A (political) suspense, placed in a post-continental war contemporary world. Bastian is running against time to get to a conference in Chile to deliver his speech and defend democracy. His journey is plagued with set-backs and delays orchestrated by a political rival. Throw in an almost permanent state of confusion courtesy of above mentioned rival, a loss of his Morph® phone (Bastian's whole life was on it) and constant pondering over his multiple break-ups, and here we have a character so fractured, that you keep wondering whether he is ever going to make it to his destination. Yet there was a small token that keeps Bastian focused. In the end, I loved him for his determination and his devotion to the cause. This book is packed with humor, curious facts and cultural references. I also found it a bit on a surreal side, a cross between Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Kidnapped by R.L. Stevenson (weird, I know, but it's my impression). My only two problems with this book is the beginning, where we have a couple of pages of info dump (not too bad, but still) and the ending, which is a little bit anticlimactic. I wish there was more of an impact, a "Eureka" moment before the solution was revealed, but I guess it's OK the way it is. Bottom line, I really enjoyed the book and will definitely watch out for more of Giuseppe's books.

Not as good as the first time around, maybe 3.5 stars.

Insane amount of characters with nick-names, titles and birth-names drove me almost to the mad house this time. How did I keep up in the first place, I have no idea - this is clearly some kind of name porn read. Chadwick, Coldwell, Cony, Jeremy, Jensen, Benson, Braxton.... what the hell happened to all the other letter in the alphabet? Why so many of them have to start with the same letter? 

In contrast, Nate calling Aiden "boy" in the second part drove me crazy, too. It's your spouse, you moron! And a prince! Show some respect! :/ Arghhh!

On sci-fi side... why not install GPS on your lift/car or a tracker app on your tablet?

There are inconsistencies and holes in the story, but - whatevers, it was still a fun read :)

There have been three brutal attacks with multiple victims, but so far @60% the MCs have just one sorta kinda maybe theory. Instead of investigating, they have unrelated to the investigation talk, drink tea, hang out with relatives, have more tea, more talk, hang out here and there again, insult each other on occasion, talk and drink more tea. 

If a casual hang out drinking tea and having conversations thing butters your cucumber sandwich, then this story is for you. However, I am done.

1 star. Sorry, JD, this simply is not my cup of tea.

A little weak on mystery, I think. George didn't impress me either. 3.75 stars, all courtesy of Jefferson, whom I liked quite a bit.

I hope the author forgives me for my speculations, but I am just sharing my personal impression of the book.

It seems to me the story was started some time ago, like a decade or two. When the author came back to it, tho, she did with gusto and somehow propelled the time period from regency or maybe even early 20th century to 2013 without a single glance back. All that I like had ended with Chapter 12. Chapter 13 welcomed us with a very sudden and very vicious addiction to cell phones, texts, voicemail and turning the damn thing on and off. Energy bars, credit cards, modern technology and modern jargon (started with "dunno") is suddenly all over the place. 

Everyone is high on caffeine and sugar, hence, I assume, all the giggling, chuckling, laughing, smiling and so on (thesaurus was thoroughly exploited in this story). MC did a 180 and turned into a complete gigglepuss by 60%.

Then, there is all that food and clothes. The author is like a vice, she latches onto a subject and can't let go even after a new shiny pops up :( 

Consort/Master dynamics, inappropriate and overused crude dirty jokes appeared to be all wrong to me. Maybe I am overly PC, but I cringed most of the time when Julian stepped in to discuss his responsibilities as a consort. Why is he even male? O.o Alex's "mounds" got pretty old and overused pretty fast; several characters managed to come off as sexist as**oles.

I started the book looking forward to a mystery. I got over my disappointment on that matter very early in the book and decided to enjoy fantasy of manners, magic and The Courtship instead. Chapter 13 (yes, I know, I already mentioned it), disappointed me again. The Courtship stopped. The old charm disappeared. Modern world and modern jargon with multiple new inane characters, whose names mostly start with J, took over. 

Means of communication: first it was just a messenger or an occasional phone call, then it was cell-cell-cell, and t-h-e-n, because Alex/Julian relationship is not cheesy enough, we got Horace, The Messenger bird, who carried Alex's and Julian's letters in his chest where its heart supposed to be. 

I did enjoy bits of a story, finding the courtship and magic fascinating, too bad it was given up for clothes, food, drinks and endless empty banter. Is ever a revised, well edited version comes out, I will give it a second chance. For now I can only give it one star.