Even more than in previous books, all of the separate POVs here were more cumbersome than anything, simply because there were so many of them and they were so disconnected. It literally took a third of the book (over 100 pages) for Herman to cycle through each of the main perspectives once, and after that, even more perspectives were added. For the reader who's especially drawn to one or two of the main characters, there are many stretches in the book where those characters will not only be outside of the focus, but nowhere to be found, because the separate chapters have such separate plots, focal points, and settings.

And yet, what is consistent is angst, and constant yearning, to the point that the voices also sound too much like each other when it comes to desire and emotion, so that there aren't many different levels in the book, and it begins to feel somewhat repetitive when it comes to all of the separate desires and love interests, for what they are.

All told, I was expecting more. In previous books in the series, the chapters at least seemed to be well-timed to coincide with what the reader needed and wanted to see from the story. Here, it too often felt like the first parts of chapters were devoted to summing up the high points of what the reader missed, much of which would have been of interest. In other words, the characters go through so much while outside of the reader's view, because of all of the divergent chapters, that there's a constant need to play catch-up--and with the focus seeming to have turned to love and emotion, what's most often shown is focused there, as opposed to on action or anything that could really develop character and plot.

Simply enough, as you'd expect from this review, I wouldn't recommend the series, and I don't see myself reading the next installment or reading anything more by Herman. I think, probably, that she simply tried to cram too much into too few books, and that this could have been a wonderful series if given more time and focus, but as is, it's just too rushed and wandering to have the impact it should. ( )