Review: King's Blood by Jill Williamson

King's Blood by Jill Williamson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

King's Blood is Book 2 in the Kinsman Chronicles and continues right where Book 1 left off. Like the first book, this is three books (originally ebooks) compiled into an omnibus. It is a massive book, more so than King's Folly, with small print.

The main character, Wilek, continues to come to terms with his new belief in Arman as the only god, and has to compromise his beliefs with that of his father and others at times to maintain peace. I like how Wilek is willing to take things one step at a time to turn his people to true belief, as forcing them would cause chaos. In reality people often need to take several steps to come to terms with the truth.

Wilek also has to deal with his half-brother Janek and his secret society, which poor Hinckdan, one of my favorite characters, continues to spy on. Most of this story is political drama; I suppose there's only so much you can write about when your characters are stuck at sea for weeks on end. Even though the adventure aspect of the first 2 books in King's Blood was limited, I actually enjoyed the political drama. The author took the opportunity to build more on the characters themselves rather than the world. Wilek finally gets married to Zeroah despite the machinations of Charlon, and Trevn to Mielle (the latter in an odd, round-about way that was actually manipulated).

I didn't much like Charlon in King's Folly, mostly because I didn't get to see much of her character and her motivations appeared pretty shallow. However, I got to see a little more of her humanity and a deeper aspect of her motivations, which change through the story. I still don't like her, persay, as she is a villain, but I did enjoy seeing her strength in overcoming fellow villains.

Unfortunately, like King's Folly, the last parts of King's Blood were pretty rushed. The last book takes place on a new land Wilek discovers, Er'Rets, and they encounter tribes of giants and a race of pale-skinned people. Adventure and action take more precedent in the last book, although there's some things that are rushed, such as Trevn's escape from the giants and Wilek's death.

I enjoyed the book overall, but I had two big gripes: the number of named characters and terminology. The author did a lot of research into boats and sailing, and she shows that throughout the manuscript; however, she doesn't take enough time to explain the terminology, some of it none at all. There's a key to the flag ship at the start of the book, but it doesn't explain all the terminology. Williamson doesn't seem like an author that likes to show off what she knows through her story (which I've encountered in another story *shivers*), but unfamiliar things need explanation to a moderate degree.

There are so many named characters, many of which don't play a part, and some of which I don't remember later in the story. At the end of King's Blood, one of the members of the Hadar family is mentioned, and he's not in the family key at the start of the manuscript; I felt like he was thrown in there for convenience's sake in conveying a message to Trevn, not because he's an important character. I don't usually have a problem with having a lot of named characters in a series, but I have a hard time when so many are crammed into one book.

There were implications of rape and sleeping around with people on this one, but it wasn't emphasized as much as in King's Folly, and again it wasn't portrayed as acceptable. I'm grateful other plot devices were used in King's Blood. There's no bad language, and there was only one instance where she described some gore in a little more detail than needed.

Anyway, in the end I wasn't disappointed with King's Blood. It kept me riveted until they end, and I look forward to the next installment of the Kinsman Chronicles.

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Review: The Golden Spiral by Lisa Mangum

The Golden Spiral by Lisa Mangum
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I was torn between a 2 and 3 star rating, but because of how I feel after reading it, I'm afraid it just gets a 2. This book was parts entertaining and frustrating. There were concepts introduced in the Hourglass Door –– time travel, the river of time, the hourglass door/time machine –– that I hoped would get more explanation in the Golden Spiral. (It's possible I've forgotten some things from the first book, so forgive me if there are some things I've missed.) There were some character interactions I enjoyed, though, which I think is what saved this book for me.

Review: Price of Creation by Lance Conrad

Source: Dawnstar Press

Price of Creation, by Lance Conrad (Historian Tales #1)
My Rating: 1/5

(Note: This review is for an audio-book version)

I first heard about Price of Creation through one of my brothers, and I'm always open to a new fantasy novel. Price of Creation was so terrible, and it's one of the few novels that left me feeling angry by the end; that hasn't happened since Angela Hunt's Esther.

First I'll talk about the pros. I liked the idea of people being born with stones, and the division between the land and the misunderstanding going on between the creators and the destroyers. I thought Sadivir's growth and training through his adolescence was well thought-out and -written.

That may be about all that this story really had going for it. The story had several cons, and they mostly circled around one thing.

