Thoughts on The Hallmarked Man? (Spoiler Alert)

[Anonymous]

If you haven't read this yet, you may want to stop reading until you have. Not going to give away the plot but am interested in others thoughts on the progression of the main character's relationship.

____Stop reading if you want to know nothing about the book until you have read it.___________________________

I am a bit frustrated. I thought at the end of Book 7 we might be getting somewhere with the relationship between Cormoran and Robin.

First, I felt like the characters didn't sound much like themselves for much of the first part of the book (Cormoran's voice sounded different enough that I wondered if the author used someone else so write some of it but apparently she doesn't use anyone else to draft). Second, book 7 was a bit of a cliffhanger for their relationship and in my opinion it was pretty clear what had been said by Cormoran at the end. This book seemed to read that the characters didn't know what had been clearly stated (do I need to reread the end of book 7?). Also, much of what is great about the books are the interaction between Cormoran and Robin and they are literally not in the same place until 600 pages into a 900 page book. I have long thought it was getting harder for the author to find ways to drag this out. But, this book almost felt like the author was also getting tired of it. Finally, Robin is 32. She has been divorced. Why is she not maturing and able to say what she thinks? Why drag out another bad relationship?