Personal demon

I was reasonably interested in both Hope's character and her relationship with Karl going into this book, but I felt like I never really got to know her that well. I thought her relationship with Karl was handled decently enough -- though I have an admitted weakness for reconciliation plot lines -- but Hope's actual arc seemed fairly thin. She's drawn to chaos! She worries that makes her evil! She decides it doesn't! The romantic arc was actually more compelling and even that relied mostly on stuff that went on before that we didn't see.

I don't know, perhaps if she'd had more a presence in previous books then I might have felt the conflict a little more deeply. As it is, despite the fact that obviously she appeared in No Humans Involved, it mostly just felt like I was introduced to her conflict and had it resolved in the space of one book.

Then there's the issue of having two narrators. I remember reading some author notes at the beginning of one of Armstrong's collections when she said it didn't dawn on her until after Bitten had already been released as the first of the "Women of the Otherworld" series that all of her main protagonists would have to be women. I've never felt her straining against that limitation more than I did here.

Honestly, I just felt overall this was much more Lucas's book than anyone else's and Hope was just there because there NEEDED to be a female protagonist. Which I mean, it's only half a complaint. I adore Lucas (and Paige) and am very interested in his relationship with his father and with his Cabal and how he and Paige navigate that. But that being the actual meat and emotional core of the story (the attempt to tie Hope in more tightly by having her abortive romance with Jaz didn't really work for me; particularly since it was 100% clear that she was in love with Karl and only Karl) means that Hope seemed almost superfluous in her own book.

It really could have been anyone in her position, and after thinking about it for a while I actually feel it would have been a much more interesting book if it had been Savannah instead as she would also be pretty perfect for the job in question, could believably be drawn in a bit, and obviously would have a much, much deeper emotional connection to the other half of the story. Which makes me really sad to say as Hope is the only woman of color amongst the major protagonists of the series and I have no actual wish to see her overwritten, but on a technical level what Armstrong decided to do with her here just wasn't very strong.