Hoarfrost

I have very mixed feelings about this book.

On the one hand, I loved the ‘monster of the week' resolution and what that could mean for this series going forward. I loved the message of love and acceptance that I took away from it. I liked finally getting into Griffin's head and I liked Griffin's point of view - mostly because every single interesting thing that happened either happened to him or during his chapter. (Especially his change and I'm interested to see how it will change things for Whyborne and Griffin. Also all the stuff with his brother.) I love the relationship between Christine and Iskander - would really love to have a series for these two. I am also very happy that we seem to be done with romantic upheavals, misunderstandings and just relationship angst.

While that's a lot of stuff that I at least liked... On the other hand, I had two pretty big issues.

This book feels so slow. I don't know if it is slower than the rest, I don't know if it was just me, but it feels like it takes forever to actually get moving. I think part of that is because it's actually so late in the book before we really deal with what's supposed to be the main plot. (The ‘monster of the week' isn't introduced until surprisingly late in the book which, honestly, makes a lot of this feel like filler.)

Secondly, Griffin's point of view was needed, it actually adds a lot to the story and I was very happy to see it. But I often had the problem - as is often the case with rotating first person perspectives - that I didn't know whose head I was in. Because of events late in the book, it got a little better, but early on, the duel perspectives sound a distressing amount alike to me. This is why I'm not really a fan of rotating first person.

So, while there was some good - even a couple great - I decided that my problems would drop the rating. (Being fair, this is probably more of a 3.5, but I rounded down, because, no matter how awesome the ending was, my frustrations were still there during the first part.)