And this book, unfortunately, is where I draw a line under this series.

Don't get me wrong - it's still fun, but in the end, there were too many things that niggled me about the book to get into it and continue with the series.

It felt as though there were too many plotlines, combined with some slightly-off pacing and plotting - the big action finale takes place around three-quarters into the book, with the last quarter focusing on Kitty/Jeff's wedding... which had zero conflict or tension.

Also, trying to keep the character names straight drove me mad - for instance, Kitty would think of someone as Reader, but call him James. There were more than enough characters already - having different names for each person made it even more difficult to remember who was who.

And finally, this came across as a bit of a throwaway comment in the book, but really pulled me out of the story and was possibly the tipping point in my decision to finish with this series: (view spoiler)[Kitty gets changed into a sexy outfit, the other character essentially tells her to get a cover-up and then they have this exchange:

He took my shoulders and turned me around. “God, it’s as bad from the back. Really, go put on some clothes.”
“I don’t have a wrap, okay?”
“Find one. Before I rape you.” He gave me a gentle push toward the bedroom.

??!!!!

Fair enough - there had been some romantic tension between these two previously and this was meant as a joke, but seriously?? I thought we had moved on from rape being a female's fault for dressing "inappropriately" - even as a joke. Aarrghh. However it was meant, I have to say this episode yanked me out of the story and had me fuming a little. I would have said I don't normally get on my high horse about books having to have the RIGHT message, but really. (hide spoiler)]

I just don't have enough invested in either the characters or the story to continue reading this series.