Stalking the Others by Jess Haines

JHaines-Stalking the Others

JHaines-Stalking the OthersAt the end of Deceived By the Others I said Chaz was an ass. At the end of Stalking the Others, I have to say that Shia is an idiot. Yup, you heard that right. There are times I don’t know what is wrong with that girl….but that is why I love her.  The latest addition to the H&W Investigation series by Jess Haines is different than her previous novels, but we’re given a lot more insight into who Shiarra Waynest is.

So why do I think Shia is an idiot? Mainly because she thinks too much. That’s pretty much what Stalking the Others is all about. The ending to Deceived By the Others leaves Shia in a pretty dire situation and she kind of goes to the extreme as a reaction to it.  She doesn’t have any definite answers, but she’s assuming the worse and is all about dishing out some payback. Granted she is due some, but this whole vengeance thing is also a little out of character for her. That is the one thing that sets Stalking the Others apart from all the others. Shia does not act like herself and the reason behind that is Stalking the Others. Now I could tell you what that is and ruin the surprise for you, but I won’t.

I will tell you this though…I wasn’t expecting Issac.  Well, I can’t say that either.  I’m not completely surprised by how he turned out to be, but I’ll admit to hoping he wasn’t going to. I had a feeling that he was going to cause trouble for Shia, I just wished that she hadn’t been so blind to him.

For most of Stalking the Others, we spend it in Shia’s head and while that’s fine, it meant that a lot of the action was pushed to the side.  Don’t get me wrong, there was plenty of action and it was awesome; but I feel like Stalking the Others was more about getting Shia to a certain frame of mind, so therefore we had to be in her head more.  If that makes sense.  Even then, she does end up where we all want her to be (you know what I’m talking about), but even then she starts thinking. However we have to wait for book five before we get any more of that.

I have to be honest.  I’m writing this review after having read Stalking the Others a couple of months ago and I was planning on re-reading it before writing this, but I can’t stop thinking about how much of an idiot Shia was being.  She has a great support group, but she doesn’t use them – yes this means we do not get to see any Arnold or Sara – and she’s taking everything to the extreme. It’s just so out of character for Shia not to trust her friends for help when she needs it that it took me awhile to figure out that something wasn’t right and she was being influenced.

Because she does spend so much time in her own head, I feel like Stalking the Others isn’t as action-packed as the previous novels.  This is neither a good or bad thing, it just makes me feel indifferent about it. There’s more legwork than fighting going on and while this does not drag the plot down, it doesn’t make it as exciting either.

Overall, I still love the H&W Investigation series by Jess Haines, but I have to be honest and say that Stalking the Others is not my favorite book of the series.  Shia just wasn’t Shia for most of the book, we don’t get to see a lot of the fabulous side characters that we’ve come to love and I’m not really into working through mental dilemmas.  Shia had to come to term with things, so I understand the need for Stalking the Others, but I’ll be honest, I really can’t wait until book five and we get some more fabulous action.  Plus, the ending to Stalking the Others definitely puts Shia on a track that I’ve been waiting for. I just hope she doesn’t continue overthinking everything, like she has a tendacy to do.

And yes, Chaz is still an ass and we’ll be seeing more of him.

About Jackie 3282 Articles
I am a 30-something SAHM with two adorable boys and a supportive husband who is very tolerant of my reading addiction. I love to read and easily go through about a dozen books a month – well I did before I had kids. Now, not so much. After my first son was born, I began to take my hobby of reviewing a little more serious and started Literary Escapism to help with my sanity. I love to discuss the fabulous novels I’ve read and meeting all the wonderful people in the book blogging community has been amazing.