It's been a little while in coming, but I finally finished the Kanji in Context workbooks. So, I've now put up a full review here:
http://www.nihongoperapera.com/reviews/kanji-in-context.html
These books have my highest recommendation. I learned a few thousand words and about 1000 kanji in about three months. Of course, I also had to work hard to get to that level, but without these books, I never would have made it so fast so quickly.
Also, Amazon Japan has them in stock at the moment, which is always nice.