Grade: B

(Reviewer’s note: You really have to read the previous book for any of this to make sense to you. This is very much NOT a stand-alone. In fact, if you haven’t read the first book, I implore you not to read this review. It’s very much spoilerrific.)

There was a line in this book that I really, really liked and gave me the good chills: “He stared at her face like he wanted to peel it off and take it home with him”. You know those romance novels where the hero and the heroine don’t think of anything else but each other and to hell with everyone else, to the point where they’re thoroughly obsessed with each other? Well, this one is it. Rowan’s every waking thought is Delgado and Delgado’s every waking thought is Rowan. Well, Rowan thinks about revenge sometimes, like, “I should kill all those bad government people because they killed my dad and best friend and stuff”, but the reason behind it is really more like, “Oh, it’s my fault that they’re dead. Curse this power of mine that no one else has and because of that, I’m really special and everyone wants me!” There are some creepy elements here, like when the Big Bad Sigma tell Rowan what they really want to do with her—made my skin crawl, dude—and some genuinely tense scenes interspersed with Rowan: “Does Justin still love me?” and Delgado: “Oh, no, she’s too good for me! I don’t deserve her!” What begins as intense between Delgado and Rowan kind of dissolves into teenage-angst whining, but thankfully, there are some really awesome bang-bang-shoot-‘em-up scenes where the heroine (thank the heavens!) is not afraid to pick up a gun and actually use it. My main issue with this book, though, is that Rowan starts out as a kickass, take-no-prisoners kind of gal, but once Delgado was near her again, she reverts back to the whiny little girl-baby from the previous book. Rowan, I think Delgado might be bad for you, sweetie.

In the absence of Justin (explained in the previous book), Rowan becomes a tough little gal. She learns martial arts and how to use weapons, plus she becomes the second-in-command to Henderson, the Professor X type of guy who leads the Society, which is an X-Men type of group. During their missions, she’s usually the point-guy, and actually keeps her head about her when they get into pretty sticky situations. That’s my kind of gal. Sure, she still thinks about Delgado non-stop, but at least she’s a fully-functioning being now, and not the whiny, little girl that she was in the previous book, cursing her powers and the misery they have brought her. Once Delgado re-enters her life, however, he’s all she ever thinks about. Gone is the kickass warrior woman and in her place is a ten year old girl with a first crush and at one point, I was actually expecting her to pass a note to Delgado that says, “Do you like me? Circle ‘yes’ or ‘no’.” Come on, people, I thought we already settled this in the previous book! Yes, Rowan, HE LIKES YOU, ALRIGHT! Now pick up the gun and kill some people! God! Anyway, she becomes freakishly dependent on him again and acts like a baby bird that has to be taken care of or she’ll die. Oh, Rowan, we were starting to be friends, honey!

As for Delgado, he is a little bit more pussified this time around, but he’s still very intense. It’s really like saying that a tiger who has just fed and is now lazing around under the sun is less intense, but really, it’s still a freaking tiger. He’s still the “go-go-go” GI Joe soldier boy from the last book, but NOW WITH MORE WHINING AND SECOND-GUESSING! Yes, Delgado, Rowan still loves you… NOW PICK UP THAT GUN AND KILL SOME PEOPLE! In the first book, I was gushing that I wanted him to be my boyfriend and stuff, but this time, I don’t know if I want him any more. First of all, all he does is wax poetic (in his mind) about Rowan’s beautiful, shiny, shampoo-commercial blond hair, interspersed with him brooding whether Rowan still loves him or not. He really goes back and forth between, “Does she love me?” and “Oh, she can’t possibly love a guy like me… I’m not good enough for her!” Delgado, dearie, you need a hobby, and no, making collages of Rowan complete with letters cut out from magazines, Lisa Frank stickers, glitters, and little smiley faces DO NOT COUNT! Still, when he stops thinking about Rowan for a second, becomes the cold and calculating soldier boy that I know and lurve, he is sexy and electrifying again. In this book, I was kind of hoping that I would find out more about his past to give me more of an insight into his motivations and what makes him tick, but I got none of that here. Seriously, why is he so obsessed with Rowan’s hair and insists on calling her “angel”? Is it a purity thing? It’s kind of creepy and has long ceased to be hot.

