I am enjoying this series.
This series was a breath of fresh air from Eric Vall. I really like everything about this series. I loved the main character, each girl (especially how the author wrote the harem in this book, It feels so organic and weirdly very realistic and is probably the best harem the author has written!) and all the side characters. It is an intense post apocalyptic world and it was very enjoyable to read. That was until Kimmie sort of became part of the harem. This seems to be a trend in almost all Eric Vall's book. There must be atleast one pregnant woman in the harem, well in this case a woman with a baby. In most cases, I like it when a girl gets pregnant in a series but in this case it feels weird.
First off before I say anything, I am not saying that I hate mothers with newborns, I just don't think it was a wise choice to add Kimmie to the group. Kimmie was introduce in book 7 but only really started to become notable in the last book. Since the last book, Tav has weirdly become infatuated with her. To me, this just came out of left field. At no point between book 8 and 12 did I think Tav was interested in Kimmie that way but suddenly he is lusting for her. Ok fine, but why add Kimmie to the harem, if a girl should be added to the harem I want that girl to part take in the same missions with Tav and his girls. For twelve books now, it has always been Tav and his girls doing shit but if we add a baby to the mix, at least for me it kinda ruins my enjoyment because every free minute they get, instead of cute flirty banter we will get "Oh I wonder how the baby this and that is?". For me, that really isn't as enjoyable as the flirty banter.
Secondly, the fact that you added a girl with a baby to the harem before we get to know her past raises alot of red flags. Why would she be interested in joining a poly relationship especially because as it seems now, she was only with her baby daddy before? Is she fine with raising her baby with this sort of relationship going on? What past experiences did she face before getting into this relationship? How does this not only affect her but her baby as well? Maybe it's me and I am overthinking the situation, but it kinda creeps me out that a woman with a baby, who father hasn't even been dead for a year now (probably) is so willing to jump into this harem. And the dynamics of the well established harem is being brought down because the book just focuses on nothing moments with Kimmie and the four girls are more or less in the background especially Paige.
As stated earlier, I thought how the author handled the harem in this series is way better than any other that he has done. He stuck with a set amount of girls and focused on building each girls relationship with Tav as well as building upon the relationships the girls have with one another up. It was very enjoyable to see how each girl came to love each other and their personalities play so well off one another, so when introducing a new girl to this harem, it needs to be handled with care. We need to see how Kimmie interacts one on one with each of the girls, if her personality can play off all the girls and how she handles herself during tough times. As it stands right now, she has only went on one mission where all she did was set up a relay system and possibly gain the respect of Anna. I need more than that for me to like her character. Plus with the whole baby thing, I find it just adds way more complications than is necessary and kinda changes the mood of the harem from flirty and cute to a more serious tone.
(It is not that I hate baby talk and all, but I am just at an age where I have no interest in babies. To me, adding babies to a story needs to feel organic and well placed rather that just haphazardly thrown in there. Babies complicates lives and with how every book is shaping up to be, the last thing Tav needs right now is to be a father [step-father].)
Besides my weird hiccups with Kimmie, I think this book was alright. It is definitely a less intense book than the others but still somewhat enjoyable to read.