Holy S--t! What a cliff-hanger! I was actually sweating as I read the last fifty or so pages. Literally Sweating! That's a little disgusting, but my entire body was getting hot from agitation, and I kept thinking NOOooooooo...NO you did not just do that Ms. Crane! Sooo devious!--in a thrillingly brilliant way of course. A couple of chapters before the shocking and horrifying event, I felt like I knew what was gonna happen because I had this nagging suspicion that something mentioned--don't worry, not going to spoil it--would come back and bite somebody else in the ass! And boy did it.

What an amazing story though! Just fantastic. Crane's writing style is truly engaging, or maybe it's just Justine's voice throughout the book. Justine is a different kind of heroine. You really get a sense of her goodness even in the way she acknowledges her flaws and fesses up when she's wrong. And really, I think this whole series is about knowing between what is right and wrong, good and bad, what truly makes a hero and a villain. What a spectacularly heavy theme to take on! Almost all the characters eventually face that choice, that decision, to figure out what they believe to be the right thing and whether or not to act on it. Us readers get the benefit as the audience to realize who truly deserves the title hero and who the villain, though of course it's more complicated than a label.

Semi-thankfully, I knew before I read this book that, one, it ended in a cliff-hanger, and that, two, the next and last book won't be out in print until middle of 2012. I don't know how I'll be able to wait that long, but I guess life leaves me no choice. At least I already steeled myself before the cliff left me hanging. Oh and I agree with the reviewer who said that the ending was almost as crazy intense as KMM's fever series. Almost. High hopes for HEA in the next book.

A truly exciting world. A spectacular and original addition to the Urban Fantasy genre. I just plain love it!!!

SPOILERIFIC OPINION AHEAD: WARNING!!




I truly hate you Otto, you creepy, evil hypocrite! I cannot believe he had the gall to tell Justine that she was wrong to decide to free Ez, who was innocent, when Otto himself has been the secret vigilante for years. Years! He's the one who has been secretly and independently imprisoning highcaps without trials or sometimes even without enough evidence for a legal conviction in court. What a chump! I was thoroughly disgusted at him for this almost more than him thinking that Packard had manipulated Justine into leaving him and then revising her memories. I feel so justified in my dislike for him from the start. He's truly a frightening character when you think about it.

A goody-goody who believes he's doing the right thing for the good of the world. Hope he dies, but I get this feeling that he'll just be crashed and rebooted or something more psychological than just dying.

Wow...thought these were simplistic. They're not, its awesome. The main character gets a bit annoying but eh.

Buddy Read of a different sort of superhero book with my friends at Buddies Books and Baubles

#TeamPackard #NoBeretsAllowed #Ottoisacreeper

”You love to remind me that I’m a villain, but when I actually do something the least bit villainous, you act outraged.”

The best thing about this series is that it is really readable. I picked it up and finished in a day, this book has the kind of angst that I really love. Not all silly misunderstanding angst but actual internal emotional angst and some deliver by the plot. The mix is done so well that I couldn’t stop reading. Neurosis as superpowers is a really great premise.

The book isn’t perfect there are a few little/minor plot hole things and a few times I really hated being in the Heroine’s head but I’m supposed to feel uncomfortable in there. Juliette is a neurotic hypochondriac that tends to obsess over and fixate on things. When she does that to the extent that she drives herself into a frenzy I’m not supposed to feel okay about it, in that regard the author did a fantastic job.

The Dissolutionists now work to reform some of Otto’s prisoner’s so they can be reformed and released out into the wild. The thing is that some of them might be innocent, specifically one of them who has the ability to enter dreams. Justine is having a severe crisis of conscience on that end. Should they really try to reform the prisioners? Is that their right? She also had the another problem she touched the dreamwalker and now she is connecting Justine’s dreams with Packard.

“I’m sorry I didn’t wait for you.”
Slowly Packard turns to me. “It’ll almost be worth it, just to see the look on Otto’s face when he finds out. You and me, conferenced into each other in dreams.”
“Why should Otto care? So she screws around in our dreams.”
“Dreams that she creates from our memories. She uses memories as her raw material.”
“So what?”
“Do you have any memories that you’d prefer not to revisit—with Ez and me along for the ride, experiencing everything from your point of view? Think of the experiences you’d most prefer to keep private. Those are the ones she’ll grab.”

Well I can think of a few and I can’t wait to see them again. There is the semi-love triangle going on with Packard/Justine and Otto. I get it Otto is what Justine wants to want but I think we all know that Packard is who Justine really wants. I know I usually hate Love Triangles too but….This one works pretty well. There are some scenes that are a little uncomfortable because I’m not a fan of Otto at all but I get why Justine and her neurotic hypochondriac mind clings to the idea of him.

“I can tell you this,” he says. “Otto may be the man the frightened little girl Justine fantasizes about, but he’s definitely not the man the brave, smart, grown-up woman wants—or needs.”

This is not just about the romance though. HighCaps are being targeted and killed by a team of serial killers and the city is in a panic yet again. Justine is trying to keep both Packard and Otto safe as well as find out if the Dreamwalker Ez is innocent of the crime she was accused of. She needs to hurry the dreams are getting more intense and the soon Ez will have enough pull to make Justine help her even if she doesn’t want to.

There are also all the fantastic side characters. I love Shelby and Simon they make this story so much better. Simon is the train wreck that you can’t look away from. It is like he chooses to do things he knows he can’t win or walk away from without getting hurt. He is bound and determined to push every envelope and every relationship to its max.

