One Good Book Deserves Another

Genre: Historical Romance
Series: Medieval Warriors, Book 1
Rating: 3 Stars
Length: 352 Pages, 3298 Locations
Formats: Paperback, Kindle


As a young girl, Haith's world was shattered when her father was slain in battle. He was Lord of Seacrest, and he had loved her mother very much. But he hadn't been married to her. Despite being illegitimate, her father treated her as he did his other daughter, and Haith loved Soleilbert as her sister. Raised together despite the vitriol thrown at her by the Lady Seacrest, their bond was strong, so when, as adults, her shy sister's hand is promised to Tristan D'Argent, warrior and friend of King William, as part and parcel of a bequeathment for his service to the crown, Haith was both happy for her sister and worried about the unknown D'Argent and the tales of his villainy.

She is truly horrified and disgusted, however, when Lord Nigel, the Lady Seacrest's slimy second husband, propositions her, giving her a terrifying choice: lay with him or serve as spy and lead D'Argent to his death so Lord Nigel could get his hands on what he felt was owed to him, Tristan's bequeathed holding. Desperate to escape Nigel, Haith agrees to do his dirty work, until she sees Tristan for the first time and recognizes him as the man she's been dreaming about since she was a child, the man her aunt calls her soul mate.

The choice is clear. Either she betrays the man who her heart has cried out for with whispers of destiny and a promise of love that lasts forever since she was but a child, or she gives herself over to Nigel and becomes the sexual plaything of a power hungry and vicious megalomaniac.

With a touch of magic and a realistic flavor of the medieval historical time period, Grothaus kicks off her historical romance trilogy with The Warrior, offering up a nicely conceived and well-paced plot full of intrigue and romance. Haith was feisty and outspoken but a believable woman of her time, and Tristan was the prototypical warrior-hero with just enough personal baggage and peccadilloes to keep him from coming across as cartoonish. Secondary characters were well defined and fleshed out nicely, and the antagonist was quite a sufficiently nasty piece of work.

There were several nice things about the story of The Warrior, but despite them, I had some problems with how the plot developed and the manner in which some of the plot threads were introduced. I was never quite able to truly like Haith, even though her feisty nature was in tune with my personal preferences for female leads in historical romance. Some of my favorite parts of the book were the glimpses of magic and mysticism, but they were sadly underused. The lack of foundation laid for the life-long soul mate dreams that Tristan and Haith had was a serious detriment to the evolution of the romance, and there wasn't enough exposition provided to more than perfunctorily explain the soul mate bond or provide enough backstory on Haith's abilities. When those aspects came up they seemed to spring from nowhere and were often jarring. I also thought it odd that the details of Haith's mother's fate was a mystery for so long, and when it was raised I was left with some questions about who did what to whom and when it had occurred.

I felt Haith's character was riddled with inconsistency. She was terrified of Nigel and turned into a helpless, trembling maid in his presence but was able to use her magic offensively and wasn't afraid to go toe to toe with Tristan, even though his reputation was suspect and he was a big unknown. She had empirical evidence of the power inside her, yet denied the possibility of other magical influences. And frankly, she just wasn't all that bright, as many of the major conflict points in the narrative could have been resolved with a single much-needed conversation between the main characters.

On a more favorable note, Grothaus did do a lovely job imbuing her story with a medieval feel throughout every level of the book. Though I'm completely unqualified to speak on the historical accuracy of the narrative and dialogue or the actions of the characters, it felt genuine enough that the tone of the story and the cadence of the writing added to, instead of distracted from, the reading experience. For those historical romance fans who dislike when modern speech or actions create an anachronistic schism, I think this book would hold appeal. In all honesty, several aspects of the book appealed to me, too, but the issues which didn't prevented this book from being a truly entertaining read for me.

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: The Negotiator, Book 3
Rating: 5 Stars
Length: 448 Pages
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle


They may have graced her with the title of Negotiator, they may have acknowledged her as a representative of her race, but they are and forever will be other.

