Review: Deuce - Janine Caldwell

Deuce
Janine Caldwell
Series: Vortex Series, #3
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Science Fiction
Rating: 2.75 out of 5 stars
Word Rating: This had so much more potential
On Goodreads

And here comes my review of the final book in the Vortex series, the first two of which I have put reviews up for in the last few weeks.

I wanted to like this book so much. I really wanted it to be exactly what was missing from the other two. I tried so hard to love it.

I couldn't do it.

Okay, I didn't hate it. It fell very short but it was bearable and I could deal with it. I feel like this is just going to be a repeat of what I essentially said in the last two reviews, so it'll probably be short because most of my complaints are just continuations from what I didn't like about the rest of the series.

While the characters are certainly more fleshed out than they were previously, I feel like that has less with the audience getting to know them and more with the fact that I just got so used to them making the same choices and decisions that I started to just see them coming. Also, I still can't deal with some of the narration and how, three books it, they narrate the exact same way. That bothers me a lot because multiple narrations is often tricky and if the narrators are going to sound the same, it might just be easier to keep it as either one first person narrator or just do it in the third person, the latter of which would have worked excellently for this series.

Also, I felt like there was too much going on and it didn't all make sense, and honestly, if the second book had a few slight changes, the whole series could have ended there. This book felt like it was just tacked on and an awkward addition that didn't really belong.

The storyline was interesting enough that I kept reading until the end, but I didn't feel the satisfaction/agony/emotion that comes with finishing a good book, especially the end of the series.

I know most of what I'm saying sounds negative, and I may not have liked the series, but I really think Janine Caldwell can do more with her writing and if she publishes anything in the future, I will definitely be open to reading it and see how she has grown as an author. She had good ideas and hopefully next time her execution will be more on point.

- Noor

Have you ever felt like the last book in a series was unnecessary?
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