The Reading Jackalope

Immediately after finishing Clean Sweep, I started on this one and devoured it whole. I adore everything about this book. And what’s really awesome is that it looks like the series is adding alternate dimensions into its ‘science’ so they can add characters from their other books. (Which is what happens in this one, but they’re from a series I haven’t read yet, so I found out by reading the Goodreads reviews). It’s completely ridiculous ‘science’ and I love it.

In this one, Dina is asked to host a peace summit between three warring factions. She’s desperate for guests so she agrees. The factions include the vampires, the traders (whom we met in Clean Sweep), and a new group of warriors. All three want to claim a planet that has some very valuable ore and none of them are willing to give up their claim for various personal reasons. Plus we add a new permanent character to the inn with Orro, the melodramatic chef Dina hires to help with this summit.

The world building is expanded in lovely ways. We learn more about the Inns, and what they are. We also delve into three different alien cultures to see what makes them tick, plus we have some more shallow mentions of two other cultures. And for those of you who have read The Edge series, this book features characters from that series, so yay? I don’t know, I do know I’ll be picking that series up now.

The story is an utter delight. Complete candy-coated goodness. Except that candy coating hides some really dark stuff. I was merrily reading along and reached the two thirds mark and something was revealed that just broke my heart. And the story just kept adding blows. It was awesome. I am completely enthralled. I need more, I need it now. However, while the third book is currently out there for consumption, it’s only available in serial format. I believe the authors have released up to chapter 7. Though they do release a chapter a week, I despise DESPISE the serial format. And I think the book would suffer for it. So I have this dilemma, do I read it anyway or wait?