Narcissus in Chains chapter 43

Anita's snuggling with Micah and Nathanial gets interrupted when the swan king and his swanmanes show back up, along with somebody from all the were groups in the city. Anita decides to appear with Micah. They waste about a page talking about how bad it would be if Jean Claude and he were to appear in the same room.

Given that JC is bi? I don't think he's the one with issues.

I think if I have one issue with LKH's writing--I don't mean her storytelling ability, but the actual mechanics--it's how fucking repetitious it is. First, Anita will think about a thing for about a page. Then someone will ask her about the thing. Then she and the someone will talk about the thing for about a page. It's amazing filler, but it's boring as fuck to read it over and over and OVER again. If LKH is so desperate for a book length story that she has to use NaNoWriMo level cheats? She needs to write another story.

And then Donovan Reece breaks in on the snuggle party and drops this in the middle of the floor:

He shrugged. “Nothing important, just find some missing alphas and try to convince the Kadru of the werecobras that her Kashyapa, her mate, isn’t dead, just missing with the rest. Trouble is,” Reece said, “I think she’s right. I think he’s dead.”

Wait. WHAT? We've been reading about rape-shifting and rape hugs and rapey rapey things and Anita's ANGST and Richard's ANGST and disgustingly depressing bad writing, and we could have been reading THIS PLOT? Kidnapped Alphas? Murderous mates? Werecobras? 

LKH sucks for putting us through this whole awful slog instead of that potentially AWESOME investigation plot. I mean, damn it, there would have been a couple dark closets for sex along the way, right?

Hey, it's been a while since we had religion fail.

Marianne tells me that the universe/ deity loves me and wants me to be happy.

Prosperity Gospel is stupid no matter what religion it shows up in. Deity, my dear Anita/LKH, does love you, but wanting you to be happy? Happiness does not cause growth, and Deity is not the magical slot machine in the sky. It doesn't matter how many faith tokens you drop in the slot. You will not get a pony. 
 
And...uh...that's the end of the chapter. Seriously. It's a convoluted paragraph that boils down to "God hates me".

Laurell. If you're going to pull this shit during the end game? YOU DO NOT NEED SIXTY FIVE CHAPTERS IN THE BOOK. This one and the last one would have made one good long chapter. Although this is less "book" and more "Filler, padding and ugly sex with porn plot".

God, this is gonna be ugly, isn't it?

Oh, and I have decided on our next book. I know I said I'd never do Twilight, but I never said I wouldn't do a Stephenie Meyer book, did I?

Here's what's next:
--The Host (I like it, and S. Meyer keeps the ugly to a minimum...RIGHT UP UNTIL THE END OF THE BOOK.)
--A Merry Gentry book. I have not decided which one yet.
--Save the Pearls. Which I think I will do concurrent with "The Host" because I'm pretty sure most of "The Host" is going to be a positive review. Nothing in the universe will ever make Save the Pearls a positive book. EVER.

Alright, kids. See you tomorrow!