t read those yet) but even that was a bit underwhelming. I’m also really confused why she had to come to Not-Hoth and didn’t just settle on Risda. Methinks there is more to Daisy’s story than she’s telling.
Next book with Raven seems like it’s going to be a swerve from what we got from the epilogue, so I’m excited for that.
Ok this is exactly the book we needed after the aptly named Callie’s Catastrophe. S’bren’s very large mistake is addressed and discussed and he is immediately repentant, unlike M’tok— and if I have one beef with this story is that M’tok clearly STILL hasn’t learned his lesson and is completely confident in his decision to kidnap and drug Callie and Penny. Fuck that guy. He needs some serious comeuppance and I don’t think it’ll ever happen.
Penny is great. I read some reviews here complaining about her self-image, but it all read as very real to me, especially as someone of a certain size AND as someone who had similar relationships with guys in the past. She’s much more of a romantic, than I’ll ever be— and I would have jumped S’bren way sooner— but a lot of her story tracks for me.
Finally some serious exploring here! I love Penny and S’bren hitting up the Ancestor’s Cave especially here, I would be ALL OVER that damn ship. And while Mardok’s care package was a little disappointing, I still love our dude getting much-needed screen time.
Penny is great. I read some reviews here complaining about her self-image, but it all read as very real to me, especially as someone of a certain size AND as someone who had similar relationships with guys in the past. She’s much more of a romantic, than I’ll ever be— and I would have jumped S’bren way sooner— but a lot of her story tracks for me.
Finally some serious exploring here! I love Penny and S’bren hitting up the Ancestor’s Cave especially here, I would be ALL OVER that damn ship. And while Mardok’s care package was a little disappointing, I still love our dude getting much-needed screen time.
SKIP THIS ONE. We’ve spent all this time wondering why Callie hates M’tok so much and the big surprise? It’s cause he’s an asshole. Then over the course of the book, he drugs her, kidnaps her, constantly manipulates her, straight up lies to her face the entire time, and by the end she’s all fine and happy with it. His plan works, entirely! And yes, she had misinterpreted some things he said early on, but she didn’t misinterpret all the times he insisted she was his because they resonated, with no other reason than that. I mean, they meet for the first time and he doesn’t even take long enough to ASK HER NAME before insisting they go mate. Ridiculous.
All you need to known for the next book is that the kidnapping plan was M’tok’s idea, S’bren also kidnapped/drugged Penny, but they split ways immediately. Hopefully their story will be handled better, this one was a real disappointment from Dixon, who is usually better about this stuff.
Two stars cause the writing quality is solid.
All you need to known for the next book is that the kidnapping plan was M’tok’s idea, S’bren also kidnapped/drugged Penny, but they split ways immediately. Hopefully their story will be handled better, this one was a real disappointment from Dixon, who is usually better about this stuff.
Two stars cause the writing quality is solid.
It’s the series that will never end! And honestly… I’m not mad. The clone plot isn’t my super fave, I like characters with backstories, but there’s already enough going on in this new group that I’m interested. And I am so excited to run off and read R’jaal’s book, but quickly first.
Well done Ruby Dixon for making me care about I’rec. 👏👏👏 I was really sort of dreading his story, and bumming out about R’jaal getting passed over, but she was 100% correct in putting I’rec and Flor together. They are both snarky and hot together and I loved it more than I expected. (Plus Tia getting a little comeuppance wasn’t too bad either. I’m mean, but she’s awful.)
My only complaint was that Flor seemed… unfinished as a character. She’s suddenly very superstitious, which was out of nowhere and more distracting than anything, and she’s got a big(?) family, but hard to tell for sure. She went into nursing for her mom, but didn’t really explain why. I love her sense of humor and her rapport with I’rec, but her backstory just seemed spotty— especially coming off characters like Raven and Sam.
Well done Ruby Dixon for making me care about I’rec. 👏👏👏 I was really sort of dreading his story, and bumming out about R’jaal getting passed over, but she was 100% correct in putting I’rec and Flor together. They are both snarky and hot together and I loved it more than I expected. (Plus Tia getting a little comeuppance wasn’t too bad either. I’m mean, but she’s awful.)
My only complaint was that Flor seemed… unfinished as a character. She’s suddenly very superstitious, which was out of nowhere and more distracting than anything, and she’s got a big(?) family, but hard to tell for sure. She went into nursing for her mom, but didn’t really explain why. I love her sense of humor and her rapport with I’rec, but her backstory just seemed spotty— especially coming off characters like Raven and Sam.
This one was a bit disappointing for me. I like O’jek, I actually think Daisy’s slave-conditioning was an interesting plot point (but that could have been explored further), but mostly I was wondering why any of this took three years to happen. O’jek was just in love with Daisy and simultaneously everyone was just letting her not contribute for THREE WHOLE YEARS? It doesn’t make sense. The stuff in the fruit cave was mildly interesting, but again, underdeveloped. All the plot seemed a bit manufactured. Not my favorite entry in this series.