Mastiff by Tamora Pierce
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Truth be told, it had been so long since I read the first Beka Cooper book, Terrier that I’d forgotten a lot of Beka’s history, and so long since I read Bloodhound that I’d clean forgotten all of that, so Mastiff took me quite some time to get into.
I will preface this by saying I ADORE Tamora Pierce’s books. Adore them. I have over twenty (or thirty?) much loved copies of her Tortall and Circle books, and I love them all to figurative pieces. That being said, Mastiff was not what I was expecting. I still liked Beka’s character throughout all of it, especially with the hard choice she faced with Tunstall, or, that it wasn’t even a choice for her.
What I guess I didn’t like (here it comes, I cringe already) was how dry of the deepening romance that usually develops throughout her books it was. Yes, yes, I realize I am complaining about a lack of romance. Please kill me, I don’t know who this monster is that I’ve become. But seriously, where did the attraction to Farmer come from? I can make as many arguments about Beka being an independent woman who was single-mindedly focused on her work as the next (more rational) person, but the thing I think I liked about Beka from the get-go was her frank awareness of herself and the people around her. That Farmer evolved in her opinion could, I guess, be why she loved him, but I think her cop-like propensity for sizing up a person as objectively as possible (i.e. admitting she is attracted to them in her inner narrative) wouldn’t have allowed that. Anyway, I’m only annoyed because I wanted her to end up with Rosto. I totally understand WHY she couldn’t (law-abiding blah blah) but that doesn’t make me less of an idiotic shipper who can’t appreciate the book for its loftier themes. I’m all about the ‘ships baby.
Ugh, hate myself.