Karen LynchRecensioni

Even tho I wanted to end on the third book after reading the beginning of the fourth one I just kept going. Nothing much else on my tbr that I can get my hands on and I was intrigued to see the story from a different perspective.
Sadly, in the end, it wasn't nearly as interesting as I hoped.

My biggest problem with this book was that it is in large part a straight-up recap of the first three books. The spoken dialogue has to be the same (obviously) but a lot of the narrator's voice, as well as internal thoughts, are completely copied from the previous books as well. There is very little original content in this one. I suffered a constant Deja Vu effect because I recognized so many identical sentences outside of spoken dialogue.
In the end, I only took a slightly better understanding of why he acted so protective as well as confirmation of a lot of the flaws that annoyed me in the previous books already with me.
To me, this seems like a missed chance to clean up plotholes and shine a different light on a lot of situations and characters.

I could really see myself getting into a book like this (that retells the story from a different perspective) given a much better execution. There just has to be more new... information? I am not sure how to put it into words.

My speculation is that because the author was so thorough in making sure everything they experienced together matched flawlessly, she was badly primed to her own previous thoughts when writing the first three books so a lot of it came out much too similar to the template.
Maybe writing something like this from memory alone and doing an admittedly tedious and time-intensive second pass to adjust everything to fit the previous books, later on, would be a better approach to help more original thoughts to surface.

One advantage of this book is that you can read entire pages half asleep comprehending only half of it but still not lose track or miss anything (which I did every now and then).

In my never-ending quest for a YA book that doesn't seem to be just plain stupid, I found this little nugget.
Well, this is not true but as I have trouble finding new reading material I, again and again, become tempted to try another well-rated interesting-sounding YA but am almost always badly disappointed.
In comparison to the rest of popular YA, this one was pretty good.
Nowadays this would've probably been tagged as new adult tho.

At the time of writing this, I have already completed the first 3 books and the 4th seems to be the same story from another perspective. I am a bit torn on how to rate this one. Just looking at this first book I'd rate it a high 3 stars but with the context of the two following books its barely 3 stars. Looking at how the third volume ends it seems this was initially only planned as a trilogy but was continued later.

Onto the bad things I noticed as always:

It suffers a bit from mary sue but the mc is still flawed enough to keep her interesting if you lean in that direction. (mc with lots of special things about him/her.)

What stood out the most to me was a flaw I commonly see in YA. Namely this weird split in maturity. Most of the time she acts consistently with a believable maturity, sometimes making somewhat stupid decisions which match her personality, but now and then especially in heart to heart sections everyone suddenly acts incredibly and unnaturally mature which throws me off. It repeatedly prevents the dreaded miscommunication-that-leads-to-disaster trope (the story is not completely safe from that one either tho) but dialogues suffering from that seem forced and stilted.

Another thing is that there are quite a lot of strands of the story that just lead nowhere. They are completely irrelevant to the story and don't serve any other purpose either.

There are a few contradictions in the magic but as its clearly a very soft, touchy-feely kind of magic system, this generally isn't a big problem.
In the first book, we know so little about the magic that this is easily ignored but because the author has no problems to badly violate her own rules for a bit of extra dramatic effect, especially in climactic scenes, it becomes worse and worse the more we learn about the parameters of different abilities which results in bad inconsistencies in later books.

To me, it seems like most of this series is discovery-written without a whole lot of notes that were actually consulted later on.

There is a lot of plot convenience happening but it didn't negatively stand out to me. I can not say if that was because I was somewhat preoccupied with other things while listening to the audiobook (aka tired) or because it is actually well hidden.

My Thoughts:

In this book, Sara, our main protagonist is starting to get more too stupid to live (TSTL) than ever! I still like this series... werewolves, vampires, and faeries! What urban fantasy geek wouldn't like that?! But if the TSTL persists, I may not be a fan for very long...

This book culminates the trilogy and it was good. Good enough to keep me buying further into this series. The story telling quality is still good enough to keep me hooked... for now.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 4
Story itself = 4
Writing Style = 4
Ending = 4
World building = 4
Cover art = 3.5
Pace = 4
Plot = 3
Narration = 3

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 cherries

Loved it! My favorite part about any book is when it keeps me on my toes, keeps me interested, and can make me laugh. This one definitely covered all 3! It's a must read. I'm ordering the second book as soon as I finish this review!

Excellent squeal! This one still keeps you on your toes and makes you giggle. Couldn't put it down. I read it in just 2 days! I can not wait to read the next one!

Another win!!! Usually by the 3rd book, I'm loosing interests. Not with this series! I've finished this book and headed straight for the next one!

Full review will be posted tomorrow but in the meantime...

I need book two (and a tissue!), like, yesterday.

That was phenomenal.

Updated Review:

When I read the Relentless series, I enjoyed the luxury of it being a completed story, so I could devour it without a care. I told myself that I should try to pace myself when I began Pawn...

That did not happen.

Despite having a munchkin who wants my attention at every waking hour, I finished the book in two evenings. I knew from the characters and storyline of Relentless that a Karen Lynch story would hook me quick, and this new series certainly didn't fall short of that.

When Jesse's bounty hunter parents go missing, she finds herself joining the family business to gain access to the contacts and answers she needs to track down her family. A healthy dose of mystery kicks the novel off and immediately immerses the reader in a world of competing rivals, paranormal antics and inequalities, and the ever-intriguing world of the Fae. Lynch's familiarity with the slow burn (as readers of the Relentless series will be well used to) carefully marks the moments between the action, and the ending... while not a cliffhanger per se, will leave you desperately looking for a preorder link for book two.

