The Alchemist and an Amaretto

4.5 stars — This one went in a lot of interesting directions, and just added to the world I’m already in love with. I loved getting to see more of the dynamics between the boys, and a glimpse at their past through the academy (Aaron and Kai in particular). I ended up learning a lot about Aaron, and my heart hurt for him. Sometimes I think it’s more brave to constantly fight against your nature than to just be a decent person to begin with. The wolf stuff was crazy! I will admit I had the correct suspicions early on as to who the bad guy was…as well as piecing together the hints about the addictiveness. Tori made me want to smack her a wee bit in this one. In so many ways she has grown SO MUCH over these books — she’s stronger, she generally goes for help instead of going it alone, she’s just knowledgeable. But dammit Tori! When it comes to her friends, she still makes some dumb decisions that are going to backfire. I mean, I guess we’ll see, but… As with the boys, I loved seeing more of Sin as well (though now I have no idea how you spell her name). It was awesome to see more of the alchemy sides, and to get to know more about her in general (her family dynamic, her shyness, etc). I love that Tori has that girlfriend to confide in. As per usual it was an action packed book, with lots of internal development as well as overall world development. As an aside, Ms. Dukehart let my Canadian heart down though — she pronounced toque as “toke” instead of “two-k”. *sigh* I wish Americans knew what this was, this is the second narrator who has let me down. Either that or Canadian authors are going to have to put it in their pronunciation guides. I also ended up buying the Kindle version so I could read the short story included in the back — what a great introduction to the 3rd series in this universe! There was a solid level of mystery, and the story was a great introduction to Kit and Lienna. Kit is hilarious. This story made me more anxious for the next Spellbound book as well!