ellelainey's reviews
2502 reviews

 

 ** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK FOR MY READING PLEASURE ** 

 ~ 

 Beneath the Indigo Sky (Unexpected Love, Book 1) 

 by Rayne Hawthorne, D.W. Michaels 

★★★☆☆ 

 323 Pages 

 1st person, dual character POV 

 Triggers: intense grief and depression; suicidal ideation; death of two background characters; violent on-page homophobic assault; amnesia; 

 ~ 

 Beneath the Indigo Sky is the first book I've read by two new-to-me authors. Unfortunately, it just wasn't my taste. I feel like the book was split into two different writing “voices”; one was overly flowery and poetic, while the other was more focused on telling the story. My main problem with the book is that it spends 99.9% of the time telling us what's happening rather than showing us. 

 ~ 

 TRIGGERS 

 I was really pleased to see there was an entire page dedicated to trigger warnings. However, I feel it wasn't utilised properly. It mentions an on-page assault, but this wording is so non-specific that I didn't know whether this meant a beating or a sexual assault. It turns out to be a fairly violent homophobic attack. 

 There was a mention of “passive si” → this, particularly, felt inappropriate. After spending an entire page listing the triggers, it chooses the most vague method of “passive si” which is a phrase that not everyone will understand. I even Googled it, just to make sure it meant what I thought it did. I don't understand why the author listed everything yet resorted to a shorthand for something as serious as suicidal ideation. 

 Despite the ambiguous phrasing, I disagree with the suicidal ideation being passive. Jayce spends the entire book constantly dropping hints – he doesn't want to wake up tomorrow, he wishes he'd died instead of Jordyn, he can't go on alone, he can't deal with life – and it's very clear that he's not at all passive. I think what the author meant by “passive si” is that Jayce never actually attempts suicide, but he's very much in the emotional headspace of wanting to, and because it's such a long-running concept throughout the book, I feel that calling it passive is very misleading and diminishes the immense grief that Jayce is going through. 

There's a listing in the triggers that “There are also minor paranormal elements that are left deliberately open to reader interpretation.” which – honestly – feels like a cop out. I don't want to get sucked into a story that puts a plot element centre stage, only to never explain or resolve that plot point. As with the other triggers, it's so vaguely worded that it's unclear what it refers to. Calling them “minor” is also misleading, because it's not minor. It's a major, central part of Namid's life, which is never answered or resolved. 

 ~ 

 CHARACTERS 

 We start the book learning about Namid, who was found naked on the side of the road, with no memory of his past. He was found ten years ago, but still has no memory of who he was or where he came from. There's a strong hint that he's something alien or some wish granted by the Aurora, but that question is NEVER answered in this book, and apparently never will be. He was found by the local funeral director, Ken, who took him in. Now he works in the funeral home. 

 At the start of the book, Jayce is preparing to bury his twin brother, who died in a road accident recently. Coincidentally, his parents also died in a car accident years ago (I think about 8-10 years). Now he's all alone, running a business they used to run together, feeling utterly desolate. In fact, he spends a good 50% of the book deep in depression with only the occasional glimpse of recovery. 

 Surprisingly, other than Jayce and Namid, there is no real on-page character other than Ken, who is basically Namid's father figure. Even then, he's barely on page until after the halfway point, where he has a minor accident and needs to be taken care of for a few days. 

 There are really no other characters in the book. Jordyn – the dead twin – is never on page, which I feel is a total miss, because although Jayce talks about him, we never get to see him other than in Jayce's memories, which are extremely vague and short mentions of “the boy who played football, the man who watched TV”. I never got a sense of who Jordyn was, despite the many, many, many, many times that Jayce claimed he was the other half of his soul. 

 There are random neighbours, customers and locals mentioned, but they never really interact with either of the MC's beyond a two second contact, and never in a way that requires a conversation. 

 In fact, the ONLY conversations that appear on page are between Jayce and Namid, or occasionally with Ken. There are no other characters with dialogue in the entire book. 

 ~ 

 FORMATTING 

 There is a problem with some of the formatting throughout. I bought this book, which means it's not an ARC issue. The front matter is wonky in terms of some parts being in a massive font, with others being in a smaller, regular font. Some chapter headers are central, while others are left aligned. 

 The use of character art at every POV change is nice to look at, but doesn't really add much, because each POV change comes with a written note as well. 

