Ha. Ok. 
 I still think that the writing is much tighter than KMM's highlander series, but the characters leave a mighty lot to be desired. 
 I can only conclude MacKayla Lane is Too Stupid To Live. If her sister Alina had been anything like her, it's no wonder she got herself killed. What surprises me is how Mac has managed to remain alive despite being inconceivably stupid. Obviously then it falls to reason that the people interested in killing her must be even stupider because there is no reason why she should still be alive. Stupid villians are not scary, and that mmediately dilutes the dark and gritty aspects of this series for me. 
 Jericho Z. Barrons. Sure, I will admit, he's badass, dangerous, alpha-male - whatever you like to call those types of guys. But that is all there is to him. Nothing else. There is nothing endearing about him, or lovable, or empathetic, or thrilling; nothing that humanizes him, or makes him worthy of hero status. On the contrary, I felt that he was rather abusive. I quite agree with those who have called him a douche. 
 Being trapped in a story told from Mac's POV, interspersed with Barrons and other idiotic/stupid/patently uninteresting characters does not make for interesting reading. 
 And oh yes, all the pontifications are annoying as heck. Womp.