Funnily enough I recall reading books #1 and #2 several years ago and then I somehow read book #3 and #5. Don't ask me why I skipped around like that. One good thing I can say is that the books really don't need to be read in order, however, I would suggest that readers do in order to keep certain reoccurring characters straight in their mind.

I can honestly say that this book dragged from beginning to end. It was a chore to get through and if I hadn't been sick and not in the mood to skip to another book, I would have DNFed this thing after our heroine (Leona) for the umpteenth times gets a thrill at the fact that the hero (Thaddeus) has threatened to take her (rape her). Blech.

I can say that I do like Amanda Quick books for the most part because it allows me to shut my brain off so to speak. I know that the hero/heroine are going to get together in the end and thwart their enemies. We are even going to get a steamy love scene or two. But geez oh geez this series with the Arcane Society reminded me of why I didn't read the other books. Because it's boring reading again and again about people's psychical abilities. Reading how Quick tries to explain them started making me laugh after a while. I wasn't kidding in my update about this being the Uncanny X-Men set in Victorian times because it really is.

Everyone's powers are over explained to the point that I just started to gloss over those descriptions.

Leona Hewitt is out to get back her family's crystal that legends say can enhance or destroy. While dressed as a man in order to steal the crystal from a private home, she comes across a dead woman and Thaddeus Ware. Thaddeus Ware has also entered the private home in order to steal the crystal due to it being an important artifact of the Arcane Society.

Leona I have to say that I didn't warm to at all during this book. She was not that bright that I saw when she comes across a strange man who keeps saying how he will do her harm to her getting excited and flushed about it. I don't care how good you are at helping people through their dreams/nightmares (also how is that a psychical ability?) that you think you are not going to be harmed by said stranger.

I actually didn't like Thaddeus that much either. Probably because of the whole insta-love thing he had going with Leona. I mean I hate it when women do that in romance novels, and apparently I hate it just as much when men do it. There is no rhyme or reason for them to fall in love with each other so quickly after 10 minutes. I guess you can hand-wave psychical abilities yadda, yadda, yadda, but Ms. Quick does not do a good job of setting up their romance at all in this book. Instead we focused two much on the villains in this book.

One interesting aspect of this book, and the only reason why I gave it two stars is that Ms. Quick adds in a society of women who go about living and dressing as men. I wanted to know more about them and how they were able to find one another. Other than that, bah to every other character.

The writing was typical Quick but draggy as hell. As I said above, we are given way too much time to get into the civilians heads in this book and it made everything so freaking slow.

The ending seriously reminded me of parts of the Phoenix Saga, super powerful female kicking ass, but it also made no sense either. So just like parts of the Phoenix Saga.

I'm pretty sure I read The Society when it was first released but that means I wouldn't have it as an e-book and probably passed it on for a friend to read when I reduced my book collection. I'm very glad I got the chance to re-read The Society.

What I liked: Ms Saintcrow can and does come up with some pretty intriquing storylines. She just happeded to hit all my buttons with The Society. Psychics!!! I love stories about psychics; I've read just about every book I could find featuring psychics.

Ms Saintcrow has also switched up the good and bad guys. You would think or at least like to think that our government is the "good" guys and some random group is the "bad" guys. Not in this story. The government agency (Sigma) is doing everything it can to gather anyone with special psychic abilities and using them as weapons. They are hooked on a drug and brainwashed and used for whatever purpose the government deems.

The Society is a smaller group bent on stopping the government. They identify and rescue as many psychics as they can. The heroine, Rowan, is rescued just before Sigma gets its hands on her but they've badly miscalculated Rowan's power and need for revenge. Teaching and protecting Rowan is "Del" (Delgado) and he has no intention of letting Sigma get a hold on a woman who is fast becoming necessary to him and his life.

This isn't instant love but more of a growing attraction. It seemed Del connected more with Rowan than she did with him. She needed him to teach her and encourage her to use what she always thought of as freaky skills. 

What I didn't like: I felt like I wanted more background on how the two groups ended up at war with each other or what kind of missions the psychics were sent on for the government. Does the Society have a mandate other than fighting Sigma and rescuing other psychics?? I also wanted some description of where the story was taking place. In the desert, in a city, what? I had no reference and the movement of the groups didn't include any particular place.

Over all I was very pleased with The Society and the story telling of Ms Saintcrow. I even felt the cliffhanger was necessary. I sincerely hope the next in the series, Hunter, Healer will answer all my questions.

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5.