Nancy Holder

Many aspects of this felt and read like a real Buffy episode, such as each characters quirks, the dialogue, and just the overall atmosphere. I could really see this playing out in front of me - everything from the Renaissance Festival to the final showdown. Golden has done a solid job of capturing the characters and their personalities.

That being said, boy oh BOY could this book deal with some paring down and editing! It just keeps going and going and going and going... at some point it starts to feel like everyone is trapped in an endless loop of standing around talking, getting capturing, driving in circles, and inner monologuing. Also, there are so many random asides from secondary and even tertiary characters that add nothing to the story: like do we really need three pages on how Xander's mom still sleepwalks and smokes and eats leftover chicken wings? No. No we do not.

It was a fun read, and I particularly enjoyed the moments where the reader is directly in Cordelia's head, but nothing that was a big standout. I have the Gatekeeper Trilogy on hand to read next, so here's hoping that one is a little more cleaned up!… (more)

Interesting so far only problem is that apparently no one informed the author (I'm figuring Ms. Holder) that "Angel/Angelus's" original name was Liam when he was human. Somewhat important thing to know when writing about the time when he was alive in a flashback.. certainly something an editor should have caught.

This was an odd story. I think the writer was trying for time shifts by using unusual segues. It didn't work. There are bits of the story that don't belong, they are nice fro showing the character's disposition but out of place in the plotline. (for those who have read this I'm thinking of Angel listening to the elderly woman's memories. A nice scene if it weren't in the middle of that section AND it had anything to do with the rest of the story.)

Plot threads are left hanging, and the ending is just very disjointed an ill-written. I hope Ms. Holder has improved in her writing skills since this, but I'm stunned this made it past an editor.

Two stars because I like the series.… (more)