Ami's Hoard

I enjoyed the previous two books in this series but unfortunately, this one fell short. I have to agree with what my friend MandyM said on her Review.

This story was written from Alex Price's point of view -- however, throughout, his 'voice' as a male protagonist fell off. I couldn't really explain, maybe it was the word choice, or the tone, or the manner of Alex being a scientist and rather beta-male, but I just couldn't separate his voice from usual FEMALE protagonists. In fact, every single time I picked up this book, I had to remind myself that the first person narrator was a MALE rather than female.

Shelby, his love interest, was more alpha than he was. Somehow this whole Alpha female - Beta Male concept didn't flow naturally or nicely as I expected. MAYBE, if the story was written in third person, it would be better. Because it wasn't, I just didn't find Alex as convincing nor interesting hero to read. Which was too bad, since I thought the whole cryptids and cryptozoology world as intriguing.

The secondary characters, especially Alex's grandparents and his cousin, Sarah (who suffered after the event in book #2) were more intriguing than him or Shelby. Even his assistant, the Pliny gorgon was more alive -- including her colony.

The mystery was okay, which one of the few reasons I could still give this three stars. But again, maybe because Alex was more a scientist, I didn't feel enough action to make it appealing.

So I'm not really sure if I want to continue if the next book is still about Alex and Shelby. Maybe I would skip it and return if the story brings either Verity or Sarah as the main character.