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A review by jakewritesbooks
The Pledge by Kathleen Kent
4.0
This one followed the same pattern as the Hunger Games trilogy: interesting first book followed by an excellent second and a concluding one that basically made me say “Eh, ok, I guess that’s an ending.”
Part of why I loved (indeed loved) The Burn, the second book in the Betty Rhyzyk trilogy, is because I thought Kathleen Kent did an excellent job covering Betty’s PTSD from the end of the events of the first book. Too often, series writers put their characters through hell only to have them shrug off their circumstances in time for the next book. Kent went the opposite direction: making Betty’s recovery (or lack thereof) the focus and it made the story all the more better. I felt more settled in Betty’s narrative and was excited to see how Kent was going to bring this trilogy to a close, especially after the wild turn it took in the final third of the first book to set the stage for everything.
And she provided an ending. It’s fine. It just took a lot of tire spinning to get there, particularly when the bulk of the scenes in the first half of the book are Betty and the gang just chasing random dealers who may or may not be connected to Evangeline Roy. The second half takes some twists and turns, some more interesting than others. There’s a B-plot connected to the second book that I found too contrived and unnecessary.
But Kent is a good writer. Even if I didn’t agree with all of her decisions, I liked her style with thriller writing and how she brought it all home.
It’s not the ending I really wanted, but it is an ending and it’s fine. And this was a good trilogy. I’m not sure I need more betty but I’d love to see Kent spin off her private eye characters into a new series.
Part of why I loved (indeed loved) The Burn, the second book in the Betty Rhyzyk trilogy, is because I thought Kathleen Kent did an excellent job covering Betty’s PTSD from the end of the events of the first book. Too often, series writers put their characters through hell only to have them shrug off their circumstances in time for the next book. Kent went the opposite direction: making Betty’s recovery (or lack thereof) the focus and it made the story all the more better. I felt more settled in Betty’s narrative and was excited to see how Kent was going to bring this trilogy to a close, especially after the wild turn it took in the final third of the first book to set the stage for everything.
And she provided an ending. It’s fine. It just took a lot of tire spinning to get there, particularly when the bulk of the scenes in the first half of the book are Betty and the gang just chasing random dealers who may or may not be connected to Evangeline Roy. The second half takes some twists and turns, some more interesting than others. There’s a B-plot connected to the second book that I found too contrived and unnecessary.
But Kent is a good writer. Even if I didn’t agree with all of her decisions, I liked her style with thriller writing and how she brought it all home.
It’s not the ending I really wanted, but it is an ending and it’s fine. And this was a good trilogy. I’m not sure I need more betty but I’d love to see Kent spin off her private eye characters into a new series.