Liam Takes Manhattan by Thea Harrison – C+ The last in the latest trio of novellas about Dragos, Pia and Liam Cuelebre, this one is also the shortest one, coming in at about 50 pages. Also unlike the other two stories, this one felt somewhat incomplete to me. It was more in the nature of a prequel novella, presaging what the next chapter in Liam’s life is and acting as a bridge to (what I hope will be) full length books about Liam. I was involved in a discussion with the author on Twitter recently and she was canvassing interest levels for books featuring adventures in Liam’s life – the first of which would not involve any romance because he’s too young (I picture them as something like a paranormal Vorkosigan series FWIW). The novella sets up Liam branching out on his own. The significance of the Christmas present mentioned in the blurb is a bit misleading I thought. I was expecting a kind of “miracle at Christmas” vibe but it was far more subtle than that.

While I was entertained enough by the story it didn’t feel to me like it told a complete tale and there wasn’t enough page time to fully develop some of the ideas and concepts contained within it. Frankly, I think the entire trilogy is for fans – without knowing the series at all I think it would be hard to understand the world building – but this one is even more so. It will no doubt be an important link in the “Liam life chain” but as a story it was a little anticlimactic for me.

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Reviews of these books will be up soon at AudioGals.