Oh, and the italicized thoughts that drove me crazy in the previous book are back in full-force. I prefer not knowing each and every thought Rowan and Delgado have. I can kind of tell how they feel and think through their actions, so I thought the italics were a bit of an overkill. They make the story kind of comic-bookish. It reminded me of panels from a Batman comic book where he’s perched on some ledge, watching his prey, and he’s thinking, “That fucker can’t even see me. I can totally take him out before he even knows what happened to him”. The difference, though, is that in comic books, you really can’t tell from the picture what the character is thinking, but with Rowan and Delgado, Saintcrow has the liberty paint us a scene with words and actions, but instead she gives us the italics. They just kind of bog down the pacing and mess up the flow of the prose. Without the italics, I would have also been spared from the non-stop second-guessing of Rowan and Delgado about their feelings for each other. Seriously, kids, just sit down and talk this shit out. OR GET IN THERAPY, FOR FUCK’S SAKE!

What’s awesome about these two, however, is that you get the feeling that what they feel for each other IS real. There’s a sincerity to it that truly resounds from Saintcrow’s prose. I also enjoyed that they don’t think in terms of, “Boy, Rowan has a nice ass. I would sure like to bend her over that table and really give it to her” or “Mmm… that Delgado sure can fill out a t-shirt. I would like to rub ice on his nipples and nibble at them with my perfect little teeth”. There are some really nice moments here where Delgado brushes Rowan’s hair out of her face or Rowan just watching Delgado from a distance where you just kind of have to go “awww”. Though these two drove me crazy with their whining and second-guessing about each other, I could tell that they really loved each other. Sure, it comes off as a weird co-dependent thing, but it’s really very sincere.

Not that they would have had time to sit down and talk. Saintcrow throws us action scenes one after the other. Unlike the first book, where there was some really nice quiet scenes between Rowan and Delgado, we get very little of that here. This second installment is really more comic-bookish than the other. Not that that’s a bad thing or anything. Saintcrow really knows how to write the hell out of action sequence and does not shy away from the violence. The more I think about it, the more I think this series should have been a comic book. Saintcrow has the dialogue down-pat. She also sets up the scenes like a comic book. This isn’t a bad thing, either, because I’m a huge comic book nerd. My comparisons of Saintcrow’s work might be misconstrued as a slight against Saintcrow’s writing because a comic book, after all, is all pictures, very little words, but this is not the case. I love the way this woman writes. The way she writes her action scenes is so vivid that I can actually see them as comic book panels in my head, but her quiet, more introspective scenes are really nice, too, especially the one where Henderson reassures Delgado that he’s still useful to the group and where Yoshi and Rowan just kind of hang out and talk. There’s also this one scene where Yoshi tells Delgado that he and Rowan are just friends because Rowan is in luuuurve with Delgado (duh, dumbass!).

I smell Yoshi and Delgado slash!

I might have made it sound that I didn’t like this book, but that’s a dirty, stinkin’ lie. This book was a very quick read because of all the action scenes and I really dug that Rowan wasn’t afraid to pick up a gun and save Delgado when she needed to. I thought it was funny that Henderson was threatening to tie her down just to keep her from busting into a Sigma installation and saving Delgado. This here woman REALLY stands by her man. I also want to give Saintcrow KUDOS for that creepy ass scene of Rowan in the Sigma lab, looking all tied up and helpless, but then she… okay, I’m not going to spoil that scene because it was really good. Also, GOOD JOB on the Carson character. Very creepifying. I think this book would have been an A or the very least, a B+ if it weren’t for the italics that drove me up the wall. I look forward to revisiting this series should Saintcrow decide to write a sequel. Good stuff.

Oh, by the way, I’m going on vacation for three weeks (WHOOO!) so you won’t hear from me for a while.

LOVE YOU ALL and HAVE A GREAT CHRISTMAS/HANUKKAH/KWANZAA!

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 10th, 2005 at 10:03 am and is filed under Books, Grade: B, Sci-Fi/Fantasy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.