This was a very enjoyable read, and one I know I'll be revisiting several times before the next is released.

Didn't really enjoy it. It was telling book #1 from Nicholas's point of view. It gave a few more details on what went on with Nicholas but most of it seemed to be word for word from the 1st book. The other books in series to this point were great! and the one after is also great! You can skip this and not miss much.

Sara Grey has some secrets. One, she is a healer, but she doesn't know where the power came from. Two, she believes in trolls, imps, goblins, and more recently, werewolves and vampires. Sara is hunted by a vampire one night named Eli, and he isn't giving up. Her best friends have some secrets of their own, which eventually come out during a battle of life and death. To top it all off, there's this Mohiri hunter that keeps hanging around with his buddy that is trying to save Sara from the evil Vampire, but Sara is a strong-willed high school kid. She wants answers about her father's death, and now wants to know why she just can't be normal and do normal teenage stuff.

Very different! I enjoyed the uniqueness of the book (although the first chapter was pretty strange and I almost quit reading). I didn't LOVE the book though. It was different and for the most part kept me interested, but I just didn't love it.

I really enjoyed the mystery and paranormal aspects, though I felt there was a lot of excess chatter. Will definitely read the next one though.

This book did not disappoint. Already pre-ordered Rogue. Can't wait to see what happens next!

I really loved this story, but I feel like the ending on this one was really abrupt - and definitely not enough Nikolas.

Actually 4.5.
It was fun seeing everything from Nikolas' POV, and I loved seeing more of his relationship with Tristan. I only wish we got to see Sara actually meeting Nikolas' parents .

Such a great conclusion to the series.
I wanted 3 things to happen in this book -- 1. Have some kind of resolution with her mother. 2. Meet Greg. 3. See Remy again. And they all did. It was satisfying and enjoyable and I might have enjoyed it more on the re-read.

Enjoying re-reading the series to start the new year.
Such a great followup to book 1. We meet new characters, the ones we know develop further and there is action and humor and romance and fun.

Re-read to start the new year.

Loved it!

I loved everything about this book. Such an amazing paranormal world. With vampires, werewolves, fae, demons, trolls. Like Fablehaven, but for teenagers. But I'm in my thirties and I enjoyed it. Looking forward to the next one.

Sara is a 17 year old girl that wants nothing more than to be normal, but her life has not been normal since she was 10 before her father was killed and she discovered his body. Sara now living with her uncle Nate is trying to go to school and be like a normal teen her age but with all the hidden lies and hidden truths nothing will ever be normal. She has secrets she’s too afraid to tell and one wish to find out who killed her father, track them down and find out why he was killed. Sara has a few very close friends that do not even know her secrets but even they hold their own secrets that until now would have never been revealed to her but her unrelenting nature to discover why her life was so dramatically changed is why not only her life but those she cares about will now change forever.
Great read. For all ages.

After having read Relentless I was counting down the days until I got my hands on Refuge. The second it was released I spent the rest of the day and night with my eyes glued to those pages. And let me tell you I was not disappointed. The character development was great and I loved meeting the new characters as well as reacquainting myself with the older ones. I didn’t believe that anything could top Relentless but Refuge certainly did that. The romance was heavier in this book then the last one (not that I am complaining!!!) but the fast paced, creative storyline was transferred into this book.

Thank you Karen for such an incredible read. I cannot wait for Rogue to be released and am really interested in reading more of your work and upcoming novels.

You cannot believe how glad I am that I stumbled upon this book. I am a huge lover of this genre however recently I have grown bored reading ya fantasy books that mirror each other’s structure and characters. So I was absolutely ecstatic when I came across this book and read the first chapter. Relentless was completely refreshing in that it had kickass characters who were amazing (yet realistic) and a fast paced plot with so much action and adventure that made the book impossible to put down. My only disappointment is that Karen Lynch hasn’t written more books!!!
This book has shot to the top of my favourites list!

Sara was a seventeen year old girl just trying to get by. And by getting by, she dabbled a little in the troll bile business, was friends with a couple of werewolves and a vampire had a major crush on her. What a world to live in. But Sara was unique. She could heal things. And then she met Nikolas and he explained her world to her. She was half demon, a Mori warrior. That's when all hell broke loose and vampires, high powered oil tycoons and hell hounds were out to get her. I loved this story. It had lots of different characters in it that were all entangled in Sara's life. She was a good heroine, a little sass, and a lot of heart. Wish that the hero, Nikolas, and Sara's relationship was more defined in this book, but I guess I'll have to get more in the series to find out how they fair.

Honestly I almost put it down, after the first chapter. I was just not happy and really thought this was just another boring vampire book. Boy am I glad I didn't do that. After the initial start I was hooked! I stayed up half the night devouring this! There were a few typos, but I'm not a proofer so there easily could have been more, but they were easy to figure out. As I was using a kindle I don't have exact page numbers or I would have emailed the author. They were minor though. I would recommend this book. It was a fun read! I got this book in exchange for a review.

Beautiful memoir about a remarkable girl who, as a young woman, overcomes her painful childhood experiences with an abusive, bipolar mother and becomes one of the first women police officers in San Francisco. Poignant, funny, and generous in spirit. Well written. It you are an adult, it will make you want to reach out and help a struggling teen. If you are a teen suffering from instability or abuse of any kind, it will give you hope that you can use the strengths that you've had to develop in difficult times and create a better life for yourself.