Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

Thes is going to be short.   My splint is making it hard to type, I lost the fabric that goes between the splint and my hand, and I'm just in general not feeling like a long review.  That being said, if you don't like broken, genius teenagers, this book is not for you.   I didn't mind, but as in the first, I thought they were unique enough and while they whined and moaned and bitched, when push came to shove, they got over it, and worked together and did what needed doing.  I also like that they mostly sniped at each other before becoming a team: I feel like I witnessed their coming together and was in from the beginning. I also got to witness how their overcoming that dislike and realizing that they had some things in common made them a stronger team at the end. 

This continues through this book, and I really liked the strong character development as the characters made poor decisions to overcome some problems - and then owned those decisions and did the best they could give their current circumstances.   I also love that they didn't do the right thing all the time and things weren't all magical solutions to their problems.  It made it feel more realistic and complex.   It's an imperfect world and they're doing the best they can to navigate it as everything continues to change around them. 

I also really, really like Halcyone.  I  love her, in fact, and I still ship Barre/Halcyone.   She's the main reason I keep reading.   As with the first book, I feel like this didn't have to be four hundred pages long - but I didn't really mind, either.   It might have been stronger with a little tightening up, but it was also a five star read emotionally for me, and that trumped the minor editing I felt this could use.   

This leaves it at a nice point, as a last minute issue comes up and begs to be resolved in the third book.   Which I left at the summer home, figuring I'd focus on comics this week. (I've been adjusting to the splint and depressed, probably about the lack of motion I have.  Not all motion, just enough to make things harder for me, thus the depression.  Which is why I haven't really gotten through comics.)

It's also why I finished this book on Monday, but didn't write the review then.   I was really, really adjusting to the splint on that first day.