Review: In Between Seasons

Title: In Between Seasons
Author: Cassandra Giovanni
Publisher: Self-published
Released: 9th May 2012
Rating: 3/5

Kate Ericson has always known her life is a lie. Despite knowing that a war has been raging for the past sixteen years, she doesn’t know how it started, why it’s happening or indeed anything about her world, and refuses to believe the stories she’s been told, all of which are flawed. It’s a shock when she’s kidnapped by Hunter, a general from another tribe, even more so when she finds out its thought she knows of a secret weapon that can be used against the tribe Hunter belongs to, run by his father – who is, she discovers, her father’s greatest enemy. Gradually, Kate learns more about the type of world she’s living in and comes to realise there really is only one person she can trust.

This was absolutely not what I was expecting. Even taking into account the notice (which I read far too late) beneath the GR synopsis, this book is far more character-focused than I would have thought. The book centres on Kate and Hunter both as individual characters and as a couple, with the world used only as a background. There was a significant lack of detail which I think worked in one way but perhaps failed in others. It very much helped to emphasise the characters, thus achieving the author’s goal. At the same time, I think I would have liked some time taken to be introduced to the world more fully, at least the world as Kate knows it. The writing had a distinctively rushed feel to it, and it was not long at all before the action kicked off. There were so many opportunities here for detail, and it would have helped with the confusion I couldn’t help but feel at times. Having said that, that confusion didn’t last long and I could quickly pick up what was happening.

Kate was a likeable character. It was good to see that, even if she didn’t know the truth, she still recognised the lies. Because of that, there wasn’t any time wasted in her trying to hold onto her old beliefs – already she was a stronger character, ready to move on, and that saved frustration. She wasn’t hesitant in leaving her old life behind and when the time came, she learnt how to fight, knowing it was necessary. What I would have liked to see in her character is perhaps some sort of emotional conflict to help her be more believable. When she found out the full truth about her family, she was quite accepting of it and was more than prepared to defeat them. It was up to another character to tell her that she didn’t want to kill someone she was supposed to be close to. She also had a habit of spilling everything at once and openly criticising things that were accepted by everyone else, which wasn’t a particularly sensible thing to do.

Hunter had me straight-up melting. Being a general and kidnapper, you’d think he’d be cold and indifferent, right? Not so. I felt really sorry for him because he had to keep up that facade in front of his comrades and his father. Especially his father. He had to go along with their crude jokes and opinions and basically not show his soft core. Around Kate, he was completely the opposite. He was allowed to show he cared, and it was more than evident that he did. It was sweet to see how she could see the turmoil in his eyes while everyone else looked at him and thought he had no emotions. The relationship between them was, I felt, a bit too quick to develop – and Kate was too quick to trust him – but somehow it wasn’t as annoying.

Overall, this was a thoroughly enjoyable book despite the flaws. I was surprised to find myself with something that was more romance than dystopia, but seeing as I’m something of a romance junkie (there, I admitted it!), it wasn’t too much of a problem for me. I would have liked a lot more world-building and explanation, and there were a lot of grammatical errors, but it wasn’t too hard to see past the latter and in the end, I just kept on reading. I’m definitely looking forward to reading Walking in the Shadows, which is being released next month.

A big thank you to the author for providing me with a copy in exhange for an honest review.