Flashback (Keeper of the Lost Cities #7) by Shannon Messenger

★★½

*** Warning: This review contains spoilers!! ***

Early on in the series, when I read one book after another, I complained that there was too much recap at the beginning of each book. Now that I'm picking up book 7 after a long hiatus, I can't remember anything, and I need all the recap I can get! Still, it's not enough, there are so many references to things I don't remember at all. Oh, well.

I feel a little bad about my relatively low rating of this book, but it was just too long, with too much dialog that felt like filler, and not enough action. The book started out promising, but then fizzled, and I was halfway through before I felt like things started happening again. As in other books in the series, the storytelling that moved events forward continued to feel sloppy, with everyone mostly guessing at what the evildoers' plans were, then landing on a theory with a declaration of, "That makes sense."

I really enjoyed the creation of the multi-species bodyguard team; I liked the idea of all the species working together.

I didn't enjoy the additional focus on the Fitz-Sophie-Keefe love triangle; I'm just not a fan of romance being tangled up in action stories. Sophie still strikes me as "young", like a teenybopper compared to Fitz and Keefe being more in the "older teenager" category. I am not sure what is so desirable about Sophie to make her the target of everyone's affection, except that she's the moonlark, which makes her mysterious and special. I think both Biana and Linh having admirers would be more believable. Anyway, as eye-rolling as this sub-plot is to me, I was glad to finally see movement in the story line, and a resolution. And given how I think of Sophie as "young", I was pleased to see her put the brakes on moving too fast with Fitz. She may have been unbelievably oblivious to Fitz's feelings for her, but she was remarkably aware and mature in understanding her own feelings for Fitz, and recognizing that she wasn't really ready for a relationship yet. Wow! I super appreciated the good modeling for young readers.

Events finally picked up towards the end of the book, and the plot developments - particularly those including Alvar and "the Vacker legacy" - did not disappoint! In my mind, the ending lifted the book to 2 1/2 stars. Not sure if I will continue the series, but I'm not ruling it out.