Nightchaser (Nightchaser, #1)

by Amanda Bouchet

[Ashley]

Maybe 2.5 stars.

Ugh I'm starting to feel like Amanda Bouchet is just no longer an author for me. I LOVED A Promise of Fire. The last book disappointed me, but I thought a fresh start with Nightchaser might be fun. Nope. Not really. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either, and I really wanted to.

1. There wasn't really a ton of world building. There's a lot of talk about this old war and a tyrannical overseer guy, but it just left me with way more questions than answers. How did that war start? What's the deal with Earth? I feel like it was randomly half ass mentioned once. How did this overseer come to power?

2. I didn't love the romance. I guess it just wasn't my type. I hated all the cheesy baby names like "sugar". They just grate on me. This is a personal preference thing, of course, but I don't mind pet names after a relationship has been established, but they just feel slimy to me when said between strangers. I don't want a random guy I've only spoken to once calling me "sugar". Ew. The love interest was also SUPER caveman-y -- talking about how he was so surprised when for the first time in his life he didn't have to slow down his walking pace to accommodate a woman. Eye roll. I just saw a cheesy guy trying to be all "dominant" than an attractive love interest.

3. The story felt all over the place. I didn't really know what was important. There was stuff coming in from left and right and I didn't really know what to focus on... the overseer, the rebels, some special advanced human species thing, religion, the orphanage, Shade's empire/legacy. But I guess the problem was that all these things made a shallow appearance, but none of it went into a huge amount of depth.

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This book was still kind of entertaining, but I definitely didn't love it and won't be continuing with the series. It might be time for me to part ways with Amanda Bouchet as it just doesn't seem like her books do it for me anymore. :( Huge bummer.