This, of course, is pure Simon. Always taking chances. Always on the losing end. Which is why I’ve slipped out my stun gun. He realizes it seconds before I show it. He smiles, thinking about how to get to his, no doubt.
I say, “Don’t move. Just tell me where you have the descrambler.”
“I’ve taken precautions,” he says.
“You never take precautions.” We both know how this will end, but we have to go through it. “One. Two.”
He lunges. I press the button.

Shelby always a true friend will always tell Justine how it really is and I love that about her. She doesn’t hold any punches and she always tells the truth.

”… He was a momentary diversion for me, on my way to Otto, who is my ultimate perfect mate.”
“In other words, not real. Otto is fairy tale.” Shelby smirks at her own cleverness.
“Helpful hint—most girlfriends pretend to like their friend’s boyfriends, and act happy for them, or else they zip it.”
“Such a friend is useless. You and Otto, you comfort each other. That is all.”
“We fit.”
“Your fears fit.”

This story was clipping along and was a good fun 3 star read for me and then the twist at the end came and the OMG WTF just happened bumped it completely up to 4 stars easy. It was horrible, it was amazing I felt so many things about it and there was no waiting to jump into the next book. I couldn’t stop to write a review first because I NEEDED to know how this entire story was going to play out.

Warning: Have the final book ready to go because I can’t imagine that you will not want to read it directly after finishing this. So happy that this series was complete when I picked it up.


#Tandiediditfirst #sorrynotsorry #OMGdidthatjusthappen

I just don't know what to make of this series! So I'm going to do a pro and con list.

Pro's:
- I still think that weaponizing mental health and making it an intersection between magic and science is fascinating
- The heroine becomes more proactive through the course of the series
- Female friendships worth reading
- Plot twist at the end! I hate it but I love it.

Con's:
- Beware the Bermuda Love Triangle
- Least favorite characters: I alpha male will make you love me with aggressive border-line threatening language that implies I will possess you.
- Even worse characters: the woman who is attracted to the above listed character
- World's strangest pacing.

All in all a middle of the road 2.5 stars out of five.

Leaves you hanging!!

This needs 3 and a half stars. As a sequel it goes well, and I want to read what happens next, but it's not a series that I'll tell anyone they must read, or at least, I can't think of any of my friends that I'd recommend it to, so it doesn't get 4 stars.

At some point, Goodreads will allow us to give books half-stars and then I will feel I am being more accurate in my ratings. This book was a solid 3.5. The 3 is because I had a hard time following this book and Justine was getting on my nerves. A lot! I just got tired of reading her whine. However, the .5 is needed because of the, "Oh my GOD! I did NOT see that coming!!!" ending. I got to a point that is was either stay up late to finish this book or put it down for the night. I stayed up late & then dreamed about it all night. It didn't just suprise me, it deeply disturbed me. No spoilers but I will say that a new villan has emerged & I can't wait for book 3.

I tried, but I just couldn't get into it. Much the same as how I felt about the first book. I just can't connect to the characters. And I'm not a huge fan of love triangles, and the fact that Justine can't seem to make up her mind about how she feels about Packard is driving me nuts.

I wouldn't recommend this to friends, but I also can't stop reading it? Justine infuriates me to no end and makes very questionable choices. Also continuous affairs, ugh.

But the last portion of this book got me good. I'll probably finish the trilogy just because of that ending.

Edit: To add more of my opinions..

I like the idea of the Disillusionists, Hi-caps, etc. I totally get why the "dorks" (sp? I'm reading it in audiobook format) want to protect themselves from the Hi-caps and even Justine liked the idea of the goggles. At first I was very team Otto, but once he shows his opinions about the prisoners I was like, "RUN Justine RUN!!!" Too bad she's kind of dumb. I also warmed up to Packard, but I'm not going to lie, I hated how almost every interaction of him and Justine in this book was full of flirting and "remember that one kiss a couple months ago (when you cheated on your bf, oh and let's do that again, same scenario)"
I just wish Justine was smarter. Sometimes I hated being in her head, but I guess that's the point. She presents with heightened anxiety because she is a hypochondriac. But I don't care for her insecurity and how she's always obsessing about a guy. I kind of wished she WAS a nurse because that could have been more layered as a hypochondriac. But I guess we'll find out more about this career path for her in the next book.

This book ran the spectrum for me. If I hadn't been on a business trip I wouldn't have kept reading past the first 50 pages, but since I had no other reading material I sucked it up and kept on. Then I couldn't stop. I read it on the plane, bus, train (and almost missed my stopped) and then preceded to finish it as soon as I got home.

It boils down to this - Justine still annoys me, Otto is still to good to be true, and Packard is still underrated and is a first round draft pick in my book. The plot is still unique and I love it but the story revolved less on individual cases and more on the overarching issue which was not as interesting to me. What saves it though is the relationship developments and Simon of all people!! Talk about coming out of no where - who would have known Simon had a soul and I would LOVE him!

Still though this book was like crack once I got started - and then it HAD ME AND I LOVED IT - and then it completely PISSED ME OFF. Just a few pages there at the end and everything I had just read was turned on it's head, and rendered completely moot as if none of it had happened.

So now you have no choice but to read the 3rd book (which is extremely late in being released due to the author having to find another publisher since the original publisher did not survive the bad economy very well and dropped the author) in the hopes the all will be righted and the characters will get the endings they so rightly deserve (I'm looking at you - you beret wearing maniac).




(Seriously - how could you ever trust someone who wears a beret???)