 The first scene break happens at 32%, where there's an Aurora artwork to signify the break. This only happens twice. 

 There are no timeline markers throughout the book. Sometimes we'll find out that an entire month has gone by, between one chapter and the next, but we don't find out until the end of the chapter. It would be more useful to have that pointed out at the start, because the timeline chops and changes so much, with the two MC's only meeting up every other weekend for a while. 

 Sometimes there are large chunks of 1 page or ½ a page, where the dialogue and text are separated into different paragraphs, despite being about the same person and belonging together in one paragraph. This often makes it harder to figure out who is talking to whom, which requires re-reading passages or pages to figure out the context of what is being said. When each dialogue only requires one line and the following descriptor – like the character thinking or doing something – only takes one line, there's no reason to keep them separated onto different lines, especially during a conversation with another person, where it's not instantly clear who is speaking. 

 ~ 

 WRITING STYLE 

 Personally, I wasn't a fan of the hugely flowery writing style. I would say that the first half is much worse for this than the second, but it is something that keeps creeping in throughout. 

 I found it quite strange that it took 11% before there was a single word of dialogue. Before that, there's a lot of vaguely worded “so-and-so said they were sorry for my loss” but there's never actually any spoken dialogue on page until 11%. 

 Similarly, outside of the POV markers at the start of each chapter, NEITHER Jayce or Namid's names are used within the story until 15%, which is a long time! 

 There are a lot of times when the POV switches between Jayce and Namid, but it just rehashes the same scene from a different character's view. A lot of the time, this adds nothing to the story, except the opportunity to spend more time with flowery descriptions of thoughts and feelings. 

 The flowery style wouldn't be so bad if EVERY PAGE wasn't the same. This kind of style is more effective when used sparingly, rather than spending the ENTIRE first 10% of the book this way. 

 One of my biggest problems is that some parts of the story are so flowery that you can't escape having at least one paragraph about one specific thought – like the colour of someone's eyes – but then you get some really vague mentions of other things that you actually want to know more about. 

 For example, Jayce sees a man with indigo eyes standing in front of him, and it's left at “he” and “him”, never clarified with even the vague “the guy from the funeral home”. Even this quick mention of how he knew Namid from earlier, though he doesn't know his name yet, would have helped, but somehow we're miraculously supposed to know that the man with indigo eyes is Namid. I get that he's described as having indigo eyes at one point, but it's in a vague way “a blue so dark it's barely still blue. Navy or indigo.” that means I completely glossed over it. It's actually never even mentioned again until this incident where Jayce meets the guy with “indigo eyes”. 

 Sometimes it just feels like the author(s) is allergic to using the character's names at all. 

 The story uses Namid's ability to feel other people's emotions as a way to explore how other people feel, but in a telling way, never a showing way. It really puts a lengthy distance between the reader and the emotions the author is trying to invoke. 

 “I know he's not okay, and I know he doesn't feel the same way about me. I don't mean I know that in the way people always say,” - sentences like this last one, to qualify meaning, really aren't necessary but they're used to just give the author license to drift into lengthy, poetical, flowery writing. 

 I wasn't overly keen on the way that Jayce's grief was explored. For me, it was VERY one dimensional, like he had no choice but to be severely depressed, lacking the will to live, without any hint of joy until Namid walks into his life. It's like the only reason he's allowed to function is because Namid has come along to make everything better/easier and give him a distraction from his grief. However, this isn't how grief happens. It's not a block of time where there's nothing but dark clouds, depression and not wanting to do things or go anywhere. It very much comes across like Jayce isn't allowed to be anything but wholly negative until Namid enters his life. 

 I also feel like the way his emotions are written feel wrong for grief. For example, there's A LOT of repetition of “he forgets to be hurt/shattered/broken”. However, using “forgets” feels wrong in this case, because that implies it's deliberately, that it's a choice. What Jayce is feeling is neither of those things. It would be more appropriate to say “he forgets that he's hurt/shattered/broken”. In little ways like this, I feel like the author chose the more flowery, descriptive way of explaining the emotions without acknowledging how that reads or comes across. 

