I know, I am wordy. It can't be helped. However, if you've never experienced KLMC: North Dakota, do yourself a huge favor and start at the beginning. Buff's Reign is more of a filler book to advance the timeline of the overall story. I am not sure that it would be as enjoyable as a standalone. You'd miss the little things that become huge in Book 3.
Buff and Reign
The Good:
You have to rely on the clues from the other books to really understand their relationship. It doesn't say if they met in high school, but when Reign graduates, Buff decides that the best thing for her is to let her go. She's destined for big things, and he's not going to hold her back. Buff knows he's not free as his family comes first. (Cobra's Karma).
When Buff's Reign starts, Buff has had been having premonitions that something's wrong with Reign. He can't let it go, so it leads him on the trail to find her. The story is told in the present day timeline, but with little snippets into the past that are the perfect touch. If you combine all of the clues, you can tell these two should have been together. They were just too young to figure it out.
The Not So Good:
1. I don't think I liked them together as adults. To add to that, there's also a possibility that I just didn't understand why they should reunite. If you split the story in half, Buff and Reign's actual story is only about half of the content. There's just not enough to formulate an opinion in either direction besides just saying they should be together.
2. Every time I thought the plot was thickening, I was sorely disappointed. For example: There's some sort of conflict starting to form. In my mind, I am thinking, "This is it. This is the point where it's all going to fall into place." Conflict isn't really explored or is resolved with a simple fix. For me, I just wanted more. The nitty gritty of it all.
Bone:
I don't think Bone will replace Dodge as my favorite, but I already have a strong suspicion that I am either going to love him or hate him.
The Good:
Bone and Lady Me both have chapters dedicated to their own points of view. There's more details to scrutinize and figure out what is actually going on. It's also starting to get noticed by more than one person in the family.
The Bad:
When it comes to the KLMC, I'm pretty good at figuring out what's coming next based on the little nuggets that are dropped. This time, I am more confused than anything, and it's starting to aggravate me. In my opinion, when Bone's story finally comes out, it's either going to be epic or crash really hard. Don't get me wrong! I am hoping for epic. However, I am also preparing for "All of that time for this??." We shall see.