A review by crimsoncor
Cold Steel by Kate Elliott

2.0

Really vacillated between 2 and 3 stars. I don't think the book was noticeable worse than the last one, but because it replicated the flaws of book 2, but at even greater length (and greater remove from the quite good first book), I think I settled on 2 stars. There is just so much potential here and it is all squandered on unlikable main characters who seem both dumb and incapable of failure. Here's a moment that encapsulates almost everything I disliked about this book.

Spoiler

Towards the end of the book, Cat has ended up in the spirit world and has an encounter with her father. Her father who has already hinted a few times that he is not in control of his actions. One of the Faerie leadership comes up and puts a leash on her father and drags him away, while ordering him to hunt for them. And what is Cat's reaction? "I had to wonder: Was my sire the master, or a slave to others' bidding?".

Really? That's even a question at this point? It seems pretty clear . . . Cat is supposed to be some brilliant spy/information gatherer trained by the Kena'ani people but seems to mostly just be as dumb as 2x4. And then we come back to the entire plot armor thing which again, when looking at her father,

Spoiler

she first makes an incredibly dumb deal to bring her father into the mortal world where she extracts exactly zero concessions despite it being super obvious that he wants this more than anything else (yeah . . . she's a great negotiator the book tells us) but she then turns loose the scourge of the mortal world with no constraints, but all he apparently wants to do is get coffee. Seriously.

. James Drake is supposed to be the big bad, but honestly the only reason he is evil seems to be his jealously of Vai making the entire thing feel super high school. These are supposed to be people in the mid-20s. Maybe early 30's for Drake? and yet everyone acts 15. ugh.