 The story is listed as slow burn, however I don't agree. For 50%, Namid is in a one-sided love with Jayce, who just wants to be friends without even a hint of attraction. Then, suddenly, Namid looks elsewhere for a physical release, because he's apparently so desperate he needs to hook-up with a stranger at a bar, where Jayce sees him and conveniently gets a flash of realisation that he's been in love with Namid all along. It's all very convenient and sudden, that doesn't at all relate to what he's been thinking/feeling until now. Then they have their first kiss at 65%, which ends in 67-90% being sex and flirting, with A LOT of telling of anything that's outside of the bedroom. 

 ~ 

 OVERALL 

 I would probably have DNF'd the book early on, if I hadn't agreed to read/review Book 2. However, I ended up skim-reading at 65%, because the story was just very much the same at the end as it had been at the beginning, with the middle the only part that felt like it had a proper flow and split between showing/telling, though even that was minimal. 

 I never felt the deep abiding love for Jordyn that Jayce kept harping on about. Because we never got to see him or Jayce on page together – not even in a flashback, that would have helped give that emotional pull – which meant the emotional impact the author was aiming for never really materialised. 

 I really didn't buy the whole “the entire town hates Namid for no reason” plot point that ran throughout the book. It felt like a convenient excuse and explanation for the eventual, violent homophobic attack at the end of the book. This is the one event that sort of rounds off the story, forcing the two MC's to confront the attitudes of the locals and make a big change. However, until the final attack, there is no real reason for this change or the red ribbon that it ties around the plot. 

 I find the ending was all neatly wrapped up, but it happens so quickly. 

 For me, I felt like Namid and Jayce both had a serious hero complex. Jayce wanted to save Namid from the locals and their opinions of him, even though his attempt to do that only ended up putting him in more danger. Namid wanted to 'cure' Jayce of his grief, doing everything possible to take over tasks for him rather than helping him through dealing with them, such as when he takes over Jordyn's part of the business. Though some of the things they do for each other do help, they're more about just taking over those tasks rather than helping the person cope emotionally so they can do it themselves in the future. 

 I was disappointed with the ending. Finding that letter in Jordyn's belongings to introduce the main character of the next book felt so completely out of left field and overly convenient. There had been ZERO mention of this person in Jordyn's life before now, nor the fact that this letter writer is obviously male (considering the end sneak peek of Book 2) and the inclusion here really felt like an after thought. I definitely feel like, if the letter was found at the beginning or the middle of the book, it would have made so much more sense. Jayce could have emotionally struggled over its meaning, felt like he didn't know Jordyn as well as he thought, which would make the revelations probably in the next book more powerful. However, tacking it on at the end feels like bad planning and lazy plotting. 

 Overall, I feel like the book has a lot of potential, but it's never realised. The unusual plot is wasted by a sloppy execution. It really needed a good editor to say “reign in the flowery speech, fix the beginning, explain Namid's origins and be more clear”, because these were the biggest problems that ruined the potential of the book. It needed to be cleaner, with more showing, less telling; more character development that is not confined to Namid's ability to feel other people's emotions. The book relied too much on Namid's mystery and abilities instead. I also feel like it needed a plot point that wasn't just Jayce's grief or Namid's mysterious origins. 

 This is a book with a great concept that fails to meet the expectations or reach it's full potential. 

 

** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK FOR MY READING PLEASURE ** 

~ 

Minotaurs and Other Magic 

Mytho Collapse, 01 

by T.J. Nichols 

★★★★★ 

Minotaurs and Other Magic is the first book in the spin-off series from Mytho: Mytho Collapse. In this series, we go back to before the collapse that brought Earth and Tariko crashing into each other. 

The first story takes place months before the collapse, when no one is aware there's even a risk to Tariko's future. Nate is a human, who is hiking through Wales when a rockslide leaves him stumbling into Tariko, with no idea where he is or any way to communicate. He manages to survive a few days on his hiking supplies, then resorts to stealing clothes and food, which lands him in hot water. He's chased by guards into a local inn, where Rohan is playing the harp. 

Rohan is the prince of Callo, a kingdom/city in Tariko. His brother is the king, so Rohan mingles with the people often to make sure everyone is happy. When he sees Nate being captured by vampire guards, he intervenes on behalf of the Strega, who had warned him to be on the lookout for anything unusual. A human man in jeans and boots is very unusual, so Rohan buys his debt, incurred from his theft, and takes Nate home as a sort of protective detail prisoner. 

