I gotta say the premise trapped me. No pun intended, I meant captivated me. The book itself? Not so much. It began well enough with an assortment of characters, some action-filled scenes, a big goal and some bad-guys to catch and vanquish. About 40/50% through the story I noticed I wasn't going anywhere. The supposed romantic interest was annoying, the bad-guys were not that scary and the plot was so convoluted I wasn't sure where to turn. There were hidden meanings in every act and even the main couple wasn't above fighting dirty between themselves, which kinda defeated the point of being allies, so I gave up. Truthfully the whole thing was only making me annoyed and cranky and that certainly wasn't my goal when I started so I left it alone the rest of the week. Wanna know what I realized during said week? Not only had I forgotten about the book but I wasn't even slightly curious to know how it ended, hence my putting the book in my DNF shelf and be done with it.* I refrained from giving a rating because I didn't bother finishing it. Good luck. That's it, I give up. I realize I am never gonna finish this book. It was a bore and a chore to read. The book follows several different people with the main heroine being Alexa. Normally I don't mind following different characters but it should add interest not bore me to death. Whatever is happening in a scene with a character sounds like it should be interesting but it just was not. There was no rush of intense feeling or just plain interest in what's going on for me. Sometimes characters would pop up without an explanation of who they are and what's really going on in their current scene. Yeah I can tell they will have a lot to do with what takes place eventually but their boring and i'm impatient to find out what drives them. There was something about the protagonist Alexa that I didn't connect with that I couldn't put my finger on until the last page I read. I think Alexa was suppose to be portrayed as a genuine, responsible workaholic but instead, I got arrogance. Being in her head eventually got really annoying. She sees herself as the savior and the victim, the only one keeping everything from falling apart. Even when she thinks of Damon it's more like he's going to be a good investment and if he want's anything from her then he's just using her. Damon has been stuck in the same place for three centuries and he has all the right to want to be free. I was interested in unraveling the plot at the end but not enough to force myself to finish. Too many annoying things about this book is tumbling over in my head so I digress.
What do You think about Phantom Pleasures (2008)?
Didnt like it. Boring. Couldnt wait to finish it.Actually surprised I gave it 2 stars.
—kevifelc
