Take a photo of a barcode or cover
xvicesx 's review for:
Psycho Pack
by Lenore Rosewood
adventurous
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I'm incredibly disappointed with how this third book came out, and I'll be adjusting my rating of the second book in relation to it.
First off, I really wish authors would stop using a series to set up the characters for their next one. It feels lazy, and it's incredibly frustrating to lose on page time for the setup of a series I haven't even committed to reading next. Introduce your darn characters in their own darn book.
Second, my frustrations about the framing of the second book remain and, if anything, feel much inflamed. There's a clear preference for the characters of Wraith, Whiskey and Plague, pretty much in that order, to the point that you're wondering why Thane and Valek exist.
Thane's main purpose in this book seems to have been to highlight Whiskey's lightheartedness by always being the one to elbow him in the ribs. Every single damn time. If he's the "leader" then colour me surprised, because surprise prince Plague gives out a lot more of the orders than Thane ever seems to do. His other purpose was to highlight what a marshmallow Wraith really is, by means of an entirely irrelevant memory that drags on for half a chapter, and the "moment of truth" where he saves Wraith from having to do a heart-wrenching choice. Apparently.
Valek also doesn't get amazing treatment this book, starting with a lot of hatred from the entire team, and Ivy stringing him along with indecision until... 80-odd percent in? Then again, Thane gets similar treatment.
The treatment of both characters gets on my nerves because they're interesting, and it feels annoying to be let down by them being basically cardboard figures to make this seem like it's a larger pack. The author could have just settled on the characters she actually liked and not teased us with a poor delivery of characters she wasn't interested in.
And if you've read the whole book without skimming (congratulations, I couldn't), you'll probably remark that it's hard to say that we don't get in Valek's head or in Thane's, but their points are long-winded and both resume pretty much to a belief that they don't deserve the gift that is Ivy. Not sure what the gift is, since my girl spent 2.5 books ignoring the ever living fuck out of most of the pack before suddenly realising she was in love before being kidnapped by Valek.
The book is too long, we get entirely too much drawn out drama for the sake of drama. Woe is Plague, poor baby killed someone he knew! Oh, and he's so ashamed of his inappropriate feelings towards other alphas! I mean, he didn't seem ashamed of much in the previous two books, but yeah, why not, let's change the characters to enable the plot.
We also get treated to a way too long scene where Plague and Whiskey get together early in the book. This happens in a cave, in the middle of a blizzard, while everyone is struggling to stay warm. Why it took them two books to eventually talk through a scene that started out in book one is a complete mystery to me.
But yeah. Just disappointed. I thought the author had great potential, but there needs to be a lot more thorough editing, and more critical beta readings, if this is to become good. In my opinion, the entire book series needs to be reread and rewritten to ensure that the characters all get a decent plot arc.
Drop the frustrating low self esteem that all of them seem to have, mature them to the point where they actually behave their damned age, make every single scene that makes it on page meaningful for the plot arc, and generally tighten up the writing. Also, add gods damned lube for all the anal scenes for crying out loud. You can't write constantly about how amazingly huge these men are and then consistently use no lube. That's not how bodies work.
Not sure I'll be picking up another book by the author until some points get addressed seriously.
First off, I really wish authors would stop using a series to set up the characters for their next one. It feels lazy, and it's incredibly frustrating to lose on page time for the setup of a series I haven't even committed to reading next. Introduce your darn characters in their own darn book.
Second, my frustrations about the framing of the second book remain and, if anything, feel much inflamed. There's a clear preference for the characters of Wraith, Whiskey and Plague, pretty much in that order, to the point that you're wondering why Thane and Valek exist.
Thane's main purpose in this book seems to have been to highlight Whiskey's lightheartedness by always being the one to elbow him in the ribs. Every single damn time. If he's the "leader" then colour me surprised, because surprise prince Plague gives out a lot more of the orders than Thane ever seems to do. His other purpose was to highlight what a marshmallow Wraith really is, by means of an entirely irrelevant memory that drags on for half a chapter, and the "moment of truth" where he saves Wraith from having to do a heart-wrenching choice. Apparently.
Valek also doesn't get amazing treatment this book, starting with a lot of hatred from the entire team, and Ivy stringing him along with indecision until... 80-odd percent in? Then again, Thane gets similar treatment.
The treatment of both characters gets on my nerves because they're interesting, and it feels annoying to be let down by them being basically cardboard figures to make this seem like it's a larger pack. The author could have just settled on the characters she actually liked and not teased us with a poor delivery of characters she wasn't interested in.
And if you've read the whole book without skimming (congratulations, I couldn't), you'll probably remark that it's hard to say that we don't get in Valek's head or in Thane's, but their points are long-winded and both resume pretty much to a belief that they don't deserve the gift that is Ivy. Not sure what the gift is, since my girl spent 2.5 books ignoring the ever living fuck out of most of the pack before suddenly realising she was in love before being kidnapped by Valek.
The book is too long, we get entirely too much drawn out drama for the sake of drama. Woe is Plague, poor baby killed someone he knew! Oh, and he's so ashamed of his inappropriate feelings towards other alphas! I mean, he didn't seem ashamed of much in the previous two books, but yeah, why not, let's change the characters to enable the plot.
We also get treated to a way too long scene where Plague and Whiskey get together early in the book. This happens in a cave, in the middle of a blizzard, while everyone is struggling to stay warm. Why it took them two books to eventually talk through a scene that started out in book one is a complete mystery to me.
But yeah. Just disappointed. I thought the author had great potential, but there needs to be a lot more thorough editing, and more critical beta readings, if this is to become good. In my opinion, the entire book series needs to be reread and rewritten to ensure that the characters all get a decent plot arc.
Drop the frustrating low self esteem that all of them seem to have, mature them to the point where they actually behave their damned age, make every single scene that makes it on page meaningful for the plot arc, and generally tighten up the writing. Also, add gods damned lube for all the anal scenes for crying out loud. You can't write constantly about how amazingly huge these men are and then consistently use no lube. That's not how bodies work.
Not sure I'll be picking up another book by the author until some points get addressed seriously.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Gun violence, Violence, War