Together, Nate and Rohan are an interest, fiery combination. Rohan is a minotaur, with a bull's head and horns, but Nate manages to look past that, and the hooves!, to see the kind man within. He's also *very* flirtatious and spicy with Nate, who finds himself reciprocating. 

The story is basically all about Nate finding his footing in Tariko, learning about the customs and finding a place to belong. It's mostly about his relationship with Rohan, as there's a definite forced proximity going on which limits how many people Nate interacts with. So a lot of the book is just spicy sexy time between Nate and Rohan until the end. 

The Epilogue does feature the collapse in real time and both Nate and Rohan ending up in Earth because of it. My only wish would have been to see them finding safety or hiding in Earth, because I can only imagine that a human and minotaur pair would have been separated or hunted pretty quickly during the chaos of the collapse. Hopefully that will be explained in Pan's story, which is next, or I'm just going to believe they ran into the forest and took shelter until the internment camps protected them from the human riots. 

Overall, I really loved it. It was a snippet of insight into the world that we know so well from the Mytho Investigations series, while adding in some interesting new facts, such as what we learn about the Strega, the implication Nate's fall into Tariko wasn't quite an accident but more a preparation for what was to happen later. I'm intrigued to see how this spin-off series continues to reveal more. 

~ 

Favourite Quote 

“I’m not going anywhere.” 

“They might offer you jewels.” 

Nate shook his head. “I don’t want them.” 

“Elvish princes.” 

“Not interested.” 

“A pack of werewolves to serve you.” 

Nate pretended to consider that for a moment. 

Rohan tickled his ribs. “One minotaur is not enough? You need a pack of werewolves?” 

Nate laughed and squirmed. “You’re more than enough.” 

 ** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK FOR MY READING PLEASURE ** 

~ 

Werewolves and Other Worries 

Mytho, Book 10 

by T.J. Nichols 

★★★★★ 

As usual, with T.J. Nichols, and the entire Mytho series, Werewolves and other Worries was perfection. I've been waiting for Jake's story ever since I read Ogres and other Dating Dilemmas. I'm so happy to see him finally getting his HEA. 

This story starts before the unicorn shows up, so we get to see Jake meeting Adam, a human, at the bar after work one night. They hook up and end up liking each other. Adam is a firefighter, so he sees a lot of crisis and mytho action in person, while Jake is a hospital orderly and sees a lot of crisis and clean up. Adam has a bit of a werewolf kink, which was fun to explore. 

I already knew I liked Jake, but I was surprised by how much I liked Adam. We didn't get much of his POV – just 2 chapters, both after about 50% – but I really got a good sense of who he was as a person and as a love interest. He made a perfect pairing for Jake, though I would have liked to see more of him at work, but that's just me wanting more from this series in general. 

~ 

Favourite Quote 

 “I hope we never stop falling. We should fall in love every day.” 

 

 ** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK FOR MY READING PLEASURE ** 

 ~ 

 Of Ash and Thorn, by Kiska Gray 

★★★★☆ 

 310 Pages 

 1st person, dual character POV 

 Themes: urban fantasy, romance, angels/demons, Hell, previous lives, reincarnation, amnesia, forced proximity, only one bed, first time, roommates, knotting, mates, shifters, magic 

 Triggers: on-page attempted rape, stalking, threats of rape and sexual assault, violence; mentions of off-page sexual assault, slavery, cage fighting, murder, PTSD, anxiety disorder, attempted murder, whipping 

 ~ 

Of Ash and Thorn is an intriguing novel by Kiska Gray, who is a new-to-me author. I was captured by the blurb and the beautiful cover. The concept itself was clever and unique; I've never read a story with hellhounds and a phoenix before, and the way Gray pulled them together was really interesting. 

~ 

CONCEPT 

The story begins with a twist on the traditionally Fae concept of the Wild Hunt. In this case, it's demon hellhounds who are set loose on the Wild Hunt, and their prize is a rare phoenix which Lucifer has been keeping captive for hundreds of years. The phoenix – Kjell – is raised with an angel guardian, then the angel is tortured and killed in front of him once he's of an age. Kjell is kept as a slave, then released to be hunted by the hellhounds. This cycle continues every six years. 

I will admit, I'm a bit confused by the timeline of this. There's no mention of how old Kjell is when he's reborn as a phoenix – if he's an adult age all the time, or if he just ages quickly. However, the concept of the Wild Hunt was really interesting and unique. 

