OK, third book in the Evangeline Stone series and ENOUGH with the Capture/Torture/Murder already!! Sheesh! This one finally got thrown across the room last night. Don’t get me wrong- I like mayhem. I also admit to being much happier when my protagonist is the one dishing it out. Yes, I do realize that the character has to face pain and challenges or risk becoming a 1 dimensional, super hero caricature. I get that. And I gave “Another kind of dead” more chances to make up for the misery than I might given another book of its ilk because of the previous 2 books in the series. However, I made it from Chapter 21 to page 309, only by skipping over paragraphs and then whole pages in chapter 22, just to see what happens after the Kick-ass Heroine’s current bout of Capture/Torture/Murder. This would be, what..? - the fourth in her story line and the 2nd in this book, if you count the threat of ‘Rape plus Torture, minus Murder’ that the character under went in chapters 9 and 10.
I gotta say, I begin to think there’s some psychology at work here: Once again, an author has taken this standard bad-ass chick character, (well trained-physically strong- but-emotionally wounded-outwardly snarky-but-with-an-emerging-tender-side) and tied her down to rape (or threaten rape), brutalize and murder her. What’s up with that? “Girls kick ass, but when they do, they’re gonna pay for it!” I’m really not finding this entertaining and it’s actually become more boring than horrific from sheer overuse. The series started with the protagonist’s, Capture/Rape/Torture/Murder. (Because as a female character; she must be sexually assaulted if only to give her a reason not to sleep with the male protagonist for a while.) Aside from the Agggh-factor, this trope pretty much amounts to literary laziness and it becomes as meaningless as repeatedly tying Perilous-Pauline to a railroad track. It’s as if the author has a Capture/Torture/Murder key next to the space bar on the keyboard. “It’s time to put our Heroine in jeopardy again. Hit the CTM key!”
I’d like to propose a rule, let’s call it”Evy’s Rule” after this protagonist, which states: for this and all other series in the Kick-ass Heroine genre; if you, the author, go for the Capture/Torture/Murder trope to kick off your series, you can NOT use it again. Not on that protagonist. Not in that series. Never again. No matter how many books the series produces. For each new entry, you’re just gonna have to dig deep, be creative and come up with some - Oh, I don’t know Plot, Storyline and Character development that you haven’t tortured to death already.
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Loved this and can't wait for the next one! ( )

Action packed and interesting story line. So glad the library finally got it in! Now to get the next book in the series to see what happens with Evy and Wyatt. ( )

I have very few authors I have on my "go to" list, but Kelly Meding just joined my group. Evy is a well rounded character, as are her co-characters. The story lines are interesting enough that I have spent more than one night into the wee hours reading (and suffering for it the next morning --- yawn ---) but every minute is worth it. Plotting is smooth, the story line is fast paced and interesting. I am reading every one of Kelly's 'Evy' books, and will be watching for more from this writer.
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Disappointed. This didn't really have much new and the old was redundant in spades.

So crazed bad guy makes Evy's life a living nightmare. Sound familiar, well yeah, the first two books. So, Wyatt and Evy's position or plans are tracked down and thwarted at least 4 times in this book. surveillance at the first trade off, following the goblin hybred, the cabin's position, the capture of the changeling, the apartment (with the investigator) and then finally the tracking plan Thackery, the bad guy, seems to be omniscient and they play into his hands over and over. He seems to know that they will negociate with the terrorists, twice, even though he one ups them both times. He seems to be all powerful taking down one of the most badass changeling in front of everyone. Evy's "team" just doesn't seem to have any ability to do anything.

Most of this book is the bad guy manipulating everything, torturing Evy over and over and hurting her friends. Sound familiar? First time Evy gets attacked suffers horribly, which shouldn't have happened in the first place because she shouldn't have been the one to answer the phone. She shouldn't have been the one at the trade. She should have never become involved there. Second time. She gets attacked again, while been under protection, way out of any range of tracking abilities and suffers horribly and then over reacts emotionally. The bad guy screws their plans again They then make a plan that again goes wrong, and Thackery ends up with a "friend". How? who knows because the shapeshifter is a badass. He tortures him terribly, more torture Oh now another negotiation with a terrorist or his terms. More torture, and her "team" doesn't even find her. It is just by coincidence that she is saved by a dreg friend trying to save his own person.

And in the end, you don't get a conclusion, it is all left in the air. Thackery doesn't get caught, no spy is found and nothing is explained as how he has so much power and omniscience. There is another big conflict/war scene which drags on, is very bloody violent, and actually kind of boring. We never understand why the attack happened or the purpose. More questions are left than answered.

So why the 2 stars, because I actually liked the romance and there was a little furthering of the Evy character and her abilities. I never liked the triads and think they are an evil organization. From the first book you learn how bad they are - they kill of 1/2 of the applicants by making them fight one another to the death. and they repeat it here. This organizations bottom rung is made up of criminals that will fight for their lives but in no way do I see a connection to each other. She keeps on saying how connected she was but the camaraderie is never shown, only the discord.

I keep hoping that the Triads and upper echelon will be over turned and a more just and integrated policing of the dregs starts happening. Instead each book is about Evy fighting some bad guy with the upper hand and the triads always having some bad part to play in it. Evy and her friends getting hurt and/or tortured multiple times. And then we are left thinking, this is really not a world I would like to live in.

It was OK because of the furthering of Evy and Wyatt but the redundancy of the plot and torture and violence leaves it flat. Then the non-ending... just made it so/so. This was hard for me to get through. I put it down frequently and was rolling my eyes and just out right mad, a lot of the time.

Get some new material. Fix the triads and bosses. Do something else. I'll read the next but if it is the same, I'll quit. ( )