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stormlightreader's Reviews (936)
This was a solid entry in the DCI Ryan series. I enjoyed the character development of the main and supporting characters, but I was also invested in Gemma and Hutch’s story thanks to Ross giving the reader time to connect with them, along with the main characters.
I love that Anna's involvement in most cases is actually addressed again in this book and it is stated that Ryan's boss is unhappy with it. That said, I might have had a breakthrough because I enjoyed Anna is this book. She was there but not obnoxiously so. Frank is still probably my favourite character. He's a real comfort character and I love his Geordie banter!
The ending went a different way to what I expected and I like it when these books do that.
I love that Anna's involvement in most cases is actually addressed again in this book and it is stated that Ryan's boss is unhappy with it. That said, I might have had a breakthrough because I enjoyed Anna is this book. She was there but not obnoxiously so. Frank is still probably my favourite character. He's a real comfort character and I love his Geordie banter!
The ending went a different way to what I expected and I like it when these books do that.
The characters are the strongest aspect. You have to suspend disbelief a little with the plot, but if you can do that, you'll have a good time.
Book 1 set the tone really well, but book 2 falls a bit flat in places. I'll read the others because I want to see how it plays out, and they're on Kindle Unlimited 💃
Book 1 set the tone really well, but book 2 falls a bit flat in places. I'll read the others because I want to see how it plays out, and they're on Kindle Unlimited 💃
Book 1 sets the tone really well. I think the strongest aspect so far is the characters. You have to suspend disbelief a little with the plot, but if you can do that, you'll have a good time.
Pacing: felt faster than The Eye of the World but for a fantasy series of this length, pacing is less of an issue for me (please refrain from warning me off later books in the comments. I KNOW they slow down but I'm not going to give up on the series just because people think I'll hate the pace of later books).
Plot: book 1 was prevented from being a 5* because a particular romance felt a little weird and didn't really feel natural. But book 2 focused less focus on this romance. The Great Hunt had so much going on right from the start. Rand's battle with his status. The sul'dam and their damane (this was one of my favourite plot threads). The dagger and the horn. It always felt like something was happening and the last quarter of the book was great.
Characters: in book 1 I found Nynaeve so annoying, but I liked her more this time and even though she was quite obnoxious at times, she was also pretty badass. Even though Rand gets a lot of page time, I'm not fully sure how I feel about him yet. I love Perrin and want to see loads more from him. And Mat. I missed Moiraine and Lan but the little bits we got from them were really intriguing and hint to another side of their relationship. I continue to enjoy the creatures of this world (the torm and the grolm)!
Plot: book 1 was prevented from being a 5* because a particular romance felt a little weird and didn't really feel natural. But book 2 focused less focus on this romance. The Great Hunt had so much going on right from the start. Rand's battle with his status. The sul'dam and their damane (this was one of my favourite plot threads). The dagger and the horn. It always felt like something was happening and the last quarter of the book was great.
Characters: in book 1 I found Nynaeve so annoying, but I liked her more this time and even though she was quite obnoxious at times, she was also pretty badass. Even though Rand gets a lot of page time, I'm not fully sure how I feel about him yet. I love Perrin and want to see loads more from him. And Mat. I missed Moiraine and Lan but the little bits we got from them were really intriguing and hint to another side of their relationship. I continue to enjoy the creatures of this world (the torm and the grolm)!
The majority of this story is set in Italy, but the book didn't lose the atmosphere of the other books. Granted, there is a notable absence of the English locations for a lot of the book, but I'm relieved that the book didn't completely fall flat because of this.
I was quite reluctant to accept the way the story was playing out until about the 90% point of the book 😂 but once the story unfolded in that last part of the book, I had that 'ah, ok' moment.
Anna was less annoying. That's a win! I love MacKenzie! Phillips, as usual, brings the banter, and I can't help but chuckle at him. He's such a sweetheart. I also liked the addition (for this book) of Ricci. It's a shame we didn't get more of this character. Anyway, despite this being book 9, the events of the book link back to the previous book and also right back to book 1, which is really cool. The pace is pretty good, and even though the story felt a little up and down for me, the good outweighed the bad.
