A Book Review -"Defiant" by Kris Kennedy

Synopsis

Defiant is a medieval romance set in the time of King John.  Eva, a woman with a mysterious past, is on a mission with her ward, Roger to rescue Fr. Peter who has been as a foster father to her. Jamie, a man with an equally mysterious past  is on a mission to capture said priest and turn him over to King John. The two meet and clash. Each is hiding secrets with tremendous political ramifications for the realm and for their loved ones if discovered.  Fate and circumstances conspire to keep them together as they both desperately search for Fr. Peter.

The distrust factor between them when they first meet is huge.  Both know the other is lying, about their past, about who they are, and their purposes. It is only their shared interest in the fate of Fr. Peter that first initially keeps them together. They are both interested in each other but personal trauma in their own lives has made it impossible for either of them to trust.  They both expect to get betrayal from just about everyone in their life.

External conflicts include the entire country on the verge of civil war, the fact that Jamie is in service to King John, a man whom Eva despises and fears, and several other very bad guys.

My Take
This book is an A read by any romance reader's estimation. It's a historical with a capitol "H" with history woven into every aspect of this book.  Nothing wall=papery at all.  The setting is richly detailed and this is a real case where the political is truly personal as the movements and goings-ons of various historical personages play a very important part of the H/H lives and  their  ultimate fate. The hero and heroine are amazing and their interactions fairly brim with sexual tension and excitement. And the final love scenes are HOT, not just because there is explicit language, but because so may walls had to come tumbling down between Eva and Jamie.  When the H/H  do make love, it really is making love and not just sex.  Left me breathless, this part did.

I did like this book and I recommend it to anyone who wants a rich historical medieval with a wonderful emotional romance.  HOWEVER.  It will be a long time before I read any more of Kennedy again.  I know a lot of people really love historical romances with alot of history in them and where all the details are 100%  accurate. I am not one of them.  See, the time of King John was not a good time.  And to Kennedy's credit, all of her characters' lives reflect this terrible reality to a great extent.  And that's my problem with the book.  Just too much history and reality for my taste.  It did make me doubt the happily ever after for the H/H.. 

Its just me, but I read romance for the romance.  I really don't care if the hero drives a Corvette up to the castle walls,  honks the horn for the heroine to get in,  all the while firing at Robin Hood with a sub-machine gun.  In this book, I wanted more of Jamie and  Eva and less of the bad guys and political intrigue and King John.  But its not the kind of book where you can skim those parts without missing some important stuff, so I felt compelled to read those parts even when I didn't want to.

All in all, this is an excellent...just not what I am currently looking for in a romance.
Final Grade: A

Sharing -A Book Review

 "Sharing" is a self-published book by Miracle Jones.  Ordinarily I would never have bothered with a self-published book, but a mention from  Dear Author, was enough to make me curious.  So curious in fact, I paid the five bucks required, and bought it.  And read it in one sitting, sacrificing valuable sleep time to finish it.  Yes.  It is that good.

It’s difficult to give a synopsis of this book without massive spoilers.  So if you are at all interested in reading a fantasy involving orphans, an eloquent cockroach, a vast sucking hole and a kitten that’s really an evil fungus –like planet, DO NOT read the following synopsis.  One of the chief pleasures of this book is the way the author keeps the reader guessing all along the way until the end and I fear that a too detailed synopsis will ruin the surprises in store, but here goes anyway.

Charlotte and five others are taken from their orphanage by an Indrik, a creature that looks like a “combination of a bull, a preying mantis, and a fashion model.” He deposits them on a world comprised of orange sand, twisted trees and a huge continuously sucking hole.  Except for a diner and a befouled cathedral with cryptic scenes painted on the walls, the world contains nothing else. The children are required to cook and clean for the Indrik with horrendous consequences for those who fail to obey the creature’s commands. 

Through a gruesome series of occurrences, Charlotte finds herself alone.  Desperate to escape, she trains her body so that she may one day kill the Indrik.  But she doesn’t know where she is, or what this world is, or its rules or anything of help. All she knows is that if she fails in anyway to satisfy the Indrik, she will be killed and eaten.   The Indrik brings her dead animals from many different worlds to cook and eat. One day, she opens a sack of dead cockroaches, only to find one left alive.  His name is Asfodel and he is the most literate, educated cockroach she has ever encountered.  She doesn’t kill him, and he becomes her guide in this world. It is he, who teaches Charlotte to Share. 

The Nested Worlds (as Asfodel refers to them) are built on several powers, of which Sharing is one of them.  Sharing is mind to mind communication.  One who has truly mastered sharing can see into another’s mind and even see another’s soul. Asfodel trains Charlotte to share, so that she may defeat the Indrik and escape from this world.

But if Charlotte is truly to escape, she must understand the nature of her existence and this will lead her to a deeper understanding of her sworn enemy, an understanding so profound, it might very well destroy her soul.

I have never read anything like this book before.  The sheer weirdness of the world, the absolute villainy of the Indrik and Charlotte’s defiance of the cruelty of her existence as  well as the steller writing, make for a compelling reading experience.  I felt for Charlotte and rooted for her to escape.  I fell in love with Asfodel- the eloquent cockroach who is, as he puts it, really a fairy.  And the kitten planet cracked me up on more than one occasion.  But for all the strangeness of the book, I never felt as if the characters, even the bizarre ones, were anything less than relatable and human,  Even the Indrik, surely one of the worst villains presented in fantasy literature becomes, if not sympathetic, perhaps understandable.  I even pitied him a little.  And that’s saying something.

I will definitely read the next book in the series. As well as anything else this author has written. By far, the best fantasy I have read in a long, long time.  J.K Rowling, eat your heart out.

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