Status Updates From Ibenus (Valducan #3)

Good book; definite improvement from 2. But 1 is still the best. The plot in this one kinda rushed forward, IMO - it had a good build-up, but then just crashed into the ending. Sort of. By no means bad, but I felt like it could've used a bit more stuffing in the last third. Especially with resolving the TommyD plot - that was very rushed.

Feels like the end of this book crept up on me out of nowhere. It doesn't feel like the plot is close to resolving itself anytime soon. Maybe the next book will pick up directly where this leaves off? Hasn't happened in this series yet (always been at least a bit of a timeskip), so I don't know.
TommyD is just a former rocker methhead. I was right, it makes no sense he has the skills that he does.

Bit neat to be back in Matt's perspective for a chapter. Feels like book 1 almost. Kind of weird that book 1 and 2 were (respectively) all from one PoV (well, bit of demon stuff in book 2, but it was still Malcolm's body) but this one has been all over the place. I like it, though. Still enjoying this immensely over book 2. What a turn around. Not that book 2 sucked, but... by comparison, I'd say it kind of does.

Damn, didn't expect the new guy to die. Not after all that time was spent establishing his character. Seems a bit farfetched that some cryptozoologist conspiracy nut would be well-trained enough to take on/take out two knights by himself, but... I guess we don't really know anything about him yet.

Ah, that's cool. Book 2 had a passing reference to a lamia demon being somewhere else in New Orleans. Now they've made a callback to that, with Malcolm having trapped it in a mask (another thing from book 2). Neat.

Wow, that was a surprisingly graphic sex scene for this series. First book only had some nudity, and second book had a couple of fade-to-black scenarios. But this was full-on foreplay before the fade. Not that it offends me or anything, obviously... but not what I expected in this.
As for the story implications, this feels like it's moving too fast, but clearly Ibenus is involved somehow.

So far, I'm liking this a lot better than the previous book. Book 2 had almost nothing to do with the Valducans. This one is all about them, and the process of inducting two new members. I find that infinitely more interesting. It's what initially engaged me with the series, and book 2 was a bit of a letdown because of its focus.
I'm perpetually afraid that something bad is going to happen to Allan, though.

Bit odd that the first like three chapters weren't from the protagonist's PoV. Wonder if this book will keep flipping like that, instead of sticking to one character like the first two books did.