After the terre indigene wiped out half the humans, the town of Bennett was a ghost town. However, it was also a transportation hub so the Others decide to repopulate it with a mix of Others and humans. The Sanguinati and the Wolfgard hold the dominant positions in town and another Harvester is introduced to run the saloon. Bennett is a bit of a wild west kind of town with set boundaries by the Elders. Any humans who want to live in the town have to have a purpose and be interviewed by the Others in charge. Jesse and Tobias from Prairie Gold are involved in helping getting Bennett set back up. Jana is hired as a deputy to the Wolfguard sheriff. 

I really enjoy this series. I like the Others and their interactions with humans. I am also happy to get out of Lakeside and meet new characters. I am kind of interested to see if we come back to Bennett and continue this story. However, I feel like Anne Bishop needs to find a new plot and stop sticking to her formula. I had four issues with this one: it was way too long, there was a lot of repetition, the gender stereotypes are ridiculous, and the stupidity/naivety of the characters is just hard to believe after everything that has happened. 

I think Bishop could have easily trimmed a couple hundred pages from this book but simply not repeating herself over and over again. If you are reading this book, you have probably read the others in the series and you know who namid's teeth and claws are. Or if you haven't then the first time she explains it should be sufficient. I think there were a good dozen explanation of them and how they wiped out the humans or how they could wipe out the humans or how scary they are. It was frankly ridiculous and a sign of poor editing how often the same thing was repeated. I found myself skimming A LOT! The formula of these books is that there are bad people who think they deserve to be in charge. They fight the Others and lose. People die. Repeat. 

Because we heard so often how the Others wiped out humans and how scary they are it amazes me that the humans in this series generally fall into the stupid or naive category. The bad people are generally stupid and even though they know the Others are powerful and can kill them, they still believe they are better and can take them in a fight. Why? Nothing has ever shown them they can. You would think the elimination of half the human population just recently would have taught them a lesson. The good humans are generally super naive about both bad humans and the others. Which they shouldn't be. 

I am sure there are other gender stereotypes in this series but they seemed super obvious in this particular book. Jana is a female cop and maybe the first one in the history of the world! She is discriminated against at the academy and in the job market. Then she gets to Bennett where you would expect more equality and has to learn her place in the pack. There is even a cell in the jail called the "me time" cell for females who get a bit yippy. Then you have Jesse who literally wrings her hands when she senses something off. Barbara Jean is over the top happy bimbo. Abby is the manipulative girl. You kind of expect more from a female author. How about breaking stereotypes instead of reinforcing them?