A Mostly Spoiler-Free Review
Okay so, this is the book that has made me decide to drop the Cassie Palmer series. I was intensely frustrated throughout and that's not a good thing. There were just too many moving pieces and too much to keep straight and just... bleh. This isn't the first time I've been frustrated reading a Cassie book and I doubt it will be the last, so I'm stopping. No more Cassie Palmer books for me.
Frustration the First: No one talks to anyone they should really be talking to. Jonas doesn't talk to Cassie about decisions he's making in regards to her court. Cassie doesn't tell anyone what she's up to, ever, aside from Rosier. Neither of them talk to Pritkin/Emrys/Myrriden about what they're actually doing there. The Pythias refuse to talk to Cassie about why she keeps popping back Arthurian times because apparently knowing what other Pythias might be up to is just completely out of their job description? We'll get back to that.
Frustration the Second: Cassie's attention is both split and not and it just ends up being a mess. Cassie's entire mission for the past three books has been rescuing Pritkin, full stop. However, her present keeps pulling her attention away from that so we have to deal with that instead of rescuing Pritkin. Add to that the whole Pythian intervention thing which keeps sending Cassie back to the present and we've spent three books attempting to rescue Pritkin. I'm real tired of all of it.
Frustration the Third: Pythias do not talk to each other apparently. Unless they need help sending "rogues" back to their own times because they're "messing up the timeline." Only... because you've neglected to actually talk to each other about, I dunno, your shared responsibility, you keep managing to fuck up one Pythia's attempts to save the timeline? It's my understanding that not saving Pritkin completely erases him from the timeline and therefore would allow Apollo to come wreck shit because Cassie wouldn't have Pritkin around to help her stop Apollo. And none of the prior Pythias even wants to question Cassie about why Cassie's doing what she's doing. None of them. They just keep locking her up or sending her home and refusing to question her. It's insanity. I understand not wanting to fuck up the timeline by knowing too much about the future, but I figure a) there are ways to vet an actual Pythia (Cassie stumbles upon one) and b) you maybe want to know what the fuck is going on and maybe help other Pythias not fuck up the timeline too badly in the process. Maybe? Just a little?
Frustration the Fourth: Mircea. Yeah... Mircea, it turns out, is definitely just as gross as he's always been in regards to Cassie. First, the geis thing, which has been resolved but was still hella gross. And now, we find out his real reason for setting the geis in the first place and... yeah, it's stupid. Like, I get it, I do, you loved the woman and she's dead and apparently you're fixated on bringing her back by any means necessary. But man, that vampire fixation is just not great. It's also the first time we're hearing about vampires getting fixated, so, ya know, also somewhat annoying from my stand-point. Thanks, I hate it. Makes the whole Mircea/Cassie thing even worse. And again, tired of it.
A thing I liked: Cassie figuring out some stuff regarding her parents. That was a nice little side-trip. Ultimately futile for Cassie's actual goal, but it wasn't bad.
So yeah, I'm just too frustrated with the Cassie Palmer series to continue. This was fun while it lasted, until it wasn't. I will be continuing on with the Dorina Basarab side of things. Dory tends to be less frustrating so I'm crossing my fingers it stays that way.
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