I was quite reluctant to accept the way the story was playing out until about the 90% point of the book 😂 but once the story unfolded in that last part of the book, I had that 'ah, ok' moment.
Anna was less annoying. That's a win! I love MacKenzie! Phillips, as usual, brings the banter, and I can't help but chuckle at him. He's such a sweetheart. I also liked the addition (for this book) of Ricci. It's a shame we didn't get more of this character. Anyway, despite this being book 9, the events of the book link back to the previous book and also right back to book 1, which is really cool. The pace is pretty good, and even though the story felt a little up and down for me, the good outweighed the bad.
Seven Bridges is well paced, even with a main plot that I didn't find too interesting, but this was still a solid instalment because of the other crime. After Dark Skies, I was intrigued to see how things would develop with Lucas and I was equally happy and disappointed. The build up to the situation with Lucas and Lowerson happened mostly off the page which is unfortunate. Had it happened on the page it might have given Lowerson's story a bit more substance and could have better illustrated that part of Ryan's past, beyond the flashback scene we get briefly detailing an extreme point in the relationship between Lucas and Ryan.
I'm still loving the duo of Ryan and Phillips! The ending of Seven Bridges means that presumably we're off to Italy but but I'm wondering how that will impact the feel of the book if it's set out of the north east of England. Hopefully, we'll have a Phillips/MacKenzie plot to keep me entertained. On the subject of Phillips, he might be the only character in this series that can get away with a quote like this: "I've never seen anybody hoover a lamb kebab as fast as a drunk vegetarian". This guy has a serious problem with vegetarians.
I'm still loving the duo of Ryan and Phillips! The ending of Seven Bridges means that presumably we're off to Italy but but I'm wondering how that will impact the feel of the book if it's set out of the north east of England. Hopefully, we'll have a Phillips/MacKenzie plot to keep me entertained. On the subject of Phillips, he might be the only character in this series that can get away with a quote like this: "I've never seen anybody hoover a lamb kebab as fast as a drunk vegetarian". This guy has a serious problem with vegetarians.
Dark Skies centres around a decades old case, another plot that wouldn't usually intrigue me but after finishing Cragside, I was keen to see how things developed between Ryan and Lucas, his new boss and former girlfriend. Lucas is categorically unlikeable in the brief time we know them in Cragside and she gets worse in Dark Skies. I felt as frustrated as Ryan with some of the orders she was giving because it's clear she's just doing it for kicks but under the guise of improving a struggling department.
Working out who killed the victim was pretty straightforward (all we were missing was a name, really) and by no means the most interesting part of this book. Anna’s convenient involvement actually served a purpose in this book because somebody finally questions her bloody presence and takes issue with it. Yes, that person is not somebody we like but in this instance Lucas has a valid bloody point. Why is this woman usually around and why oh why has she actually been welcomed into previous cases? It needs to stop!
Two things Ross does well: characters (though Anna is an exception for me) and atmosphere. Like all of the books before it, Dark Skies features so many North East locations and northern banter, so the storylines are both easy to picture (being from the North East myself) and entertaining. I adore Phillips’ humour and his general Geordieness!
Working out who killed the victim was pretty straightforward (all we were missing was a name, really) and by no means the most interesting part of this book. Anna’s convenient involvement actually served a purpose in this book because somebody finally questions her bloody presence and takes issue with it. Yes, that person is not somebody we like but in this instance Lucas has a valid bloody point. Why is this woman usually around and why oh why has she actually been welcomed into previous cases? It needs to stop!
Two things Ross does well: characters (though Anna is an exception for me) and atmosphere. Like all of the books before it, Dark Skies features so many North East locations and northern banter, so the storylines are both easy to picture (being from the North East myself) and entertaining. I adore Phillips’ humour and his general Geordieness!
I returned to the audio for this instalment and while it wasn’t as gripping as the previous two books, it still held my interest and I loved finding out more about the characters.
We start out with Ryan and Anna attending a murder mystery evening at Cragside which turns into (surprise surprise) a real murder mystery. Several years ago I would never have picked up a book with this premise, but I'm finding this series to be so bingeable and I enjoy the character development so much.
Since the previous two books were so intense, the slower pace of this book was not surprising. I find this happens in longer series. It's like the characters need a break and I like the pace to slow down a little, otherwise my expectations get too high and stay high only to find myself disappointed when the stories don't keep up. Cragside does introduce a personal dilemma for Ryan, and I look forward to seeing how that plays out.
My only issue continues to be Ryan and Anna's relationship but I'm finding them fairly easy to ignore because Ryan's POV without Anna is fine but her consistent involvement in cases is growing old fast. Surely someone should be calling him out on this. Luckily, I have Phillips and MacKenzie (the real golden couple) to root for.
We start out with Ryan and Anna attending a murder mystery evening at Cragside which turns into (surprise surprise) a real murder mystery. Several years ago I would never have picked up a book with this premise, but I'm finding this series to be so bingeable and I enjoy the character development so much.
Since the previous two books were so intense, the slower pace of this book was not surprising. I find this happens in longer series. It's like the characters need a break and I like the pace to slow down a little, otherwise my expectations get too high and stay high only to find myself disappointed when the stories don't keep up. Cragside does introduce a personal dilemma for Ryan, and I look forward to seeing how that plays out.
My only issue continues to be Ryan and Anna's relationship but I'm finding them fairly easy to ignore because Ryan's POV without Anna is fine but her consistent involvement in cases is growing old fast. Surely someone should be calling him out on this. Luckily, I have Phillips and MacKenzie (the real golden couple) to root for.
I really wanted to like this. Book 1 was good, book 2 struggled to keep me interested and I almost DNFed book 3. The issues started in chapter 1, with confusingly written sentences in places (which Todd?) and continue well into the book with later crime scenes being introduced really flatly (name, profession, description).
I really struggled with any POV that wasn't the killer. The killer's POV felt like the only POV with any action. Getting a Hicks POV was interesting. Presumably we are meant to feel something for him in the predicament he is in, but I didn't care. I like Grace Archer's character but her development felt completely lost among the stuff with her grandad, the Frankie White plot (which wasn't interesting to me at all) and the dodgy cops plot. This latter plot played out a lot quicker than I thought it would (both in this book and series).
By the time the Brynn POV came around for the second time, I'd guessed this was our killer, so I figured it out even earlier in this book than I did in book 1 (before the halfway point). However, if it wasn't for The Silent Man murders padding out the final 40% of the book, there wouldn't have been anything going on because Frankie White/Hicks (and the other dodgy cop that I can't remember the name of) was dealt with pretty sharpish. I really hoped that a surprise twist would come in the final chapters and prove me wrong, but nope.
Overall, the story feels flat. The stakes didn't feel that high. Even when Archer had a gun pointed at her, I knew there wasn't any risk.
I really struggled with any POV that wasn't the killer. The killer's POV felt like the only POV with any action. Getting a Hicks POV was interesting. Presumably we are meant to feel something for him in the predicament he is in, but I didn't care. I like Grace Archer's character but her development felt completely lost among the stuff with her grandad, the Frankie White plot (which wasn't interesting to me at all) and the dodgy cops plot. This latter plot played out a lot quicker than I thought it would (both in this book and series).
By the time the Brynn POV came around for the second time, I'd guessed this was our killer, so I figured it out even earlier in this book than I did in book 1 (before the halfway point). However, if it wasn't for The Silent Man murders padding out the final 40% of the book, there wouldn't have been anything going on because Frankie White/Hicks (and the other dodgy cop that I can't remember the name of) was dealt with pretty sharpish. I really hoped that a surprise twist would come in the final chapters and prove me wrong, but nope.
Overall, the story feels flat. The stakes didn't feel that high. Even when Archer had a gun pointed at her, I knew there wasn't any risk.
I just couldn't get into the story and didn't care about anyone or anything. Not sure I'll read anything else from this author.