*No spoilers. Just a lot of ranting.It was with great elation that I started this book, as I had been slowly falling in love with the series. It was with great trepidation that I ended this book, as it was a huge departure from that which I had become accustomed to in the previous 2 installments. I feared the series had lost its “IT” factor and worried that what I had come to love, was over.Here’s the thingy: in the first couple of books, Jax has been a badass with little to no regard for others (though we all know that bitch has a heart of gold). In this book, she was appointed as an ambassador and it required her to tone it all down, be respectful, and worst of all – act acquiescently (the horror). It went against all of my Jax grains! I hated her “bowing down” to everyone and everything, so to speak. I wanted her to say, “I’m Sirantha Jax and I have had enough”, then roundhouse kick someone in the face and blow the place to smithereens. I wanted that early in the book. Instead, there was a lot of politics, conversation, waiting around, (snoring, on my part), and prostrating. It was boring and infuriating. There were emotional developments, yes. There was character growth, yes. There were very touching scenes and the interaction with the Ithtorians had its moments, but overall, it was a snooze. It’s saving grace? Vel… Sweet, polite, endearing Vel. I’ll say no more on that.I love me some Vel. LOOOVE me some Vel - shiny, hard, chitin and all. Thankfully, Doubleblind had a lot of Vel time. I liked it if only because it provided major growth between Jax and Vel. There were superbly poignant moments between them that left me achy in all the right places (my heart, you harlots).I didn’t understand why there was so much reference to that one Ithtorian, hereby renamed “What’s-his-chitin?”, as I can’t remember his actual name. You know, the young “handsome” one that had a hard-on for Jax? Why beat that hard-on over the head so much if nothing was to ever come of it? It was just a whole lotta nothin.Oh and how about the shitbomb that was the Jael twist? Total BS! How do you take an awesome character who provided a lot of the little bit of good in the book and make him into a humongo asshole who sells errrybody out? No fair!Lastly, if ONE more person performed a frikkin WA, I woulda plucked my eyes out.Moving on - am I the only who is SO over March and his issues? Somebody get this dude a Pretty Robotics Therapist stat. The melodramatic nonsense between Jax and March is suffocating. It is the one thing that I cannot stand about these books. I get that the author wants to create conflict between them, but it’s so frikkin annoying. I think Jax attributes way too many good qualities to March. I don’t think he’s all that great and he needs to get him some Xanax paste or somethin’ and tone it down. He’s painted as this great humanitarian who is brimming with unseen danger and truthfully, I don’t buy it. To me, he comes off as a whiny, immature adolescent. Shut up March and get it together!So, with all of this being said, did I read the next book? You bet your ass I did. I love this world Aguirre has built and I wasn’t to be deterred by one mediocre book. Keep reading - it gets oh, so much better. =D
