In this final installment of my journey to read through the 10 Fantasy Sagas That Are Wronger Than Twilight, I review “The Black Jewels Trilogy” by Anne Bishop.
Again, I don’t get all the hoopla. Or I’m just a jaded, irredeemable pervert. Either way, I’m enough of an avid fantasy reader to be able to accept the world I’m in when I’m reading the book. Therefore with that said, the romance between the 2000 year old demon and 20 year old woman (because she IS of age when they get together) doesn’t phase me. Especially when you factor in the character Jaenelle Angelline, the female in question. She is no Bella. She is born Witch; with a capital “W” fated with powers the other characters can barely comprehend. Her fated lover; Daemon, loves her from the moment he meets her but honestly, it’s mostly platonic till she’s of age. And I say “mostly” because he keeps dreaming about how awesome she’ll be when Jeanelle grows up. Not to mention she’s so powerful, everyone around her is scared shitless. Jeanelle is not a silly little girl, she’s a force of nature, her spirit is timeless, ageless, and nobody screws with her without paying for it.
Bella is well… Not.
This story was well worth the 1216 page slog and HUGE book I had to carry around for a couple weeks. If you like sprawling fantasy worlds with humor, angst, and good ole fashion magical fun, grab this book. It’s awesome. 🙂 I didn’t find the romance disturbing at all!
Touched by Venom however? I hadda give it up. I returned the book without finishing it because, quite frankly, I didn’t enjoy reading it. It wasn’t the dragon venom aphrodisiac, it was the jargon dropping and slogging through this story which showed no signs of going anywhere. And I don’t have time to read books which are a chore to pick up as you can see from my Shelfari list of books I want to read. That list doesn’t grow so much as mutate and I have a devil of a time keeping up.
In one of my more random reads, I have found a much more disturbing romance than any of the ones I’ve read on that list; Savage Dawn by Cassie Edwards. The premise can be summed up by this simple phrase: “My, Chief Eagle Wolf, that’s some sexy measles you’ve got there.” That’s right, folks, our plucky Caucasian girl, Nichole, who is so garsh derned plucky she’s lost in the West after her parent’s t0wn gets massacred and comes upon Eagle Wolf who is covered in red spots and sick with fever. He thinks it’s small pox but Nichole deduces it’s only measles. But not before checking him out. While he’s sick. Before she even makes the decision to try and help him. Yup… Sexy measles.
And there are Mormons. They seem so random, I skipped the parts I read with them in it. I totally returned this book after the umpteenth time each of our lovers bemoans the fact the other will not be accepted by their respective societies. Didn’t even make it halfway through before I returned it.
In more current news, I have finished the rough edits on Grey City and have resumed writing Greenhouse, sequel to Dreamhunter. I’m making that my focus for now. I’m itching to have both Brood books out at the same time. ^_^ It feels good to be working with my vamps again. I can tell they missed me. 😉