Thorn is a hellhound who was sold to his 'master' by his brother, to pay off gambling debts. Thorn has been a slave for four years when the story begins, and he's been used as a cage fighter, despite being smaller and not as strong as other hellhounds. He's a useless fighter, really; he loses all his fights and his master, Haem, is sick of losing money on him. As incentive to do better, Thorn is told to enter the Wild Hunt and bring Haem the phoenix to win his freedom; if he fails, he'll be considered worthless and thrown to the other cage fighters as a punching bag. He knows he won't last long, so he knows that his only hope is to win the Wild Hunt and capture the phoenix. 

In this first part of the plot – where we're introduced to Kjell, Thorn and their circumstances, and the Wild Hunt begins – there are mentions of a lot of off-page triggers. There's mention of Kjell being beaten and tortured during his captivity, until he's released into the Hunt; and mentions of Thorn being sexually abused, assaulted and violently beaten by the other hellhounds. 

I really liked the idea of the hellhounds being able to choose between a wolf-ish hound form or a human form at will, and that Kjell, as a phoenix, had his wings always on show. Some phoenix stories have them as just another form of shifter, but this felt more interesting to think he always had access to his full powers. 

~ 

CHARACTERS 

I liked the main character Thorn all the way through. Despite how hard his life has been, he's so positive and always sees the brighter side. He's pushed his trauma down, but deals with it in small ways that means he can be strong and smart. He's not a good fighter, but he's smart and capable in other ways, which means that he can use his stubborn resolve to live to get through even the hardest punishments and difficult times. 

My interest in Kjell wavered – he started off so strong and feisty, independent and capable. But, as the human plot began, Kjell became controlled by his social anxiety, his fear of crowds, which was fine; until he started becoming so jealous, illogical and negative. Most of his POV's in the human plotline are filled with negative thinking and a serious insecurity that leads to him making ridiculous choices and bad decisions. 

By about 30-35%, Kjell really starts to get on my nerves. He goes from a feisty, defiant character who fights the injustice of his fate, to morph into a spoiled brat who is so insecure and jealous that he can't think clearly. While Thorn constantly strives to protect Kjell, doing everything he can to keep them afloat, Kjell often doesn't return the favour, never openly communicating, keeping his stalker a secret until the last moment then throwing it in Thorn's face when he doesn't instantly take the threat seriously. It really got on my nerves how often he got all self-righteous with Thorn. 

There were some interesting secondary characters, like the Arcane, Ingram – a type of higher level demon – and the angel, Nician. However, I feel like they were set up to be bigger characters than they proved to be. We end the book without understanding the motivation behind Ingram helping Thorn and Kjell, or what it means when he says he'll find Lucifer “another toy”. That sounds like the set-up to another book, because it's never resolved. I also feel like there's a suggestion that Nician might be another main character in the future, because of the scenes we saw of him with his human ward, and that he helped Kjell when he really had no incentive to. At the very end, we're briefly introduced to Rixton, who runs a sanctuary, which feels like another set-up for some kind of spin-off in the future. 

While these characters were all interesting, I do feel like they were kind of left hanging, at the end of the book. 

~ 

ISSUES 

For me, this was a two part story, with one being really unique and intriguing, while the other sadly just wasn't as interesting. 

The first part is the part where Thorn and Kjell are hellhound/phoenix, trapped in Hell, enduring awful lives but have to come together for *reasons* to protect each other. THAT was the part of the plot I loved, which lasted for about the first 25-30%, then another 15-20% at the end. I loved the desperation, the adventure and the action of this part. Every minute was captivating. 

The second part was when they had to become Thom and Kel, pretend to be human and hide in the human world, the Inbetween. That, for me, is where I completely lost interest and that took up a good 50% or more of the book. For me, it just wasn't as engaging, as interesting, and they lost contact with everything that made them unique. 

Another problem was that there are A LOT of triggers in this book (see above) and there was no warning, at all. There are NO trigger warnings, which I feel there should be. 

For a start, there are frequent mentions of off-page sexual assault which is vague but integral to Thorn's past. There is on-page stalking that lasts a good 5-10%, that culminates in a quite graphic attempted rape, then a violent attempted murder. 

