When all hell literally breaks loose in Toronto and superstrength ghosts are unleashed on Wes and his friends, he and Hudson are thrown into a case unlike any they’ve seen before. To save the city, Wes needs to harness his new power…and find some answers. But when he gets them, the solution to fix it all could mean losing everything.
Comment: This is the second book on the Not Dead Yet trilogy. I've read and enjoyed the first book back in August and I've decided I'd try to finish the trilogy until the end of the year.
In this second adventure, Wes has not yet told the others about the changes he noticed in his abilities since what happened with the case they solved. Wes has now more powers and he believes it was because of the artifact they dealt with before and somehow time went by and he feels that if he says something now, everyone will think he was keeping secrets.Actually, that is precisely he problem but then, while Hudson deals with his new PI business, Wes thinks he could do the same but in relation to ghosts. He fears Hudson won't like the idea but it is a fact something weird is going on with the ghosts at what is now a LGBT youth center. When Wes investigates, more problems start happening and people even get hurt, such as his friend Lexi. However, something has to be done... the difficulty is how to solve the problems without involving others...
This second adventure is not as heavy on the mystery elements as the first book was. There is still a case being investigated but since most of the details are more linked to PNR situations, I got the feeling this wasn't easy to see as a mystery, as it had happened with the other book. Still, Wes and company must investigate and connect the dots before something terrible is made to happen.
I can't say I disliked the path this went (more paranormal vibes than mystery ones) but I confess I liked the choices the author did in the other book more. There was more tension and more surprises, and somehow those things made more sense and seemed more appealing. The biggest hurdle here is the fact Wes is keeping secrets and while I can understand why Wes has them, it also felt like a way to simply keep delaying more decisive steps for much longer than necessary. Of course, when things get to a critical point, it was a matter of making quick choices, almost as if there was no actual choice.
I think the existent mystery was quite fascinating, but it was rather lost among the paranormal elements. I also think some things weren't very obvious and when they led to other issues, I was a little unimpressed by how that came to be. Despite this, I was still invested in what was happening and I wanted the characters to make better choices. This was not as great as the first book was for me, it's true, but I was interested in reading. Also, the author added some secondary situations, or should I say that she developed some secondary situations, probably to set up other stuff in the future (perhaps already a little of what it to come in the spin off).
Wes is a fascinating character and I've said many times I'm not fond of romances in first person, but Wes is a good narrator, perhaps because this is not focused on romance... in that regard, I was curious to see how the relationship would progress and I was, indeed, invested in seeing scenes between them in how they would communicate... well, sometimes how they didn't, but I'm glad to say most of the novel didn't lose track of how their relationship was. I should also confess I didn't care much for the sex scenes this time, it really felt like they had to be included, but there isn't much to them.
When the story is close to ending, Wes has to make a choice and I liked how the whole setup was made to be. I think the author took things into an interesting level and there are interesting ways this can go. I hope the final story will solve some issues but will also have better balance than this one. I did like it but certain elements weren't always very well done, comparing with what happened in the first book, mostly the paranormal elements which, sometimes didn't seem to be presented in a satisfying way.
It often seems to me that middle books in trilogies suffer from "middle child" syndrome---they are the bridge from the "this is new and exciting!" beginning to the "can't wait to see how all the threads are tied off!" climax, and as such, it's harder for authors not to fall into the hum-drum, same old in the eyes of readers.
ReplyDeleteThat is a valid possibility, yes. Lol perhaps when I read the last one I can say if that is what this second book was meant to be after all )
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