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tempscire's review
4.0
Nice little collection of solid stories. There is also a preview of the book after next (Betrayals not out at the time of this writing), with the note not to read it yet. Well, I always like to push the envelope, and for the record, it looks like Rituals is going to pick up immediately on the heels of where Betrayals stops (and it stops on a dramatic note, too, it seems). So yeah, if spoilers aren't your thing, not even the first sentence of that preview is safe! (ETA: is it a spoiler to say this is actually not so? Anyway...)
Gabriel's story, The Orange Cat, is enjoyable but doesn't really add to the overall universe or establish any fresh insights to his character. It's just a quirky tale from when he was a brand new lawyer.
Patrick's story does at least give us some flashes of insight to the skewed logic he has with regards to Gabriel, though he's not as callous as he seemed to Liv. Three cheers for evil fake-librarians!
The biggest portion is the novella sequel to Deceptions following Liv and Ricky on their (enviable) road trip vacation into Canada. It was engaging, pretty well-paced (though Liv and Ricky always start to hew too close to romance novel/paranormal romance for my tastes: I love them together, but jeeze, I'm tired of how horny they get, which derails the plot. I retroactively apologize for any similar PDA I have subjected people to in the past!), and has a couple twists. There were a couple sections that were confusingly pronouned. The chapters switch POVs between Liv and Ricky, which I don't mind, except Ricky is written in 3rd person while Liv is in 1st. Stands out a little more when that shift happens every other chapter or so.
Liv I continue to mildly dislike. I was frustrated previously with her total unthinking acceptance of all the crime and shady deals going on around her between Gabriel and Ricky. She actually acknowledged that this book with a weird, stupid, dismissive attribution of that kind of sangre-froid to her fae blood. What? For starters, she was like that before she discovered the fae, and she didn't bat an eye then either NOR did she even worry that she should be worried. (Maybe I just completely do not relate to perfect self-assurance?) Ricky thinks about she worries about her fae blood making her insensitive (again, bullshit - this is almost as bad as the "bad seed" predestined crap from a couple books ago)--- and again, no, Liv has never seemed particularly concerned, and I'm a little bothered by the fact that the Liv he describes doesn't really match up with what we see from Liv's POV. I like Armstrong's work, but she isn't that subtle for me to think it clever foreshadowing.
To clarify, I don't mind Liv not being a bleeding heart cinnamon roll. Just...acknowledge and don't throw weird left field rationalizations about blood in there. (And if we're going to insist that our trio is an incarnation of Matilda et al., NOT reincarnations, NOT slaves to pre-fated arrangements, can we really back off attributing everything to blood and DNA?) And work out wtf IS Liv's motivation for helping anyone? If she is just basically nice but not especially good (I know that feel), why was she volunteering at a women's shelter before? (What, besides cars, sex, mochas, and luxury goods, gets Liv motivated to do anything she does?)
Eh.
I will say I approve of Gabriel being in the doghouse, not just with Liv but with Ricky to a lesser degree. Her reactions there seem pretty reasonable but mature. Gabriel in his own way is trying to correct for it, and it's not going especially well for him. However, this is being handled in a rather sensible, mature way: no screaming fits, passive-aggressive ultimatums, total freeze-outs, or so on. Just kinda crappy-but-good-hearted people who respect one another and everyone's boundaries, trying to deal with trust issues and consciously not going the route of crazy brats. Good for them!
Gabriel's story, The Orange Cat, is enjoyable but doesn't really add to the overall universe or establish any fresh insights to his character. It's just a quirky tale from when he was a brand new lawyer.
Patrick's story does at least give us some flashes of insight to the skewed logic he has with regards to Gabriel, though he's not as callous as he seemed to Liv. Three cheers for evil fake-librarians!
The biggest portion is the novella sequel to Deceptions following Liv and Ricky on their (enviable) road trip vacation into Canada. It was engaging, pretty well-paced (though Liv and Ricky always start to hew too close to romance novel/paranormal romance for my tastes: I love them together, but jeeze, I'm tired of how horny they get, which derails the plot. I retroactively apologize for any similar PDA I have subjected people to in the past!), and has a couple twists. There were a couple sections that were confusingly pronouned. The chapters switch POVs between Liv and Ricky, which I don't mind, except Ricky is written in 3rd person while Liv is in 1st. Stands out a little more when that shift happens every other chapter or so.
Liv I continue to mildly dislike. I was frustrated previously with her total unthinking acceptance of all the crime and shady deals going on around her between Gabriel and Ricky. She actually acknowledged that this book with a weird, stupid, dismissive attribution of that kind of sangre-froid to her fae blood. What? For starters, she was like that before she discovered the fae, and she didn't bat an eye then either NOR did she even worry that she should be worried. (Maybe I just completely do not relate to perfect self-assurance?) Ricky thinks about she worries about her fae blood making her insensitive (again, bullshit - this is almost as bad as the "bad seed" predestined crap from a couple books ago)--- and again, no, Liv has never seemed particularly concerned, and I'm a little bothered by the fact that the Liv he describes doesn't really match up with what we see from Liv's POV. I like Armstrong's work, but she isn't that subtle for me to think it clever foreshadowing.
To clarify, I don't mind Liv not being a bleeding heart cinnamon roll. Just...acknowledge and don't throw weird left field rationalizations about blood in there. (And if we're going to insist that our trio is an incarnation of Matilda et al., NOT reincarnations, NOT slaves to pre-fated arrangements, can we really back off attributing everything to blood and DNA?) And work out wtf IS Liv's motivation for helping anyone? If she is just basically nice but not especially good (I know that feel), why was she volunteering at a women's shelter before? (What, besides cars, sex, mochas, and luxury goods, gets Liv motivated to do anything she does?)
Eh.
I will say I approve of Gabriel being in the doghouse, not just with Liv but with Ricky to a lesser degree. Her reactions there seem pretty reasonable but mature. Gabriel in his own way is trying to correct for it, and it's not going especially well for him. However, this is being handled in a rather sensible, mature way: no screaming fits, passive-aggressive ultimatums, total freeze-outs, or so on. Just kinda crappy-but-good-hearted people who respect one another and everyone's boundaries, trying to deal with trust issues and consciously not going the route of crazy brats. Good for them!
amburhostyn's review
5.0
Absolutely LOVED these short stories from Kelley Armstrong's Cainsville world! I can never get enough of Gabriel, so I loved his short story, The Orange Cat! Patrick is an enigma and never fails to entertain, so I loved his story, Bad Publicity, too! And it's always awesome to get to to see what happens between books, so I loved Lady of the Lake, too! And the excerpt for RITUALS has me desperate for it....it's going to be a super long wait until next August!! :D This mini-collection was fantastic and is a MUST read for any Cainsville fans!!!
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