rednikki's review
3.0
Susan Kearney's The Dare contains two potentially great novels fighting to the death to see if one can win. Unfortunately, the two plots merely injure each other, leaving each storyline licking its wounds and the entire novel in need of medical attention.
Kearney does interesting world-building in her books, and is beginning in this novel to create supporting characters that are on the verge of becoming three-dimensional. Unfortunately, the world-building never fully happens. She shortchanges some of her plot, and, especially, short-hands the description and development of many bad guys, making them generically eeeeeevil rather than providing true motivation for their bad deeds.
The same issue exists with the love story. There is a certain amount of hand-waving done in order to progress the characters' relationship, which feels forced. The love story in general feels shoehorned in, as if she were really interested in a third character's secondary plot but was contractually required to deliver a romance with a happily-ever-after (HEA) ending.
Will I keep reading this series? Probably. The sci-fi plot of this book was more engaging than the last, and I'm curious about the world she's evolving. The books in this series have great potential to be better than they are, and like a viewer watching a mediocre first season of a television series, I'm hoping it finds its legs with the next episode.
Kearney does interesting world-building in her books, and is beginning in this novel to create supporting characters that are on the verge of becoming three-dimensional. Unfortunately, the world-building never fully happens. She shortchanges some of her plot, and, especially, short-hands the description and development of many bad guys, making them generically eeeeeevil rather than providing true motivation for their bad deeds.
The same issue exists with the love story. There is a certain amount of hand-waving done in order to progress the characters' relationship, which feels forced. The love story in general feels shoehorned in, as if she were really interested in a third character's secondary plot but was contractually required to deliver a romance with a happily-ever-after (HEA) ending.
Will I keep reading this series? Probably. The sci-fi plot of this book was more engaging than the last, and I'm curious about the world she's evolving. The books in this series have great potential to be better than they are, and like a viewer watching a mediocre first season of a television series, I'm hoping it finds its legs with the next episode.
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