Overall Rating: 2 Stars
Date Finished: September 15, 2016
This book has been on my to-read list for quite a while. I
originally wasn’t going to read the book after reading the synopsis, but a
number of my friends really enjoyed the series and so I decided to at least
pick it up and give it a chance.
The one thing that I will say for it, this book had a lot of
originality. The concept itself was very original. The Price family work as
cryptozoologist or something to that effect, they basically study paranormal
creatures and maintain the environment, which often involved protecting the
paranormal creatures from hunters, or protecting humans from the creatures. The
Price family was very quirky and there plenty of new paranormal creatures
introduced, and there was a lot of potential here, but it just didn’t quite all
come together for me
Verity was very frustrating in her decisions. Ignoring the
fact that she works at a strip club, we expect her to make good, logical
decisions, considering that it was all her childhood was spent training for.
And yet…
She has been taught her whole life to avoid the Covenant at
all costs. She gets caught by Dominic, a covenant hunter, and yet the first
thing she does it blurt out her name! The covenant thinks they’re all dead!
They’re basically in the clear! And not only did she now endanger herself, but
her whole family. Having realized her error, she of course the kills him…right?
No, she proceeds to invite him out to coffee and tell her all about her family
and the dragon living beneath the city. You know, the dragons believed to be
extinct because the covenant wiped them out? Yeah, that’s a good idea, let’s
tell the covenant everything but trust Dominic not to tell his superiors because,
hey, he’s hot.
And then there were the non-existent transitions in their
relationship. After their little chat at coffee Dominic decides to track her
down. He wants to make a point and let her know that he knows who her cover
story. So he shows up at a dance competition. You expect the creepy face you
keep seeing in the crowds as you spin, or some other scare tactic. But no, he knocks
out her partner and gets on the floor and dances with her. First off, she is a
professional dancer. No matter how good you are, you aren’t going to be able to
keep up. Second, you have not only outed her but you have now put her face in
the middle of a crowd, a crowd of elite dancers who probably all recognize each
other, in a competition that is probably recorded. How did it make any sense
for him to get on that dance floor, expect as some excuse for the author to get
them to feel the attraction of having their bodies so close together.
And then later they are in an alley and Verity is
considering running away while Dominic starts to reach for his weapon. And she
thinks to herself, there is more than one way to fight a battle, and then she
kisses him. Umm, what? No slow build of attraction (besides their random dance
together), no leaning in, no small touch here and there, just a hey, we’re
about to fight so let me kiss you instead. It was just so random and awkward
and the whole progression of the relationship felt so forced.
The ending was also fairly predictable. Overall, I will say
that I liked a lot of the new creatures introduced, I like the concept and the
world building, but I just didn’t really like how it was executed.
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