You Only Love Twice
3 Stars

Good development for the ongoing story arc, but the romance is disappointing.

The world of Bec McMaster's London Steampunk is fascinating, and her original take on vampirism is displayed to full effect in this installment particularly with regard to the origins, motivations and conflicts of the various dhampir characters. The plot to destroy London and kill the Queen moves in a new direction with the introduction of the mysterious assassin known as the Chameleon. The twists and turns involving the identity of the killer make for engaging reading, and the ultimate explanation is both surprising and satisfying.

Unfortunately, the exciting world-building and compelling storylines are undermined by the lackluster romance. Obsidian and Gemma's second chance at love is flat and uninspired. Neither character is sufficiently fleshed out, and the flashback scenes to their first meeting do not actually provide any insight into how they feel for one another. Readers are presented with the facts of their love-affair, but not the emotion behind it.

Moreover, Obsidian and Gemma's relationship is completely overshadowed by the few interactions between Malloryn and his bride-to-be, Adele Hamilton. Their snarky wordplay and intense chemistry highlight the deficiencies in the primary couple's connection.

Finally, the cliffhanger ending is exceedingly annoying. The only redeeming factor here is that the series is now complete so there will be no waiting to find out what happens next. ( )

I liked the first 2/3 or so a bit better than average, it's second chance, revenge, and enemies-to-lovers tropes, and I thought they were handled well. After they're together though, which is usually the part I like best since I'm only so-so about the enemies-to-lovers trope, things actually went downhill and I ended up just wanting it to be over already. So that was disappointing. There were two big drawn-out action scenes, and a fair amount of setup for future books, which was a lot for that point in the book, but my main problem was that out of nowhere all the characters started making really dumb mistakes. The facepalm sort, that made me want to either roll my eyes, or kinda cringe. When a blatant mistake leads to a whole scene, it's a little harder to care about that drama, because all of it could and should have been avoided if they hadn't been so simple-minded in the first place. And events are less interesting when they're just the obvious consequences you could have seen from a mile off anyway. So it ended up kinda losing me, but I did like that first part, so I'm still giving it 3 stars.
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I love this series! I am DYING for the next two books!!! ( )