Claws and Contrivances

Great concept, intriguing characters, underwhelming execution

While I truly enjoyed this book and it would typically be the type of story I would breeze through in an afternoon I found myself dragging on with this one simply out of frustration. For starters, I would highly recommend reading this book before the first in the series. I think had I done this I wouldn’t have had quite as many things to be yelling in my head at the characters about. Because I did read the other book first I was constantly frustrated by knowing certain details that would clear so much up for Rose if only there was the smallest attempt at communication rather than her constantly cutting off other people and trying to solve everything herself. Had I not know ahead of time about certain things I don’t think I would have been nearly as aggravated, especially when so many other things were frustrating. Mainly Rose’s attempts at secrecy from so many people and her belief that she needed to handle everything herself. I hated how I (as the reader) knew hours ahead of her in the book what was going to happen only to have her at the last possible moment figure it out. I get that part of her character is that she feels fiercely independent and has the need to look out for everyone she cares about but it was at times distracting from the story how dense she was being. I can understand to a point but when it holds up every aspect of the story and it becomes dependent on her to have these epiphanies in order for the story to move forward in any aspect (and it takes her until the last second possible to do so) I am left yelling at her in my head.

I believe if we were told this tale from both the female and male leads perspective it would help move the story along and it would enable us to get better depth of the tale being told. I believe if we had the male perspective being shared in conjunction with the female their relationship would feel more organic and believable. Having only Rose’s side makes it feel like sort of a shock when their true feelings do come out even though you know it is leading up to that it was sort of underwhelming. The secondary characters were excellent and I thought added a great deal to this tale and it would have been great to have a bit more depth to our male lead. I feel like we only get to know him on a surface level and that’s a shame because he has so much potential to be a well flushed out character. I just hate that in a story about a supposed strong female lead she comes across as sort of whiny and oblivious. The story is so focused on Rose that the depth to any of the other characters isn’t fully fleshed out and I feel that we as the readers really miss out on that front. I think the impact the story could have had were we given the opportunity to know more than surface level things about any of the other characters it would have added a great deal more to the satisfaction level at the conclusion of this book. As it stands it’s mostly a feel good story with some maddeningly frustrating bits that leaves you feeling fine at the end. I have a feeling that unlike other books in the same genre I will have forgotten about this one in a months time as it had no real lasting impact on me.

I hate that it is not until the end of the book that Rose finally starts confiding in people and thus working together. It would have been nice to see her family working together earlier in the story rather than waiting to have them finally all in on everything and helping wrap it up in the last half hour of the book. I just wanted more depth from the other characters.

All in all the book was satisfying enough and I liked it for what it was. It just had so much more potential. I would give it 3.5 stars but I’m rounding up to 4 because I appreciate that while it was perhaps underwhelming, in the end it still had a satisfying enough conclusion and the secondary characters were excellent.