Reading Slow & Loving It

We've had an eventful week. My husband was sidelined thanks to exposure to the Beer Bug at work, we still haven't gotten the test results back. I've learned he will not survive retirement. I've got fifteen years to plan.

Last Tuesday, Elizabeth Hunter's Dawn Caravan came out and I've been trying to read it ever since. Today I dedicated my grandson's nap time to finishing it up. I've been reading in fits and starts and found myself seriously ruminating in way I haven't since I read all of Jane Austen's novels.

What does it all mean?

If you don't know Elizabeth Hunter's unbelievable Elemental universe, you've missed out. Hurry up and read the books. If you see spoilers now, you only have yourself to blame.

This book was pivotal. Ben and Tenzin have been dancing together dangerously for years. I can't help but feeling she groomed him in a creeper sort of way, but then I had an epiphany that she had grown to like him as a child and that kept up until adulthood. She had fun training him in swords, knowing who his adoptive uncle was, he would need the protection. However, as Ben grew into adulthood, into himself, she began dragging him along on her adventures because he was a fun companion. Then, before Puerto Rico, she saw him as a man she admired. I had to think back on those stories, and I saw it very clearly. In the years he was in college and after, when he wanted to steal art to get it back to the rightful owner, she planned on his turning, no matter what he said about never wanting it.

When shit went sideways in Shanghai, she begged her father to turn him, knowing he would hate her for it. And he did. What he did to her when he woke was true hate fucking, and then he wanted nothing to do with her. In this new book, we take up two years after that night and we see that Ben has gotten control of his hunger and his power as tightly as he's lived his entire human life. But inside he's raging, he's angry. And it's all pointed at Tenzin. She knew he didn't want to be turned and she did it anyway.

It doesn't help that he goes home to LA and his family and they are overjoyed. To a man they all tell him they are happy Tenzin saved his life. Not one of them, not even Beatrice, can understand, fully, his anger.

This is where Elizabeth Hunter's talent shines like a beacon. Ben waffles worse than en Eggo in your toaster. He loves Tenzin. He hates Tenzin. He can't wait to see her. He can't stand the sight of her. He and you never know where he's going to stand. I kept thinking to myself, why the hell isn't he talking to Anne in Ireland, who helped Brigid when she was turned against her will?

Because Brigid was the one to talk him down from the rafters so many times. When he demands to know if she would change her husband, knowing he didn't want it, she tells him, without a pause that yes, she would, even if she had to do it herself, killing their love. (In Miss Hunter's universe siring is literally a parental ontaking and there is no romance involved.)

Brigis and Ben's human friend, Chloe, both tell him that they and his entire family cannot imagine living in a world where he isn't present. It helps, but Ben's anger can't get past his making. It causes serious problems.

It comes to a head when Ben and Tenzin are betrayed and he thinks she is dead. At that moment he realizes there is no boundary he is unwilling to cross to get her back, for her to be present in his world. It finally connects inside his head and his emotions. He knows there will be bad days. Tenzin is having them, too, after making a promise to Chloe to work on herself with Resolutions. They both decide that the parts of them they've closed off will have to be worked at, but not right that moment. It's a very... human... decision.

By the end of the book I was so happy to have them together and that they were able to think their way through another mess. The only sadness I held onto was the fact that Beatrice is still angry with Tenzin, but grateful to her at the same time. It's a very tight rope for Bea to walk, but she manages it. Tenzin is her husband's oldest and dearest friend, and the mate to her adopted son. She hates Tenzin for disregarding Ben's wishes, but she's much more grateful that Ben is still with them and she cannot square the circle.

This is an excellent book and the intrigue and mystery are wonderful. I'll be honest, for a few minutes I could almost imagine myself in a gypsy caravan.