Sharon Green (1)Reseñas

Be warned, for the first 150 pages you are rereading the same story over and over and over from five different viewpoints. Once you got past that the story moved much faster since the events were not repeated. The reader still had the benefit of different viewpoints, but it is not tedious after that point. This book was okay. I will probably pick up the second book from the library at some point. As it stands I would not recommend this book, but if you just need something to fill your time, it's not bad.

This book... its about 50 pages long and then duplicated 5 times over substituting fire for water, earth for fire, and so on. Five times mediocre is pretty awful.

I read a review somewhere that said, specifically, that this was not a bodice ripper. I would disagree with that, and, therefore, this book was not for me.

It was the type of book where the hero, even though he claims to love the heroine, takes advantage of her again and again. He locks her up, strips her naked, tricks her into sleeping with him and just generally tries to dominate her. And then feels sorry, but screws up an apology so misunderstanding piles on top of misunderstanding.

Not my cup of tea.

I really enjoyed this book. Somehow it was exactly what I wanted to read. But, that said, I understand those who only gave it one star. Since I rate books solely on personal enjoyment, this whole series got high marks. But, to give it such high marks I did have to forgive the same glaring problems that those who did not enjoy the books. I was willing to do this, and those who enjoy intriguing magic systems and interesting (if sometimes infuriatingly dense) characters, and are willing to forgive the problems will likely enjoy the book.

I admit that I did skip over the sections from the bad guy's perspective, but I tend to do that in most books.

This one was bit strong for my taste but it was still an enjoyable read overall.

I love it when a book surprises me and this one did. First it wasn't my typical genre but I gave it chance. This story has lots of humor along with the adventure. Poor Tor Rego has really messed up with his little stowaway and the it seemed the more he tried to fix things the worse he seemed to make things. And Chayara seems to be her own worse enemy. It was fun to see in the middle of the adventurer of a life time they still make starts and stops as they work their way to a HEA.

Damon is being forced to marry by the king. He is also helping out a new nobleman find his bride. Lady Gayle isn't ready to give up her independence but there she is married anyway. The sparks fly as they work out how to get along. I really enjoyed the story but the abrupt ending was a disappointment.

This story is a bit darker and full of drama. I think the interaction between the 4 main characters is at the point the story ends bittersweet. I know there will be more in the other three stories but it still seemed a bit of a downer.

I rather liked this book. It is a bit repetitive at times, since it follows five people, who undergo similar events. There are 3 or 4 times when the same thing happens to all of them, and it is repeated five times in each of their accounts. It is not too annoying, though, and the characters are nice with nice interactions. I particularly like how they come to each other's rescue when needed. I'd say the book is not brilliant, but it's very satisfying.

Nice book, not too complicated, sympathetic characters. Again a bit repetitive at times, and it would be nice if some of the characters would just talk to each other and work out their problems, but enjoyable despite of that.

This book was a bit better than its predecessors. For one, the main characters finally form a blending, which means they do a lot more together, resulting in a lot less repetitiveness. They also manage to get over a lot of their problems, which brings down the annoyance quite a bit. The only problem is, I don't really like the ending of the book. Ok, perhaps I should have expected something to go wrong after everything has gone according to plan for 2.9 books, but 1)it breaks with the rest of the story and 2)the main characters manage to get split up again, which makes me really scared about the repetitiveness of the next book...

This book is again a bit better than its predecessors. What I feared at the end of book 3 did not happen: after the main characters get split up, there is no repetition with each member encountering the same thing. Instead, they manage to find each other again relatively quickly and get help from other people. They handle themselves relatively well, and manage to find out a lot more about what a blending can do. The blending is definitely one of the pros of the series: the magic itself is really cool, and the blending even more. One of the cons of this book is (again) the annoying misunderstandings between the characters. In this book, at least it's only between Tamrissa en Vallant and not between the others, but it's still quite irritating.

