Maybe I’m just not into the older, worldier man teaching the young, naive girl dynamic. And yea, Dag’s not an oversexed, dominant, predatory vampire. And Fawn’s got brains and common sense. And at least they’re not fated to be together. So it’s far from as bad as it could be.

So the scenes still feel like they’re missing something that could make them better. But it may not be something fixable for me without changing one or both characters.

I don’t know if it’s a spoiler or not to note that LMB toned down the sexytimes considerably in books 3 and 4. I think a certain segment of her readership was uncomfortable with the idea that they were reading a romance novel.

Except that the malices seem to be increasing, so they probably don’t have generations to sort this out.

Which leaves the evangelical plot, where the two of them roam around telling people and showing people and warning people. Maybe picking up a few disciples along the way.

Which is somewhat the plot of Le Guin’s series that starts with Gifts. Well, maybe not so close in plot as that, but it does remind me a lot of it as I think of it. Maybe because I read the two series so closely together.