Top positive review
4.0 out of 5 starsDangerous Reception
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 13, 2016
A Gatlin Wedding is another in a string of satisfying novellas set in the caster universe, this time taking us to the summer after Ethan's second year of college and giving us a glimpse into the wedding of his father to his former English teacher. What I wasn't expecting from this novella, however, was the fact that the wedding is largely just a backdrop for the sequel to Dangerous Deception's cliffhanger ending and what seems to be an end to the Dangerous Creatures spinoff series. In that regard, things seemed unfortunately truncated and less than satisfying, with rushed bits of unexpectedly benign and glossed-over in-between backstory quickly jumping to a brief climax and overly convenient ending. I'm not sure if the spinoff series didn't do as well and was prematurely cut short with the authors trying to provide closure in novella form in lieu of a proper finale or what, but the series' complex twists and characters really deserved, at the very least, another novel to continue its ideas and wrap things up.
So, overall, things are a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, it's another solid visit to the characters we've grown to love, complete with the requisite nostalgia, underlying messages, and emotions that drew me to the other Untold Stories novellas. On the other, the story happens to bookend what seems to be a less than satisfying few-chapter finale to the two book Dangerous Creatures spinoff series that, while at least giving some closure, certainly shouldn't have been relegated to "untold story" status.
