Loren's Reviews > Wicked 2: Legacy & Spellbound

** spoiler alert ** Wow. I was quite surprised how much I enjoyed these 2 books.

Legacy: After the rather pointless ending of the last book I was grimacing when I opened this one. Holder's problem continues to be that she fails to put in enough detail-BUT this book is more fast-paced than the others; it requires less detail on the little things so the niggling annoyances that irritate the back of your brain are less itchy.
The authors show that they are perfectly capable of writing a decent story; The Golems, The Dreamtime and Richard finally finds his testicles, yay!
I felt quite compelled to read the next book, something I had not yet experienced with this series.

Spellbound: This was gooood. They kill off the irrelevant characters: Silvana, Tante Cecile, Dan, Alonzo.
ITS ABOUT TIME.
I don't want to be callous but they deserved to die. The massive central casts of these books are one of factors dragging the series down. Good to see that Holder and Viguie recognise this and can see that these characters would never have developed.

I loved the whole Karienne thing. A minor detail I know, but it was rather touching; their relationship always was more realistic than Holly/Jeraud. Kari's death was simple, predictable and beautiful. Her self torment throughout the series demonstrates just how inhumane Holly has become; she cares not for those who sacrifice themselves along the way. Kari is tormented by her ruthless self-analysis and her admittance of guilt makes her a likable character in the end.

Loved to see how powerful Richard was. Ignoring how convenient it was that seven Golems turned up at the same point (I don't buy the 'thrall' theory), it was great to see him take them down with such ease. I mean the man was running and he shot a 1cm space without aiming! Not random luck. That is skill. His reunion with Nicole was heartwarming.

Eli. Quite the little piece of shit isn't he? This is what we have been led to believe thus far. Spellbound allows the reader to see things from his perspective for the first time.
He still loves Nicole and risks his life to rescue her! I prefer him to Philippe. Yeh, yeh Philippe is dreamy and whatever but Eli is soo much more interesting. Plus there is the redemption factor.
I was stunned at how appropriate it was that he killed his father. For some reason I always thought it would be Holly or Jeraud. Loved the symmetry in JamesEli killing their fathers.

Holly's choice. Ok I think it's fair to say that the series centres around this girl. And i'm not saying the downfall of the series was based on that. I'm not. But this book was more interesting as a result of her 'taking a back seat'.
When Holly is finally exorcised and the showdown begins we do expect to see some of her apocalypse-like powers. But she barely holds her own in the fight. In the end all any of them can do is summon fireballs (and raise armies of the dead-but that's just impractical). When it's all over she chooses Incest-I mean Alex over Jer. What the hell, Holly?
Firstly, Alex is obviously a piece of shit.
Secondly, what about all that soulmate stuff you've been forcefeeding us for 1200 pages?

Is Eli Alive? Is James? Where did DemonMoore go? Who is Nicole jnr's daddy? Alex Carutherrs? Do we care about Barbara's death? Will there be a Wicked3?

I damn well hope we get an answer to these questions and i'll be keeping an eye on her website for updates.

The only reason I refrained from giving this 4 stars is because its predecessors are awful.