I liked them. Some people may be having so much trouble with them, because they were expecting a Miles-type book, with lots of stuff going boom, whereas these are more Ekaterin-type books, with detailed but seemingly slow development.

Remember the intersections in Trivial Pursuit, when all the questions are the same color? Reading Lois is kind of like that, good book [Italian], good book [Mexican], or good book [Chinese]. But then, I'm a thoroughgoing omnivore, whose credo is "Trust the writer"--especially when it's Lois.