The Historian.

Review: Courageous by Dina L. Sleiman

Source:
 http://valiantheartsseries.blogspot.com/

Courageous, by Dina L. Sleiman (Valiant Hearts Book 3)

My Rating: 4/5 Stars

In an earlier review on Chivalrous I addressed my issue with the sub-plot about Rosalind aborting her unborn child, and how it didn't seem to go anywhere.  Later on I learned about this upcoming book, Courageous, and how it follows Rosalind.  I'm grateful that Ms. Sleiman wrote this one, as one of the central plots of this story is Rosalind reconciling that choice in Chivalrous.

I actually didn't have too many issues with this story.  Historical fiction/romance isn't my favorite genre, but I enjoyed reading about the adventure Rosalind and other characters go through on a Christian crusade in the Middle East.

There were a lot of characters to keep track of, which weakened the story a bit for me, but fortunately the author stuck most of the development to Rosalind and Randel Penigree.  Rosalind goes through a gradual but believable self-healing process, learning more to depend on God.  Randel has some PTSD after accidentally killing one of his own allies, which he deals with with Rosalind's help.  One of the other characters tries to frame Randel for killing their brother, but fails miserably, showing that hate doesn't let you progress anywhere.

One of my few issues with the writing was using incomplete sentences to describe an experience or reaction.  For example:

"Five fighters remained, but they were fierce.  Swinging and slashing with the desperation of men who knew they were outnumbered."- Pg. 219

A good reader expects a sentence to be complete and properly punctuated, no matter how long or short.  I actually had to read the bolded part of this sentence a few times to understand that she was progressing the action into a new but incomplete sentence.  This made reading jarring and unpleasant.  Fortunately there were only a few instances of this bad editing.

I really enjoyed the adventure aspect of this story.  Our characters sail to Tripoli, and then travel south to find prisoners to free.  The several different personalities present in the large group made for a dynamic read.  The inspiration for their adventure is a visionary young woman named Sapphira, and she develops from being just one of the children to a source of leadership for her older sister and even a group of Templars.

Rosalind and Randel developed a romance throughout this story, even though they keep trying to convince themselves that they're destined for paths of celibacy.  However, through their romance they come to understand that they need to follow the plans God has for them.  Of course, this means that the two get together in the end.

Rosalind's redemption from her sins and self-deprecation was my favorite aspect of this story; I'm a sucker for redemption stories in general, and I appreciated the approach Ms. Sleiman took to Courageous.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Love Unexpected

Love Unexpected
by Jody Hedlund

My rating: 3/5 Stars

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.  I think it's a win-win situation for reader, publisher, and author.  Free marketing is awesome.

Anywho, this is my first dive into historical romance.  I'm not very familiar with the genre, and so this review is going to be a little hard for me.  I'm so used to reviewing mostly fantasy stories, which I have discovered have a very different sort of feel than this sort of story.

Review: Esther: Royal Beauty

Esther (A Dangerous Beauty Novel Book #1): Royal Beauty by Angela Elwell Hunt

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

 This novel shouldn't be called “Esther.” It should be called “Eunuch, Royal Eunuchs: a Dangerous Castration Novel.”

 I got this book through the Blogger Review Program with Bethany House, and I chose it because I thought it might be a good retelling of the story of Esther. I love the Bible's account of Esther. I love her story of internal struggle, trying to live up to the expectations of her people. It is a story of fear and triumph.

 This novel slaughtered the original story. But I'm willing to give it some benefit of a doubt. I tend to read like a writer, which can be a double-edged sword for me and the stories I read. However, the cons outweighed the pros so much that this novel got hung on the gallows of bad storytelling.

 Readers, prepare yourselves for my brutal honesty as a reader and author.

Review: Dragonwitch

Dragonwitch by Anne Elisabeth Stengl

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

 I had picked up this book a while back and tried to read it, but life happened and I had to put it down. I wish I had finished it sooner, because then I would have remembered more from Starflower, but oh well.

 I have one word for this book: haphazard. I wish I didn't have to say that about this book, seeing as the previous four in the series were well-done in terms of writing, story, and characters. However, I really struggled with Dragonwitch, and it didn't live up to the expectations I had gained from the four first entries of Goldstone Wood. As I normally do with my lengthier reviews, I'll break my review down into characters, plot, setting, and writing.