Take a photo of a barcode or cover
I loved Warcross. It took me somewhere I rarely go - into the world of virtual reality gaming and all the hype of the futuristic possibilities that come with it. But I will say that I'm SO glad this is a duology and that it's over, because the way this ended and the twisted, slogging path it took to get there, has relieved me the burden of attempting to read another book in this series.
Taking the story at face value, it was a bit contrived. The plot twists were good, and the development of the few new characters was satisfactory for the storyline, but I was so disappointed in Emika. She just didn't have that fire that she had in the first book. She was constantly making excuses, almost waiting to be rescued, and I didn't understand her unwillingness to just admit her love for Hideo despite his nefarious goals. I didn't want "damsel in distress" I wanted kick-ass heroine. (More like Jax I suppose.) And then ... the way things all wrapped up in the end, pretty little bows, court proceedings and sentences that gave no real punishment for deeds done, my my - the future looks so bright for Emika Chen though. Ugh!
The one constant in this whole story was the Phoenix Riders. They never let me down and their side-stories were also interesting.
I guess the hardest part about this book was the pacing. I felt like I was forcing myself to pick up this book and keep going until I got to the last 100 pages. The lack of the warcross game itself was noticeably absent, maybe LU thought the ending sequence to finding Sasuke was game-like enough, unfortunately it missed the mark for me. So if you want conclusions, read it, you might even enjoy it, but I won't be adding it to my shelves.