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A review by katyanaish
Bounty by Kristen Banet, K.N. Banet
3.0
Even though the Jacky Leon series is one of my absolute favorites, I really dithered about reading this series. A couple friends who jumped right in noted that it's super different, and Kaliya is pretty unlikeable...and so I was torn and sat on it for ages.
I'm going to firstly say that yes, I agree: she's pretty unlikeable. And she seems to revel in it. Raphael is pretty unlikeable in this book too, though that is more forgivable given the confusing shitshow his life is, this poor dude who knows nothing about the supe world but has been tortured by them, and is now being hunted by them, yeah, I get him having a hair-trigger hot temper.
I can't really make sense of Cassius and Kaliya's relationship. They like each other, then don't, then sometimes seem to like each other a lot more than either wants to admit. You get some soft hints that Cassius maybe liked her a lot, but couldn't live in her self-destructive, and honestly pretty self-absorbed, world anymore. Like, he left for his own mental health.
And maybe physical health, because as we see in this book, Kaliya makes bad choices which get the people around her hurt.
But in this book, for what it's worth, they are the more compelling relationship - part of me (pointlessly) hopes Kaliya grows up and they work it out. I feel like that will change, not just because I know who the male lead is, but also because after the rough start here where we set all the pieces on the board, things are going to settle into a more normal pace with their lives, and they'll have a chance to get to know each other outside the insane chaos.
But man... I get that it is because her life has been hard and heartbreaking, and she's probably somewhat broken, but Kaliya is a hard character to care about. She is bitchy to everyone, pretty much all the time. And is prone to changing the plan, on her own without discussing it with her team (for literally no logical reason I can think of - seriously, why couldn't they know that? She seemed like she was trying to hint, and later told Cassius she hoped he'd pick up on it faster... How about open your fucking mouth and share the plan???). So yeah, a bitch who makes bad choices that gets her friends hurt. It's a tough sell.
I'm going to firstly say that yes, I agree: she's pretty unlikeable. And she seems to revel in it. Raphael is pretty unlikeable in this book too, though that is more forgivable given the confusing shitshow his life is, this poor dude who knows nothing about the supe world but has been tortured by them, and is now being hunted by them, yeah, I get him having a hair-trigger hot temper.
I can't really make sense of Cassius and Kaliya's relationship. They like each other, then don't, then sometimes seem to like each other a lot more than either wants to admit. You get some soft hints that Cassius maybe liked her a lot, but couldn't live in her self-destructive, and honestly pretty self-absorbed, world anymore. Like, he left for his own mental health.
And maybe physical health, because as we see in this book, Kaliya makes bad choices which get the people around her hurt.
But in this book, for what it's worth, they are the more compelling relationship - part of me (pointlessly) hopes Kaliya grows up and they work it out. I feel like that will change, not just because I know who the male lead is, but also because after the rough start here where we set all the pieces on the board, things are going to settle into a more normal pace with their lives, and they'll have a chance to get to know each other outside the insane chaos.
But man... I get that it is because her life has been hard and heartbreaking, and she's probably somewhat broken, but Kaliya is a hard character to care about. She is bitchy to everyone, pretty much all the time. And is prone to changing the plan, on her own without discussing it with her team (for literally no logical reason I can think of - seriously, why couldn't they know that? She seemed like she was trying to hint, and later told Cassius she hoped he'd pick up on it faster... How about open your fucking mouth and share the plan???). So yeah, a bitch who makes bad choices that gets her friends hurt. It's a tough sell.