Book Review: Trapped (ARC)

Trapped (Iron Druid Chronicles #5)
by Kevin Hearne
Expected publication: November 27th 2012 by Del Rey
Source: Edelweiss (Random House)
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From Goodreads:

After twelve years of secret training, Atticus O’Sullivan is finally ready to bind his apprentice, Granuaile, to the earth and double the number of Druids in the world. But on the eve of the ritual, the world that thought he was dead abruptly discovers that he’s still alive, and they would much rather he return to the grave.

Having no other choice, Atticus, his trusted Irish wolfhound, Oberon, and Granuaile travel to the base of Mount Olympus, where the Roman god Bacchus is anxious to take his sworn revenge—but he’ll have to get in line behind an ancient vampire, a band of dark elves, and an old god of mischief, who all seem to have KILL THE DRUID at the top of their to-do lists.

Review:

I loved the first four books in the Iron Druid Chronicles and book four, Tricked, is my most favorite so far so it hurts me to say that after the best book in the series comes my least favorite, Trapped. I loved the humor and the action-packed scenes in the previous books and while those aspects are still present in Trapped, they all suddenly felt tedious to me and they fell far too short for my liking.

Whenever I read a new book from this series, I always look forward to meeting new mythological creatures and the books haven't failed me to date. In Trapped, we are introduced to a few more of them strange beings and we also see the gods and goddesses we met from the previous books. I guess what disappointed me here is the addition of romance. While Trapped is not really all about romance, what little of it involved here stood stark against all the action-packed scenes and it made the reading experience slightly awkward and forced. I think that ever since book one, the tension between Atticus and Granuaile was already palpable. This never really bothered me, to be honest. I thought Atticus also had the right to flirt with girls, but what I never expected is the later escalation of this to real romance. I've always been the romance type of person and I rarely read YA that don't have romance in it. This series is an exception. But now that I'm beginning to see bits of "real love" here and there... instead of loving it more, I'm feeling the opposite.

Also, I'm beginning to see Atticus's bad traits that I failed to see in the former books. In Trapped, I realized just how selfish he is. This selfishness caused so much damage in all the pantheons as well as death to so many innocents that now, even though his life is in more danger than ever, I can't bring myself to sympathize with him. All the troubles he encountered, he brought upon himself and what's worse is that there are innocent people who are forcibly pulled into his fights.

Overall, I didn’t enjoy Trapped as much as I enjoyed the previous IDC books but I’m still as excited as ever to read the last book in the series, Hunted.

Rating: 2.5/5

Disclosure: This book was received from the publisher (Del Rey via Edelweiss) in exchange for an honest review