An important portion of the large arc of the Lost Cities’ universe, this story focuses on trust and the tension between patience and haste. I liked the last book better; I felt like this one bogged down a bit (the Keefe angst angle, the Sophie blushing parts, and the Council plans).
The book starts off with a powerful hook—Keefe shows up at Firefox! Confronted by this surprise visit, Sophie must sort through her feelings to determine if she can trust Keefe’s story about his being a Neverseen double agent. Logic may not serve her here, but her instincts and heart lead her right. Trust continues as a theme as Sophie learns to trust herself, her instincts, and—sometimes, even—instructions from grown ups. It’s hard to be as capable and explicitly important as Sophie is and to sort through when to trust what. Without an external, objective anchor, this will be an extremely difficult question to navigate in life and will usually trail into relativism, which, essentially, encompasses Sophie.
As the story unfolds and the characters find more clues about the Lodestar initiative, the Lodestar symbol itself, and Keefe’s “legacy” in all of that, the young core of characters are always chafing at the bit to act on the information. The Black Swan Collective prefers to seek verification, discuss various possibilities and contingencies, then create a plan that utilizes various peoples’ strengths. However, sometimes we need to act now. How do we know the difference in situations? An excellent question with application to life.
Prediction: Keefe’s mom is a snasty double agent, who has set Keefe up to ultimately take down the Neverseen when they reach the peak of their power.
I did really like the end, where Fintan’s long-reaching plan comes to fruition. It creates a powerful . . . explosion . . . for the characters to deal with. As does Keefe’s final realization about the plans to attack “Sophie’s family.” The closing lines craft a crazy cliffhanger.
Tam and Linh feel like extras at this point. My girls assure me that I will like them more as the series continue, but I just lack sympathy for them. I was hoping to see a cool forgiveness story with them and their parents, but we stuck to the cold shoulder. I was also disappointed with the fueling of Sophie with anger and revenge as a positive way for her to use her powers. Nothing is more effective when driven with anger. That, paired with Sophie’s insistence on being the source of what is right and good, makes her less-than-admirable in my opinion.
That Lady Who Reads A Lot 
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