New York City hasn't seemed the same to Legal Aid lawyer Margrit Knight in the months since she was pulled into the world of Old Races. She hasn't seemed the same, even to herself, especially in the two weeks since the actions she took against the djinn Malik to protect dragon crime lord Janx directly led to Malik's demise. Nightmares of fire and death stalk her sleep, and out of a desperate need for time to come to terms with the recent past she keeps Alban at arm's length and stops herself from looking up as she jogs through Central Park at night.

Turns out that act of self preservation wasn't enough to keep Alban's old rival Biali from snatching her up and flying away with her. Before she can cry foul, Biali's move to draw Alban into a fight over the death of the halfling gargoyle...and batshit crazy murderer Ausra has yanked Grit right back into Old Race politics.

As Margrit prepares to defend Alban in a battle he refuses to fight for himself, she further thrusts herself from the familiar human world and into that of the gargoyle she's come to love. Inherently dangerous, industriously devious, unapologetic in their machinations, the Old Races are both tempting lure and cautionary tale. Embracing them and their world means forever walking a dangerous tightrope between gargoyle, vampire, selkie, dragon, and djinn, currying favor and carrying secrets and doing deals. The slightest misstep, the briefest bobble, and it won't simply be an issue of losing a case, it'll be a matter of forfeiting her very life.

The Negotiator trilogy draws to a close in this complex and thorough third book, and in so doing, evidences just what I like most about trilogies. When done particularly well, as in this case, the first and second books set up the characters, the world, and the many layers of plot, and by the third, readers can just sit back, relax, and enjoy the fruits of the author's labor as impending conflicts are realized, questions are answered, and resolutions are reached.

Hands of Flame doesn't suffer from the slow start of Heart of Stone or the slightly ponderous plot details of House of Cards. It hits hard and fast, picks up the action and the continued dramatics of the Old Races, and builds off what came before as it spirals towards a tenser and tenser conclusion. So many delicious lingering plot threads are tidied up, so many interesting mysteries are revealed. Margrit is still the quintessential Don Quixote, tilting at her Old Race windmills, but the stakes are ever so much higher with beloved characters on the line in new and scary ways.

I love this trilogy, and most of the reasons why are in this book. The depth given to the characters is so appealing, and as I prefer shades of gray as opposed to a strict black-and-white philosophy, the delightful moral ambiguity of best friends and fiercest rivals Janx and Daisani, dragon and vampire, offered me some of the best, if not the best, interpersonal conflicts between secondary characters I've ever read. Of course Margrit is the central character of the trilogy, with Alban a close second as the rock-solid male lead (no pun intended...really), and I liked them both. Yet while I enjoyed the journey of their relationship as it evolved over the three books, I have to admit, without the two bad boys, the trilogy wouldn't have been nearly as entertaining for me, and there are definitely some positively delicious developments with them in this book.

There's a lot of yum in the story as a whole in this book, actually. Even after reading the first two, I wasn't fully prepared for the full scope, imagination, and originality of the many-headed monster that is Hands of Flame, and I was struck anew by Murphy's ability to weave such a richly developed and intricate trilogy with such attention to detail and continuity. I sort of loved everything about it, and the end - the epilogue - well, a special kernel of more-than-love is awarded to that bit of it. I positively adored how everything was tied up. I even appreciated those strands of complication or development that weren't quite tied, but at least given a nod, because it struck me as realistic and believable.

Though I know The Negotiator is a completed trilogy, and C.E. Murphy has been firm about Margrit and Alban's story being done, I can't help but thirst for more novels set in their world featuring the characters that I've come to love. Maybe we'll see more of the Old Races some day. I, for one, hope for more than the occasional short story that Murphy offers through her website, stories that delve into the past of such beloved characters as Janx and Daisani. I hunger to see what happens next, far more than what came before, and while I'm sure that makes me greedy, for the sort of layered, complex, and brilliant writing that I found in this trilogy, I'm more than okay with that label.

The Negotiator Trilogy: