Stacia in Progress

"If I could undo my past for you, McKenzie, I would. But I don't have that power. No fae does."Original reaction moments after finishing :%$@%&"*@%#$#!!!Mother effin son of a basket weaver!!! My heart can't take this turn of events! Review to come later after I've calmed down somewhat.Hours later :Hmmm...I might have overreacted a tad. Actual review :It pains me to have to throw out another 3.5 star review this week because I really want to commit to a solid 4 star review, but there's no getting around what happened and how much I did not want this development. I honestly thought that the one major issue was nixed in book 1 and I was stupidly optimistic on that front.Did this aggravating development sour me to the series? No. Not at all.Do I wish I could reach through the internet and shake Ms. Sandy Williams for what she did? Yes. Sorry, but it's true. When I put aside my feelings about 'the incident,' I can look at The Shattered Dark with a little less frustration. In general, I was happy with my reading experience. Sure, I was a little lost at first over what was going on, but I blame that more on me reading so many books in such a short amount of time that I can't seem to keep much world and/or character building straight in my own head. This series has a lot of characters, so it took me a minute to try and remember who was who. This is one of the only cases in book history where I actually appreciated a little bit of recap.As I was reading, I realized that I need to make a return to fae-based fantasy and urban fantasy. There's something fascinating about the fae kind which draws me into their lore and magic. Shifters, vamps, etc. all tend to be fairly one-note, but the realm of the fae lends itself to so many possibilities. Case in point : McKenzie Lewis is a human who reads the shadow portals left behind from the fae. She maps out in her own mind what she sees, which makes her a valuable asset as a tracker for both sides of the factions at war with each other. Imagine a book of world-jumping, element-bending, ass-kicking, and magical healing. This is what we're dealing with. It's a lot of fun. Sometimes it's just plain amusing. Ah, those silly fae and their ignorance of all things human.When I'm able to focus again, I'm staring at my cut restraints. "They were Velcro.""What?" Kyol asks."Velcro." Strong Velcro, but the dagger wasn't needed.And for those of us who like the guy-candy...there's a whole lotta lotta that. Aren is still my number 1, but dammit, Kyol was tugging at the heartstrings this time around as well. Talk about complicating matters. I wanted to just sit there and swoon over Aren. Period. But no...Kyol is looking attractive in his own right after I got to witness some lovely flashback scenes with him in them. I swear, I'm having Dorian and Kiyo flashbacks because of the opposite faction thing and I'm not entirely sure I like this because it means I won't ever know if anyone is trustworthy until the very end. My heart was doing gymnastic flips the entire time. I love feeling like this but also hate it too."I want to deserve you."And of course, I couldn't close out this review without mentioning the one thing which had me ridiculously excited when I was writing my review for book 1 : the kimki! Sosch, the cute hybrid ferret/cat/whatever creature was back! I love this mischievous little furball. The books are worth a read just to see what this little scamp is up to. He's quite the active wanderer!Sosch lets out a sound that's a cross between a chirp and a squeak, then uses my outstretched arm as a springboard to my shoulders. He looks at me and does some weird, crinkly thing with his nose.Even though this second book took a directional turn that I wasn't completely happy with, I'm still sold on the series and look forward to book 3. There's something about Williams' writing that is easy to read, and the mix of action/adventure and sexual chemistry rivals the style of my favorite author Richelle Mead, which means it can't be all bad. Right?"This lightning" - she holds up her hand, waits for a chaos luster to strike across it - "I bet it makes kissing a fae explosive. By the way, I totally get why you never let me shake Kyol or Aren's hands."