Mini Book Reviews: November/December

As I said in my New Year’s resolutions blog post, I want to do more book reviews. I’m going to try to review every book I’ve read this year in it’s own blog post, but here a couple of books still from last year. These aren’t all the books I read in those months, but there are a couple that deserve their own longer posts.

Sorceress of Faith (Robin D. Owens)

This is a much better book than the first of its series, Guardian of Honor. The mythology and world of these books are starting to feel more substantial and these characters are slightly more likable than the previous two. Plus the talking hamster helps a lot! It’s about Marian, who gets summoned to the world of Lladrana, where she’s destined to become a powerful sorceress. I’ve already ordered the next two parts of this series and its conclusion will be released in February.  

To Serve and To Submit (Susan Wright)

This book wasn’t completely what I expected; I thought it would be a bit like the Kushiel series or anything from Anne Bishop. The difference with those books was the setting. Unlike the other books I mentioned, this one doesn’t take place in a sort of Middle Ages or Renaissance type of era, but is much earlier than that. Think Roman or Viking. Everything just felt less sophisticated and more harsh, and for a story about a pleasure slave… it initially didn’t work for me. I will pick up the next in this series though, cause the story is intriguing enough.

Flesh and Stone (Vickie Taylor)

Grumble, grumble, grumble. Loved the book; this is the second in the Gargoyles series, where there is a race of shapeshifters who can turn into mythological animals. Problem is though that this book was from 2006 and checking the author’s website, she hasn’t done anything since 2006. Grumble! Where’s the next part of this series?

Cast in Shadow (Michelle Sagara)

Slightly difficult to get into at the start. It’s one of those fantasy books that drops you in the middle of a strange world and starts throwing around names which you’re supposed to know but of course don’t know. It’s not too bad (I’ve had waaay worse), but it did annoy me. For the rest though, this book was pretty interesting and I’m curious to see what happens in the next one.

Reap The Wind (Iris Johansen)

Sometimes you come across a book where you just can’t seem to get through; Reap The Wind was one of those books for me. It had an interesting enough plot, but I couldn’t get into the book and keep on reading. It also didn’t help that I thought this was the first in a series, while it turned out it was the last of the series, but the previous ones all happened in previous centuries.