REVIEW: Divergence (Aberrant Magic, #3) by Lyn Gala
Kavon and Darren believe they finally have the life they want–a lead on O’Brien, a better understanding of the failures that have plagued the team, and time to nurture the bond between them as shamans and lovers. However they’ve gotten involved in magical politics, and that has consequences that neither of them could foresee. Magic is changing, and Kavon and Darren are in the center of a coming storm.
In the past, Kavon’s only fear was that he might inadvertently damage Darren, and he is painfully aware that he has hurt his lover before. He’s vowed to never make that mistake again, but new forces threaten their relationship and pose a special threat to Darren. With the danger growing more intense, Kavon struggles to find a way to protect the ones he loves and Darren realizes that the magic that gave him his heart’s desire could take everything away just as quickly. Magic is a double-edged sword and the two lovers have to find a way to wield the weapon before it becomes the instrument of their death.
SOME POSSIBLE SPOILERS FROM THE PREVIOUS BOOKS IN THE REVIEW, BEWARE.
Review,
Dear Lyn Gala.
I one-clicked this book when my friend Raine told me it was out. We meet up with Kavon, Daren and the rest of the team as they are once again trying to catch the murderous shaman O’Brien, who was such a pain in their collective behinds (but especially Kavon’s and Darren’s) in the first two books. Well, to be precise, O’Brien did the most direct damage in book one; in book two the team faced some “colleagues” of his and we were not actually shown much of the hunt for him, just told about it.
Kavon learns that Canada law enforcement has lost O’Brien, but in order to get involved he needs to get political again and that’s not something Kavon likes (or so he claims). There are delicate relationships between FBI teams in the same offices, add to this a different country, add potential power struggles between shamans in different areas of the world ( both Egypt and the Vatican are significant centers of magical and religious activity), and you have a potentially explosive situation. And of course our guys and the rest of the team are right in the middle.
Whether Kavon and Darren like getting involved politics or not, they’ve become a bit more skilled in it and off to Canada they go in order to try and catch O’Brien.
“Oh? Boucher went to White. When that didn’t work, you went to McLean. And then Boucher goes all nuclear and insults Hassan. These are three people I have made it my life’s mission to never speak to. Never.” Les pronounced the word so it had three syllables just to emphasize his point. “You two are fine with politics; you just hate losing.”
I will let you guess on your own whether the main criminal Bad in this story (which is a romance as much as an adventure) gets what is coming to him. I thought the resolution of this particular storyline was okay – nothing was left hanging, but also there was nothing really surprising added to the “mystery”. I put “mystery” in quotes because in the previous two books I was not very happy with how reveals of the villains played out. I was fine with the action, I just did not think it was much of a mystery, but now that I’ve read this installment I think it was not really meant to be.
What I really liked here is how the action was used to show the characters learn and grow, as well as to show us aspects of their personalities we may not have noticed yet. In particular, I enjoyed all the interactions between the members of the team. They are still reeling from the consequences of the betrayal in the second book, and while nobody escapes the consequences of their actions – we don’t spend a lot of page space on it, but everybody has to deal with their guilt and it is impossible not to notice. The story also introduces some new team members that everyone has to work with, and Darren specifically has to figure out how he was messing up in book one, acknowledge what he did, and move on. It was just nice to see adult interaction I could relate to – not in terms of all the action, but rather the complexities of human communication. As an aside, I really liked the fact that the problem of “team looking stupid” was addressed head on and I liked that it was okay and that this would eventually pass too.
“When Coretta lined all the facts up like that, it made the Talent team seem incompetent. Okay, it made them all seem like absolute morons who couldn’t see a criminal coming from fifty yards. Since he didn’t have anything to say, an awkward silence fell, and Darren was left watching tourists check out at the front desk. When his phone vibrated, he told Coretta, “They’re five minutes out in a taxi.”
I should correct myself – I stated above that there was nothing surprising in the resolution of the “let’s catch the murderer shaman” storyline. Something happened that I did not expect, about fifty percent of the way through the book. I was genuinely taken aback for a second, because it had been the main action arc for two and a half books, and to have it be over by the middle of this story naturally raised the question as to what would happen next.
Then I learned the reason for the human trafficking case to be lurking in the background – the team now threw their full efforts into solving that, and for investigation-related reasons they all get on a plane again and fly to Texas. And while this is happening, Darren decides that he needs to try and take being a Shaman more seriously, as well as try and figure out why Bennu chose him.
Have I mentioned that Bennu still rocked and kicked ass? Well he did. And we learn more stuff and meet a hummingbird with anger management issues.
Let’s talk about learning more stuff. I don’t know whether this book, which is the third in the trilogy, was supposed to leave the door open for more books in this series. If not, then the story revealed a major danger coming to this world pretty soon and then stopped. What? Why?
I still loved it. Most of what I wanted to know was answered, the guys were solid, and the female team members were even more awesome in this book. But if no more books are planned, I am at loss as to why this new information was given to the readers.
Grade: B/B+
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I’m a little intrigued. I stopped after book one. I don’t remember why, just that I didn’t care enough to keep reading the series.
@cleo: I already loaned second book, but can offer third one for loan if you decide to continue at some point (or not of course!).
I came to realize that one of the reasons why I enjoy her books is not so much that I enjoy everything in them (there are very few perfect books in the world IMO anyway), but that I actually enjoy talking about them, I like writing reviews about them if that makes sense. her books have stuff in them I want to talk about often enough :).
Although, Ondry and Liam come as perfect to Romance couple as it comes for me, heh.