Honestly, while I understand the need for Thorn's past and how it impacts his present/future, I feel like Kjell's story – the stalking, rape etc – felt more like unnecessary filler than being important to his character arc. Kjell already had quite a few issues to deal with, but the human, Inbetween plot in its entirety felt like filler and this side goal of making Kjell a victim many more times over really wasn't needed. It just kept the human plotline going for a much longer time. I genuinely feel like you could have cut the entire stalker/rape/murder plot from Kjell's story and it would have been a stronger plot. However, I had little interest in the entire human plotline, so maybe that's just me. 

For me, there are plot inconsistencies. For a start, Thorn is BADLY injured while protecting Kjell at the beginning of the book. Having already used phoenix tears to heal a small injury, Thorn is left with a debilitating injury and Kjell doesn't even consider trying to heal him before they escape to the Inbetween. And once they're there, he doesn't notice that Thorn's wound is badly infected. He doesn't pay enough attention to what's obvious, and yet when he realises, he spends so much wasted time mulling over the thought without doing the logical thing of healing Thorn in the quickest, easiest way possible. Considering they're in constant danger from being found by the hellhounds, this decision to behave like a human made no sense. 

At one point, out of curiosity and desperation, Thorn sets up Kjell to be hit on in a club, as a test to find out if he's into men – not long after a stranger stalked him and attempted to rape him........ And, despite being terrified of crowds and hating the girl who invites them to the club, for some reason, Kjell decides to go... It made no sense. 

In fact, the ENTIRE club plotline made no sense. It felt like a convenient way to force them to face their feelings for each other. I've always hated the whole “kiss me to make him jealous” trope, especially when it's arranged or set up by someone who is just being vindictive. The whole concept of this plot-point felt illogical for the characters and the situation they'd been in. 

Sadly, it also led to about 10% of just sex and flirting. From here on, I actually started skim-reading to find parts that were actual plot rather than just sex or the lead-up to sex. There was so much that I skimmed quite a lot of the latter half of the book, to be honest. 

~ 

OVERALL 

The blurb promises: “a sweet, spicy stand-alone romp with a guaranteed HEA” However, I would disagree. For me, this isn't sweet and spicy – it's actually quite dark in places, with a sweet and spicy centre. It says it's a stand-alone, but it feels like the start of a series. And it claims to have a guaranteed HEA, but it feels more like an HFN to me, with an ambiguous ending. I definitely feel like the ending can either be seen as an HFN, with more to come later, or a soft HEA. 

 Everything that made the story so interesting in the beginning – the phoenix, hellhounds, magic – all disappears at 30%, not coming back into the plot until about 80%. For me, as soon as it became a human story, it became boring and dragged to the point where I lost interest. Thorn and Kjell – both so smart, strong and capable – suddenly became dull humans, with no sense of caution or self preservation. From about 30% onwards, the biggest threat to Kjell and Thorn is themselves! They constantly forget to use their aliases and make terrible choices that lead to danger or getting hurt. If there had been a specific plot concept to their being in the human world, a real arc to their time there, then it might have been better. But it really just felt like they were loitering, hanging out somewhere with no purpose, making friends and enemies, being humans. After how action packed and exciting and unique the beginning had been, this was a huge let down and boring in comparison. 

 In the end, I wavered between a 3 and 4 star review. I went for the 4, because there is a lot of good stuff in this book, and great potential. Of Ash and Thorn starts and ends strong, has an original concept, good world building, great potential, which is only slightly hampered by stupid character choices, convenient plot shifts and a loss of engagement in the middle, where the story wavers, losing all the things that made it so great. 

 I feel like the book was heading towards a really good, strong ending, then veered completely off course to go in another direction, as if it needed to wrap up all the little plot points perfectly. Yet, it still ended with some questions going unanswered. I honestly feel like the 'purifying' concept would have made for an incredible ending, especially if there was a little twist to how that ended for Thorn and Kjell. 

 ~ 

 Favourite Quote 

 “Thorn had risked his life for me. He'd given up his own chance at true freedom for me, and I wish so badly that I could give him forever, or at least a future without demons at our backs. But all we have is right now. The two of us.” 

DNF'd at 40%.

I'm sorry, maybe I yawned from boredom and missed it, but where it the story in this volume?
This is just ANOTHER collection of various tiny vignettes that do not equal a volume or a storyline.

I'm officially done with this series. I probably should have stopped at around Volume 8, but I kept hoping it would pick up traction again, but it just feels like this series is treading water and repeating the same old things.