SHB’s Likes and Dislikes: Ruthless Game by Christine Feehan
11 Jan, 2011 in Paranormal Romance 13 Comments
Genre: Paranormal Romance
#9 Ghostwalker Series
416 Pages
Ruthless Game is Kane and Rose’s story. For those of you like me and don’t know who the heck these characters are let us refresh your memory. Think back to Deadly Game (book #5 and one of my all time favs). Kane was in Dr. (Evil) Whitney’s breading program when he fell for Rose, one of the orphan’s Whitney bought to enhance and run his inhuman tests on. After finding out that she is pregnant Rose escapes with the other girls and run away from Kane (this isn’t even mentioned much in this book – Oye vey) Ruthless Game starts off with Kane and his crew (Mack and Jaime from book
looking for Rose to prevent Dr. Whitney from getting his hands on their baby. Unaware that she is 8 months pregnant, he finally succeeds in finding her and just in time before Dr. Whitney can kidnap her (again) for her baby. Rose, Kane and the help of some new Ghostwalkers band together to prevent Dr. W from stealing Kane’s baby.
What We Didn’t Like
Mrs. K: This series started out as such a promising urban-fantasy-thriller but somehow lost it’s way after the first initial books.
KC: First off as a reader I like to be ‘present’ when the characters first meet, their experiences, (whispers) first s-e-x scene etc. If I hadn’t taken my ginko bilobo I would never have remembered these two met in book 5. I think the author missed an opportunity to refresh readers how on Kane and Rose met and I would have like to have followed that story arc vs where we first start off in this book.
Mrs. K The characters lack a certain authenticity and their relationship felt very mechanical and wooden.
KC: I actually thought Kane and Rose’s chemistry beat the pants off of the previous book in the series. But, if we are comparing character chemistry like Mari and Ken, Gator and Flame – Kane and Rose didn’t sizzle as much as earlier characters. Still, I felt there was sizzle!
Mrs. K Author has exhausted the mysterious Whiney angel and keeps adding more characters, which kind of fatigues this plot for me
KC: I kind of agree. Dr. Whitney is one elusive Mofo. He’s mentioned briefly in this one because he wants Rose’s baby – I think this series could use another villain especially since he’s more of a man-behind-the-curtain villain.
KC I was not a fan of the parallel theme of the drug lord after Rose; it felt unnecessary and didn’t really capture my attention.
What We Liked
Mrs K. I liked that the RG is filled with heart racing action, which helped keep my interest. Especially car chase scene!
KC: Unlike K-Khan I liked the romantic tension between Rose and Kane felt it was more interesting than previous book.
KC: Introduction of new Ghostwalkers. Since we’ve pretty much read all the original Ghostwalkers except for a few, I like how Feehan introduced more characters for us to obsesses over. Javier, Rhianna, and ubber special Ghostwalker Paul.
KC: Ghostwalker Baby. Maybe its because I’m preggers but I liked that we got a glimpse of the baby as opposed to Rose just being pregnant.
Bottom line if you enjoyed the previous Ghostwalker books, Ruthless Game has some great action scenes and Kane and Rose’s story hooked me in. Clearly Mrs. K didn’t enjoy the book as much as I did, but I FORGIVE HER. We both agree that we’re getting a bit fatigued with the main plot of this series and Dr. Evil, but this is Feehan and we just can’t quit her. Although RG was a more suspenseful read than the previous book, it still was missing some of the spark from the earlier books like Deadly Game, Shadow Game, and Night Game.
Books we heart in this series
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I have this on my TBR pile. I can’t bring myself to start it because I don’t want to be disappointed. However, your review has given me some measure of hope. I haven’t really enjoyed a Ghostwalker book since probably Jack or Ken. The last one was so bad that I was ready to give the series up. I’m going to read this one as a chance for redemption since I love the Ghostwalkers. I totally agree that they need a new villain or perhaps a new premise. Finding the genetically matched girls and having babies while running from Dr. Whitney is getting old, especially since the babies are never born. I swear the girls from the first books have be pregnant for 5 years. Your dislikes have been things I was struggling with in this series, however your likes give me hope. I love the way you set this review up.
@Jay LOL!!! At least in this one Rose gives birth. I swear Lily has been preggers forever – she needs to birth that boy pronto!
Although Kane and Rose are no Mari and Ken or Gator and Flame – much better chemistry than Mack and Jaime and books 6-8. I liked it thought it was worth reading and am all over some of the new Ghostwalkers introduced in this one.
I almost didn’t buy this book since I had decided to give up on this series after the last few books. I ended up buying it though after reading the first chapter excerpt. I liked the relationship between Kane and Rose though I don’t remember them from the previous book – thanks KC for the reference. I thought this one seemed to be paced better. I agree regarding the drug lord angle – totally unnecessary. I loved seeing the Ghostwalker babies. It’d be interesting to find out what kind of powers they have.
Hmm… guess I’ll have to start this one at the beginning. I have another one of hers I didn’t enjoy (don’t ask…I didn’t take my ginko) but I might have to try this series.
@Eva I was surprised Feehan didn’t re-introduce how Kane and Rose met a little bit more. It was all in one minor flashback.
@Melissa LOL. Feehan can be a hit or miss with me, but she was one of the first PNR authors that got me hooked on this genre.
I love this review, I’m sure you’ve done others like it but I really enjoyed seeing your different views on it. I do not have this series on my TBR pile yet and I’m not sure I’m going to put it there. Do you think this is a very good series overall?
I haven’t read Feehan in a looooong time.
I really like this style of review! I vote you do it more often. All in favor say *AYE*.
I have this on my shelf and need to get to it. I used read these as soon as they came out but the last one or two just haven’t grabbed me as much as the earlier ones. Ahhh, my sweet Gator.
@FV If it were up to me I’d do all my reviews in bullet points O_o
@Debbie I’ve been unimpressed with this series since book 5….now we are on #9 – and yet I still buy ‘em. Vicious cycle
I could not agree more with most of the statements about this latest Ghostwalker book. Ugh! I felt like I jumped in the middle of the book. I admire Feehnan’s idea of changing it up a bit, but I like to read about the cat and mouse games most romance writers conjure up. The whole story just seemed out of order and too easy. Not a lot of excitement and I will admit I skimmed through a lot of the love scenes, it was kind of ruined for me. Like reading the last page of a mystery novel. You already know what happened, geez they had a kid together.
I have not been impressed with the past 2 books in this series either. Maybe like somebody said earlier, the plot is done played out. But, I am kinda excited to read Javier and Rhianna’s story, that sounds promising.
Conspiracy Game is still my fave book in the series though!
Does anyone know what pages Kane and Rose were introduced/together in Deadly Game?