I am so relieved now she avoided writing much with the Landens if this is where it could have gone, to be honest. The first book is--without the second two--such a neat idea, and I swear, it had all the right earmarks for "The Others learn people are people too" and boom, she went entirely the opposite goddamn direction.

It's such a disappointment, because the world is just so neat (all the supernatural are actually an entirely different species! Humans aren't the apex!) and the first book introduced some great characters and freaking Tessa who can kill with a look and now I want the Celt-Romano alliance to nuke the fuck out of the world on principle. If they've developed nukes yet (hope!). I mean, if she's going the whole 'good nature evil humans' she kind of failed at showing nature to be an improvement; they're just as destructive if not more so, and seem to do it for fun.

(This also now is significant: the first humans who came to Thaisia (America) came out of Africa. I thought in the first book that was a very cool departure for a fantasy novel from All White Europe All the Time being the explorers and now....it's moved from 'interesting' to '...you're kidding, right? Oh God, you're not?')