Change of Heart (The Potentate of Atlanta, #3) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Jun 22, 2020 Katyana rated it it was amazing

Shelves: uf, favorites, redeemed-criminals, shapeshifters, fantasy, kindle-unlimited

I will continue to marvel that I like this series so much more than I expected, and I really like who Hadley has become. Midas pulled a serious dick move, but he recovered before I could hate him too much.

Overall, the relationship was really the primary arc of this book, but I'm fine with that. This was a secret that desperately needed to come out. I do feel a little ripped off, though, that she didn't explain it all to him. and honestly, as a reader, I'd like the explanation too - her actions i I will continue to marvel that I like this series so much more than I expected, and I really like who Hadley has become. Midas pulled a serious dick move, but he recovered before I could hate him too much.

Overall, the relationship was really the primary arc of this book, but I'm fine with that. This was a secret that desperately needed to come out. I do feel a little ripped off, though, that she didn't explain it all to him. and honestly, as a reader, I'd like the explanation too - her actions in the Grier/Linus series were pretty awful. So much so that I put off reading this series, because I didn't want to see Amelie get everything she literally killed to get. I'm mostly over that now - Hadley feels like a different person - but I'd love to get context.

The continuing arc with the witch-born fae felt somewhat low-priority, but again, I was fine with that. I think Natisha is the real long-term problem anyway, tbh. This coven is just fodder to get us back to her, to complete that deal. But I enjoyed it.

Plus, the secondary cast in this series is just stellar - Bishop, Remy, Tisdale, Ford, Lisbeth ... and guest appearances from Linus! What's not to love!

Re-read August 2022
On the re-read, I feel like I understand why we don't get Hadley telling Midas the story of her past - it's just better for the reader to not have that all refreshed in our mind. Amelie/Hadley did some awful shit in TBGTN, and for any reader who came from that series to this one, it probably took some time to get past. And part of how we have gotten past that is by coming to know Hadley as a different person, a person who got a restart where she gets to make her life without the framing of family and Society and expectations. Hadley - perhaps minus Ambrose - is probably who Amelie would always have wished to be when she grew up, if Amelie could even imagine herself in a role where she was a vital person to others rather than window dressing in an important person's life. Hadley is Amelie choosing to be the main character in her story.

And so it is better to not revisit what she did in TBGTN, because there isn't really an excuse for it. There might be reasons - info we're getting about the abuse she suffered at home - but not an excuse, because there are some things that are inexcusable.

Also, with the perspective gained from my current re-read of both series ... I think my first time through TBGTN I hated Amelie much more than in my re-read, and that was mostly because emotionally I was so invested in the utter injustice of that world, of the Society. We have Grier, our lead character in TBGTN, who was imprisoned in the worst dungeon imaginable at age 16, for a crime she didn't commit ... without even getting a trial. Horrific injustice, and Grier struggles with PTSD from it. Then we have Amelie, poor little privileged girl (because sure, she's Low Society, but also rich) who actually murders people in her quest for more power - there's no other reason that we can see in TBGTN, just that she says she needed power to keep people safe (which was a lie - she wanted power because she was jealous of High Society, and that was demonstrated repeatedly) - and the only result is honestly a slap on the wrist. Yes, she's disowned by her family ... though she hated her parents, only loved her brother, and he stood by her. Grier stood by her, even paying her fines and taking her in. Linus successfully argued to keep her out of prison, just got her on 6 months of house arrest at Grier's place. The injustice of that world - Grier tortured in prison despite being innocent; Amelie pretty much getting off scot-free despite murdering people - was enraging, and Amelie was an easy target. But with fresh eyes in a re-read, her story was more tragic than villainous, and even in the end of TBGTN she was redeeming herself, helping Grier, organizing aid, etc.

So again, better to not really revisit it. I get it now. ...more

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