Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Bottom line up front, the Skull Throne was hugely disappointing. At the time of this review there are 45 reviews and of those there are 16 Vine Customer Review of FREE Product (VCRFP). I would subtract the 10 "5 star" and the 6 "4 star" VCRFP from the overall equation because they are ALL 5 or 4 star reviews... and lets be honest with each other, a free product is an awesome product. I am sure they are supposed to be unbiased and all that but I find it hard to believe that all 16 would give this book 5 or 4 stars. Subtract them and you will get a grand total of "7" 5 star reviews and "5" 4 stars from those of us that had to shell out money for this huge let down of a "Demon Cycle" of a book. I am probably slow to the game but I am starting to believe that the VCRFPs are meant to bloat the overall positive reviews of a book in order to convince customers to buy it. OK, sorry about that. I need to vent but on to my review, which will sound a lot like other negative reviews: Mr. Brett left us with a cliffhanger in The Daylight War and rewarded us with an unnecessarily bloated book that feels like he is trying to milk the series. If you are a fan of Leesha then have no fears because she takes up the lion's share in this book. If you are a fan of Arlen, or even Jardir, as I am, then prepare yourself to get heartbroken because they might take up maybe only 100 pages of the book and that's probably being really really generous (I didnt take the time to count). For my part, I dont care about treacherous Krasian backwards politics and I care less about Leesha's scandalous pregnancy or her politicking in the Hollows or in Angiers. I dont care about the controversial polygamist Rojer that much either. I like them greatly as supporting cast but not characters I want to follow through the majority of the story line, which they do and by that I mean 3/4 of the book. There's certain flashbacks of randomly new characters (Mr. Brett seems to be a big fan of flashbacks) that to me felt like an overwhelming waste of time. At the end Mr. Brett does throw some curve balls at you and some will remind you of something George R.R. Martin would do in his books, but that all literally happens in the last 5th of the book. Those were the best part and they felt frustratingly rushed. I mean, some big time stuff goes down and the characters we are left with almost keep going on without a beat. Yet you have to deal with endless dithering about Leesha's pregnancy, confused love affairs, Rojer's stupid and costly fears, and strange Krasian customs? If you are a fan like me and has most of your vested interest in Arlen or Jardir then this book will be frustrating for you as you read page after page waiting for them to pop up.... because they wont. At this point. I just want the series to end so I can get some closure because if the next book is anything like the Skull Throne then I probably will stop caring.