FADING AMBER

Pacing problems hamper the third installment of the Cambion Chronicles.

Readers eager to find out what happened after the cliffhanger ending of Burning Emerald (2012) have something in common with heroine Samara—she too wants to know what happened, as gaps in her memory and strange physical evidence imply it was something big. She’s also dealing with two different pieces of unfinished Cambion business: Tobias’ possession of people in order to strike out at her and demand her help and the complications involving the Santiago family, Cambion royalty that govern part of North America, including Samara’s hometown. They are a distant threat about which Nadine’s family, visiting, educates Samara. They seek justice against Caleb’s family for covering up their father’s dangerous feeding during Living Violet (2012) and are concerned—as is Samara—that Caleb’s feeding is also getting out of hand. The Santiago family could choose to execute Caleb; one way to prevent that is for Samara and Caleb to bond with each other by consummating their relationship, as killing a Cambion’s mate is against their laws. But both storylines are in a drawn-out holding pattern until Samara starts to get her memory back. Once the action starts, the humor and danger also return to the prose, yielding a satisfying ending.

The last act rewards patient readers, but the rest probably should have been condensed.