This book was a bit better than its predecessors. For one, the main characters finally form a blending, which means they do a lot more together, resulting in a lot less repetitiveness. They also manage to get over a lot of their problems, which brings down the annoyance quite a bit. The only problem is, I don't really like the ending of the book. Ok, perhaps I should have expected something to go wrong after everything has gone according to plan for 2.9 books, but 1)it breaks with the rest of the story and 2)the main characters manage to get split up again, which makes me really scared about the repetitiveness of the next book... ( )

(Alistair) Also read on the plane, this, the third of the five books of The Blending, and the pace of the series definitely improves over the perhaps somewhat disappointing in that respect Competitions. The fivefold repetitions have essentially ended here, which is good because while it worked well initially, there's only so much of that one can reasonably read, and the misunderstanding and trouble among our protagonists is much - albeit not completely - resolved.

(The blurb's mention of "But their fragile union threatens to disintegrate when Jovvi and Tamrissa discover a secret sensuality that would make their blending supreme," BTW, is definitely blurbtactular overreach. It was a relatively short and easily resolved plot thread.)

And the plot progresses, as they and some of their competition finally learn to Blend, and the actual challenges begin. To say too much of that, of course, would be a complete spoiler - suffice it to say that the plot of the villainous noble would-be blending we met back in the last book comes to some fruition, with them using the various common groups as cat's-paws to eliminate the competition, and while the road looks clear for our protagonists for a while, they end the book separated and in what look to be very bad places indeed, in an archetypical example of Extreme Cliffhangerage.

Thus, definitely looking forward to #4!
( http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/cerebrate/2008/03/challenges-sharon-green.htm... ) ( )

Not that great of a series. ( )