4*
I love this series so much, and it's probably my favorite RH series out there. With this book in particular, there were things that I loved and things that I didn't love.
In Solace, Setora is being labeled as the "Liberator," a title that is spreading like wildfire across the landscape from group to group. Everyone is learning her name, which is making the world much more dangerous for Setora, and more people are trying to get their hands on her. Her men are in full protection mode, having to navigate obstacles that they haven't faced before, and the frequency of these dangerous encounters is only increasing. Setora is being attacked on all fronts and her men are scrambling to save her.
What I liked:
For me, I live for the romance between Setora and her men. I love the angsty relationship she has with the guys, I love watching their relationships grow, and I really love seeing how the guys' feelings for Setora dictate their actions. It's the focal point of the story for me, and everything and everyone else is just noise.
These characters are so dreamy. Every book builds upon the one before in terms of Setora's relationship with her men. So with every book, they fall deeper and deeper in love. Solace was no exception to this trend, and Setora's relationship with Sheriff and Hawk in particular was focused on and developed further in this book. Setora hasn't told all of the guys that she loves them, so her relationship with the guys hasn't plateaued yet, it's still being built upon. It was so romantic and lovely to read, exactly what you want in a romance story.
What I didn't like:
I felt like there was a lot of noise in this book. There was a big thing that happened early on in the story (no spoilers) that was the focus of the first half of the book that I felt like could have been consolidated a bit. I appreciate the authors' focus on the authenticity of the characters' actions and feelings when faced with certain obstacles, but I felt like the focus was too thorough and inhibited the story from moving forward. The event I'm speaking of also happened before in this series, and I think it was handled better is that instance in terms of moving the story along quickly without sacrificing the sadness the loss that the character would have felt. The whole story sort of came to a halt for a while (or at least I felt like it did) and the focus of the writing was how sad everyone was. Then, later on in the story was another example of the authors trying to be authentic with the characters where a big thing happened with Setora (not giving anything away), and when it happened everyone talked about how they had no idea what's going on or how to deal with it. Then when Doc check out Setora, there is another discussion of how no one had any idea about what's going on with Setora. Then they hold a meeting about how they have no idea about what's going on with Setora and make a vague plan on how to move forward. Then Setora comes around and there is yet another total rehash of everything that happened when she was out, how no one has any idea what's happening, and the vague plan they have to move forward. I believe it was all in an effort to realistically describe how most people would actually act under those circumstances, but it got very redundant in my opinion.
I do appreciate the authors' commitment to character authenticity, and I understand why each scene was in the book. Although I do think that some of the scenes were a bit drawn out, I didn't feel like the scenes in their entirety were irrelevant to the story. All in all, I am happy with this book and very excited to see what comes next.