Not As Magical As Someone Clearly Thinks It is

Half the time I read a book that's not pure chic lit, I end up saying something like, but it was fun anyway b/c... or after a while i got caught up in... or she/he did a good job with it... basically, that even though the subject matter isn't my favorite, or even on my radar screen, it was still fun to read, either because the characters were good, or the story moved fast, or it was funny or whatever.  I wish particularly to recall the case of Gail Carriger's Soulless series - I read the first for the romance but the second was good despite the relative lack and the third was... well not great, but I don't think I complained too much.  In contrast to that case, I have here the sequel to Leanna Renee Hieber's The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker, The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker.  Now I didn't love the first one either, but if I recall, I said it got better towards the end.  Now part of that was of course the romance, but I think the main story was more compelling that at the beginning as well.  I mean you kind of just expect that - first of all, you just end up caring more, and second of all, the climax tends to be the most exciting / least full of uninteresting side details part of the book. 

So I kind of expected that in this book, at least a little.  I mean, I knew I couldn't expect much romance, because that story was already over, but I kind of thought there was a reason to read this book.  Like, did I care about these characters at all? Did I want to know what would happen to them, especially given that the story was pretty unresolved at the end of the first book? I mean, I'm pretty sure the answer was yes.  But... wow, that book did not live up to expectations, in that case.  I mean, from the beginning, the romance was *soooo* over.  Alexi and Percy were like impossibly syrupy and *melodramatic*.  Like so melodramatic I'm sorry I ever call anything else melodramatic.  This stuff was *over the top*.  Omg, I love you, I'll never leave you or hurt you, don't ever leave me, we'll be together, our love is the stuff of legend, blah blah blah.  And Percy is so wonderful, so sweet, so lovely... I just don't buy it.  She seems at turns ridiculously timid and silly, at others this all powerful loving saint... but never overly likeable.  And as for the plot... well I complained I couldn't really make heads or tails of this fantasy world in the first book, and the sea of confusion continues in this one.  I feel like it's just all over the place with spiritual mythology and mysterious powers leaking every which way, with no real discernable system.  I know I make fun of world-building, but there's something to be said for a fantasy world that respects some methodical system, instead of one that changes its rules to fit its conveniences.  Ghosts can't make things move... oh look, he moved that! Darkness is a god... no darkness is a power... no darkness is dead? I don't know, and I don't care.  It's frankly very silly, and a not very interesting amalgam of Greek and Catholic religious gobbledygook with some random magic thrown in.  Not really much of a redeeming feature anywhere... not even the Victorian English setting had any appeal, as it was really only the setting in name only.  The people don't act English, and the place they live in bears little resemblance to mid 1800's London, as I can tell from my expert knowledge of the place :) I really must say, I was pretty much waiting for this book to be over as soon as I started, and I never really got over my impatience.  

Verdict: 1.5/5 (I suppose there are worse books than this one... at least it's by a girl :)) 

Food: utterly, thoroughly disappointing - cook definitely trying too hard... like that nougat I once made... just... don't ask