Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

plot spoilers **** Let me preface this review by saying that I have been a fan of The Green Rider series from the beginning. Britain has an excellent writing style that hooks you in leaves you wanting more... I love this series. This book was well written and had it been a stand alone title or a much much shorter novella I might have enjoyed it. That being said I was extremely disappointed in this latest installment. While it was well written, I am sad to say that the 3-4 year wait time for this title wasn't worth it. While I appreciate the focus on Karigan that this book tries to have, it doesn't seem like this is THE KARIGAN I've grown to love. My Karigan is full of action and defiance. She does what she feels is right and she fights for her country with unwavering loyalty. To steal a line for from another reviewer, this Karigan was too "twilight teen angst" for me. She seemed to sit back and let the action happen, a meek side of Karigan that was brought on by Morphia, but seems to continue for too long. About the only true defiance stems from saving the "supposed green rider" horse, Raven. I was hoping that this book would continue the story forward for the war with the second empire, the Karigan/Zachary/Estora story line, Estral's lost voice, the crumbling Wall, the new riders being called forward, The Eletians and their sleepers, her connection to Westrion, Karigan's swordmaster training and her link to the Weapons... I wanted the Green Rider world. Instead I got post Industrial Revolution lacking in Magic, action and really any storyline interest I tried to drum up.  I like that the book was written to focus on Karigan, but part of what makes her Karigan is her interactions with the other characters in Sacordia. Her interactions with the characters in the Empire seemed to feel forced and one dimensional. Yes Karigan finds "love" but it seems born more out of loneliness and attraction to the one person in the Empire that listens to her, Cade. It didn't ever feel like the back and forth that we see with her and Zachary (that seems to be never ending though). Now I'll be the first to admit that I'm definitely team Zachary, but had the character of Cade really stood a chance of not getting predictably killed off by Britain, maybe I could have gotten excited by Cade... on second thought, no, still team Zachary, sorry. I feel like the whole Cade/Karigan love plot was forced simply for Estora to have twins... as there is no other point to mentioning Karigan's potential pregnancy, then ripping it away from her the minute she arrives and Estora doubles over in pain, except for adding a previously unmentioned second child. Subtle plot twist for future books it was not. But once again giving Estora what should have been Karigan's seems to be a running theme.  Then for Karigan to spend the last 30 pages having gone mad because of the time travel, to lose a child (that could not have existed in the first place), to lose "love" that can't be remembered, to lose her eyesight, to lose months in Sacordia, for all to think her dead and grieve, just seems like too much for 30 pages. Not to mention summing up all the other 870+ pages by tossing her into the abyss for a 5second chat with Westrion, naming her his Avatar, which we knew from previous books. Forced much? This book doesn't answer many if any questions for me (for those who said it answered your questions, what were they?). It doesn't carry the series forward. To spend 800 + pages on a story only to erase almost all of it in the last 30 seemed to tell the reader it was a filler book, that it didn't matter, that none of it was important. And now I'm sure we'll have to wait the predictable 3-4 years for the next one to come out. My only hope is that if I decide to read the next one, that I like it better than this one.