It's Valentine's Day for three women, who are all waiting on the arrival of of Joseph Carter. Except he doesn't show up. Where could he be? What secrets is he keeping? Siobhan only sees him at night, but maybe she wants to see him in daylight. Miranda is enamoured with him, but is he really right for her? And Jane knows they will never be more than friends...so why does she keep going back for more?

Most of this book reads like a series of excruciating third-person Reddit posts, written someone (perhaps the infamous Reddit Liz...) who won't take the advice of commenters to grow a shiny spine. I mean, I love Reddit drama - but not in my books. I hate-read this thing to the end, because I suspected there was a twist. I was right. But it didn't appease me. Joseph comes across as the worst man in existence and even the twist doesn't excuse his appalling behaviour. Honestly, sometimes he acted like a villain from a horror film. He creeped me out. Big time.

I would not shelve this as chick lit or romance (yes, I am side-eyeing the library for putting a heart sticker on the spine).

Content warning: self harm, mentions of pregnancy loss​

Kal Skirata and his ever-growing clan are hiding out on Mandalore while the Empire continues to pervade the galaxy and hunt down Jedi - a task to which Darman and Niner, unable to desert and leave Coruscant, have been assigned. Kal has no love for the Jedi. He just wants to help his boys and any other clones who need it. But Jedi keep showing up and interfering with his plans.

Damn it. I knew there would be an unresolved cliffhanger, due to the Clone Wars show torpedoing the Legends canon and thereby cancelling the sequel, but it's still a shock - especially as the storyline feels like it's mounting into something truly momentous. Traviss favours a slow build in her work, which can be a good thing, though I tend to tolerate it better if there's some tension and uncertainty present (which there was in this case). Darman was handled quite well in that regard.

Some of the side characters were more interesting than they were in previous books... and hey, I'm just jazzed that Scout survived Order 66. I got really attached to her in Yoda: Dark Rendezvous. But other characters are sidelined into the "wife/girlfriend" category. That's annoying. And holy gender-norm bullshit, Batman.

I did enjoy reading this book, despite it being deeply flawed. Perhaps it's better to imagine a great sequel/ending to the series, instead of what Traviss might have given us. Her track record was very uneven.

​As the Clone Wars drag on, it becomes more obvious that the clones are mere fodder and aren't expected - or even allowed - to outlive their usefulness. Kal Skirata wants his boys, the clones he's trained, to have a shot at a normal life and to do this he must chase down a rogue Kaminoan scientist. But success isn't guaranteed. And there are complications, a clone's offspring being just one of them.

I really enjoyed this book, which I think is due to Traviss no longer needing to introduce people, places and goings-on - she jumps straight into the storyline. Usually I'm down for a mission-centric book instead and this could have become aimless, but it was such an interesting exploration of the clones' place in the galaxy, both during and after their service. I'll never like how Traviss treats her female characters (seems to be a case of internalised misogyny?), though at least she toned down Skirata and made him a bit more palatable.

​In the back of my copy is a brief tale by Traviss called "Odds". It's less a short story and more a teaser (or a deleted section, perhaps) that doesn't hold up on its own.

Hugh Standish is an earl and he has a mother keen to marry him off - an exhausting combination. So he invented a fake fiancée named Minerva, to give him some respite. But now his mother is coming home to meet her. It's incredibly convenient that he meets a real life Minerva who agrees to pretend for a little while. But Minerva Merriwell will soon wonder if the money he's paying is worth it!

"But why's it over? I don't want it to be over," I told my husband sadly as my Kobo asked me to rate the book I'd just finished reading. Such is my love for this book. I became so fond of Hugh and Minerva's chaotic families and the comedic hijinks were actually funny (as opposed to some novels that make such things feel cringey). I'll obviously be devouring the sequel next, but still I wish the story had gone on forever...

Atticus Pünd could ignore what seems to be the accidental death of a housekeeper, but when the body count continues to rise he is drawn to a small English village - the typical setting for the typical English crime novel. But he is fictional and so is his world. Even he could not conceive what a few missing pages might lead to when an editor goes on the hunt for them...

Look, this is an incredibly clever book and it was almost masterful in its execution. But it is definitely not my thing. I read it because A) my aunt sent it to me and B) the cover was exquisite (except, as it turns out, I had got my hands on an uncorrected proof and sadly the real cover isn't as good). I'm also a little tried of this type of female character that male authors seem to enjoy writing - usually they make abysmal decisions that make me dislike them enormously.

Anyway, Horowitz achieved what he set out to do. Which is create a book that plays with the crime genre and inserts the reader as a detective themselves. So this is actually very good and I can appreciate that...but it's not good enough to make me swear off my undying hatred of the crime genre. ;)