Glad to hear Alera is working a little better for you. Book 3 was a low point for me, I think, but I did thing it got better from there, yeah, so hopefully you'll find it the same. I'm trying to remember if anything really important happens in book 3 that you would miss out on if you did the Wikipedia thing... There's a reveal that happens in this book, which you may or may not have already guessed, so it might be fun to read just to see that happen in situ. Actually, two reveals, apparently, or a reveal and a realization. (Which is a reason you may want to not go looking for it on Wiki/TV Tropes, if you don't want to be spoiled for stuff prematurely.)
Rereading my write up of the book, it looks like the beginning wasn't doing it for me, but it picked up for me towards the end. So maybe check it out but feel free to skim the first part? The first part is heavy on Ehren and Amara, so if you like those characters, you may enjoy it more than I did (I did come to like Ehren a lot, eventually, but wasn't there yet in this book). But more fun characters show up towards the end. Lots of Isana, too (which was a negative for me, but might not be for you).
So basically I think I'm suggesting you should read it after all, just because it makes for a good building block for book 4. But feel free the skim the boring/annoying bits :)
I'm looking forward to your thoughts on Toby Daye. I have mixed feelings about this series myself -- I keep reading it, but almost always come away from the installments with some degree of frustration. It is exactly the sort of thing I should love -- urban fantasy + mystery blend, urban fantasy with faeries, set in San Francisco -- and yet I don't LOVE it, I'm not even sure I like the series half the time. (Partly it might've been overhyped to me before I started, and maybe it would work better for me if I'd come to it cold?) But anyway, there's one secondary character I really love, and a couple of others who are a lot of fun, and a couple of nicely set up reveals.
Book 1 is not bad though definitely not without flaws; book 2 is, I think, the weekest of the bunch by far -- the setup is very neat, but the resolution is... not, IMO -- but they start picking up from there.
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Date: 2016-01-28 07:41 pm (UTC)From:Rereading my write up of the book, it looks like the beginning wasn't doing it for me, but it picked up for me towards the end. So maybe check it out but feel free to skim the first part? The first part is heavy on Ehren and Amara, so if you like those characters, you may enjoy it more than I did (I did come to like Ehren a lot, eventually, but wasn't there yet in this book). But more fun characters show up towards the end. Lots of Isana, too (which was a negative for me, but might not be for you).
So basically I think I'm suggesting you should read it after all, just because it makes for a good building block for book 4. But feel free the skim the boring/annoying bits :)
I'm looking forward to your thoughts on Toby Daye. I have mixed feelings about this series myself -- I keep reading it, but almost always come away from the installments with some degree of frustration. It is exactly the sort of thing I should love -- urban fantasy + mystery blend, urban fantasy with faeries, set in San Francisco -- and yet I don't LOVE it, I'm not even sure I like the series half the time. (Partly it might've been overhyped to me before I started, and maybe it would work better for me if I'd come to it cold?) But anyway, there's one secondary character I really love, and a couple of others who are a lot of fun, and a couple of nicely set up reveals.
Book 1 is not bad though definitely not without flaws; book 2 is, I think, the weekest of the bunch by far -- the setup is very neat, but the resolution is... not, IMO -- but they start picking up from there.