Book Review Thursday: Sweep (Volume 5) by Cate Tiernan

Title: SWEEP Volume 5

Author: Cate Tiernan

Number of Pages: 697

Published: December 8, 2011

Rating: 3.7/5 Stars

 SUMMARY

The final Sweep collection! Morgan Rowlands is a blood witch - the last of an unbroken line of ancient and powerful witches. Though her magick is strong and she has done things that others could never dream of, even she cannot begin to explain how different she truly is. And though her soulmate - her one true love - Hunter supports her, he can never understand what it is like. But there is another who knows, more than anyone else, just what Morgan is going through . . . (Goodreads)

This was a good way to end the series of Sweep. I’m not saying I particularly like how it ended, but it’s still a good way for it to end. Anyway... Ignore my ate for Reckoning.

RECKONING

*Slams forehead into a wall repeatedly*

People, I don’t like Alisa! Ugh... There was no action, no excitement, no huge revelations, no happiness, nothing in this book. All of it was about these mysterious happenings that could get someone killed. It wasn’t even anything exciting. Alisa is still whiny in this book, weepy, etc. Sure, she has a hard life at home.

But seriously? Running away to live with people you don’t even know just because you witch mom (which, by the way, didn’t you DESPISE Wicca?) wrote to him. Come on. And everyone there coincidentally hates her accept for the one guy who turns out to be her soul mate because you know it’s that simple...

*Inserts profanity*

FULL CIRCLE

*Breathes a fresh sigh of relief*

This book was fantastic. I was hanging onto every word that came out. Everything that was going on—it was a huge blast from the past, something that I loved. I missed Cal and Selene (oops, spoilers! Sorry :P It’s not what you think though) and it was refreshing to see something from those days.

This book is another joint-POV between Morgan and Hunter. I didn’t care for Hunter’s POV in Seeker, but he was a pure delight in this book. I just sooo wanted them to be together, not in just consummate ways, but I wanted to know they would be together forever. This is the last book that has been able to surprise me for a while. Love it!

The ending was also just INTENSE. I was up until 4 in the morning finishing this. And the VERY ending was a (happy!) fistpunch to the air for readers everywhere. This literally was a full circle from the beginning of the series.

And then...

NIGHT’S CHILD

Farewell, amazing happy feeling. This book was depressing, uninformative, just...irksome in general. This skips ahead several years, Morgan and Hunter are going to get married, but btw, HUNTER DIES. Sort of. That’s ALL I’m going to tell you.

So Morgan gets together with someone else and has a daughter whose name I can’t even remember. That’s now much I don’t like her. She seems to think she’s always right and everyone else can screw off, accept for her dream guy who possibly couldn’t be bad (which, he isn’t, but his mommy’s a bit pissy). But she doesn’t listen to ANYONE and if she does, it’s mainly to get annoyed about something she’s hearing.

Morgan’s very...lackluster in this book, not at all the Morgan we once knew and loved. Until we get halfway through and then Sky comes back (yes, Sky! Sky! :D). Then the book gets super intense and makes up for most of the first half’s awfulness. But the ending was still so boring compared to books like Full Circle and Eclipse.

I am sad to say farewell to this series. Honestly, even though the last two volumes were extremely disappointing, it doesn’t mean I loved the series as a whole any less. I love the entire cast of characters, I love the events, the plot, it’s just a whole bunch of fun in fifteen quick reads. (Except for me, it took me a month to get through the last book due to disinterest.) As I said with Volume 4, the writing is still fantastic. Cate Tiernan has a true gift for writing amazing stuff. So, I bid farewell to you, SWEEP. (:

Don’t let my bad reviews for the last two volumes drive you away. If you’re curious about it, PLEASE, give it a shot. But I would NOT buy the last two volumes unless you really want to. Go to the library for them. :P

Book Review Thursday: Sweep (Volume 4) by Cate Tiernan

 

Title: SWEEP Volume 4

Author: Cate Tiernan

Number of Pages: 560

Published: July 7, 2011

Rating: 2.5/5 Stars

Summary

The fourth Sweep collection! Morgan Rowlands had thought her foes were defeated, but demons from the past still haunt her and her beloved, Hunter. Their magick is strong, but the darkness that torments them threatens to overwhelm even their love. Yet there is another, whose magick could save, or could destroy. And caught in the middle of the darkness and light, Morgan realizes that only together can they face the danger that threatens to destroy not just her soul mate, but everything and everyone she loves. For the dark wave is coming . . . and it is unstoppable. (Goodreads)

REVIEW

*Coughs* Uh. Right. I read this book in, uh... Like... February. ...

*Coughs again*

After the third volume of Sweep, the entire series seemed to just go down the drain. You know...? The fourth volume was okay. But it wasn’t ANYTHING like the last three. I’m keeping his nice, short, and simple because I don’t want to put things down that I think happened and they didn’t.

Basically:

SEEKER:

Hunter’s POV as he ties up a lot of loose ends on his part. See, he and Morgan want to consummate their love, and they can’t, because he’s leaving for Canada, and wah wah he doesn’t want it to be during a goodbye lalala. Another woman starts hitting on him in Canada and she kisses him and Morgan just HAPPENS to be scrying at that point...yeah, too coincidental. I’m starting to hate coincidence in books.

Hunter comes back and he feels nothing will ever be the same between Morgan and him waaah even though everything is fine especially since he found (insert spoiler) and a journal from Morgan’s ancestor, the creator of the first dark wave. I REALLY did not like Seeker. It was boring, not engaging at all, and kind of irritated me for the most part. Especially with (insert spoiler here).

ORIGINS:

The journal that I just mentioned. Going back in time like this was a big switch. ...I’m thinking about this now. Okay. Imagine you’re being prejudiced and you meet with this person who would also like to prejudice against you, but you INSTANTLY fall in love with him. Yeah, love at first sight, muirn beatha dan, whatever. But you FREAKING HEX HIM to make him fall in love with you.

No problem with that, right? Yeah, wrong! The first three fourths of the book is about Rose drooling over Diarmuid and being persecuted and suspected, etc etc. Finally Diarmuid breaks the hex that’s making him love her, casts her out, and then she’s imprisoned and about to be executed. This was the only interesting part of the book to me, where she actually created the dark wave. Her emotions boiling forth into this mass that wanted to destroy everything, and its outcome.

So, Origins was better than Seeker. But not by much.

ECLIPSE:

...

>.>

I don’t like Alisa. And part of the book is told from her point of view. It drives me insane. She annoys me and she’s whiny... When it WASN’T from Alisa’s point of view, the book was fantastic. Maybe this is all just because I prefer Morgan so much more compared to everyone else. She’s my favorite character (aside from maybe Ciaran. He’s awesome).

So basically this is all about the remnants of Amaranth as well as Ciaran bringing forth a dark wave to destroy the Widow’s Vale, but Morgan still loves her dad, and there’s tension there because (crap, another spoiler). So she’s struggling with several internal things as well as external, and there’s still a buuunch of lust involved between her and Hunter, and the story progresses.

Eventually it comes to the climax when Alisa is the one who has to save the day because she’s half-witch, which she doesn’t want to believe but finally accepts when she’s the only one not half-dead due to the dark wave toxins. Okay, cool. The end of this book was actually really neat.

In conclusion, this volume was only exciting around the end of each book, at their climaxes. Otherwise they were very boring and not that engaging. Maybe I’m being a bit too fussy over this, but that’s how I felt. :/  TRUST ME when I say this volume is important to the series that is Sweep, but I feel like it could’ve been handled ALL in one short 200 page book. Not 560. Cate Tiernan’s writing is still fantastic, but the content was subpar.