It's such a pity. The magic in these books is really cool, and obviously I've enjoyed the series enough to finish it. But it could have been so much better...
Once more, almost the entire book is filled with misunderstandings and conflicts between Tamrissa and Vallant. Of a very annoying kind, I might add.
Facing the opposing blending is somewhat of a disappointment. The opposing blending refuses to blend, and, being honorable, the 'good' blending can't blend either. Really. How does someone come up with such idiocy? In what way is it dishonorable to blend, when the whole point of contention is which blending is the strongest one? Pff, I suppose it seemed such a good idea at the time, since it allows the group to split up once more. Can't have a book without repetition after all... Yes, that's what happens again, they all pretty much go through the same thing, and it has to be described in detail each of the five times.
Despite all of this, I did enjoy the book enough to finish it. It's got some good ideas, the magic is cool, the blendings are cool. But it could have been so much better...

I read this a couple of months ago, and held off on reviewing it -- because, honestly, I'm embarassed to have read the whole thing. I was looking for something trashy, but this was really awful. The story is told from the perspective of the amazon savage "war leader" Jalav, in a constructed idiom (and rather unconventional English syntax) to emphasize her alienation from the relatively medieval society in which she is sojourning. Her language alienated me too. Although she learned to read in the course of this novel, Jalav still called chairs, tables, and beds "platforms," and lanterns were "boxes with lights in them." Men and women were always and only "males" and "females." The words 'day' and 'night' were eliminated, to be replaced with "feyd" and "darkness."

The plot is terribly slow, and Jalav is a captive for most of the book. She gets raped and beaten many times, and the "oath" of the title is her coerced swearing by her goddess Mida that she will obey a certain man, who subsequently domesticates her and passes her around to his pals. There's plenty of psychological and cultural justification for the sequence of events. Then, at the end, the pace picks up considerably, culminating in Jalav's ultimate rape by a demon-god, with the apparent connivance of Mida.

It seems that this book (the second in a series of five) is intended to establish a set of affections and enmities that will motivate the remainder of a saga. But, ugh.

Meh - a dialogue-heavy book in which the good guys all talk reasonably and sincerely about their world's problems, while the antagonists twirl their moustaches, makes for easy but fairly boring reading. When most of that dialogue is flat and the characterisations likewise, and the mechanics of the story's magical system are workmanlike at best… even though a tiny part of me *does* want to know what happens next (and therefore the book must have doing something right after all), I don't think I'll bother reading any more of this series.

Sofaltis, called Soft and Gentle (or Softy) by her Sword Company Fistmates, has fled her father the dukes' castle to avoid marriage and find her missing brothers so she can offer one of them as heir and avoid marriage. She follows her brothers to the Eastern Mountains where almost every adult, male and female, is a warrior.

She is followed by Kylin, now her husband in a marriage ceremony held without her, and others including her Fistmates. But since she possesses an incredible rocklike stubbornness they make little impression on her despite heroic efforts on Kylin's part. I will not relate the rest of the plot as it deserves to be rad in full. Suffice it to say it is worth the effort.

As I usually do, I will comment on the spelling, grammar and formatting of the Kindle book. They are all first rate, greatly enhancing the readability and enjoyment of the story. I can only hope both author and publisher continue in this excellent manner. I recommend this book and this series.

This is the story of Sofaltis, called Soft and Gentle by her Fistmates in a Sword Company, who is the daughter of a duke. It is also the story of Kylin, a King's Fighter, who is the son of another duke. They are entered into a marriage contract to save Sofaltis' father's dukedom. The problem is that Sofaltis does not appreciate being forced into marriage. She does not appreciate it a whole lot.

Kylin, on the other hand, is ready to do his duty. He is persuaded, for the sake of Sofaltis's safety, to disguise himself as a Flower, a man who is sort of gay except he does hot like sex with anybody because sex is too messy. Sofaltis, naturally, hates him on site almost as much as she hates the idea of a forced marriage. Kylin loves her on first sight.

There is the Evil Opposition, of course, which I will not describe. In stead, I will say few words about why I like the novel. The plot is very good the characters are well done and the discussion of the proposed marriage is discussed in the context of the world in which it takes place. That discussion is fair and well-balanced and interesting and shows the arguments on both sides in a well-reasoned and reasonable manner.

In every review I write I mention the book's spelling, grammar and formatting. I think that it is important that those things be known, if possible, before the book is purchased and read on the Kindle. I am very happy to report that spelling, grammar and formatting are excellent. I don't know if the book was edited by a professional editor but it was certainly edited in a professional manner. I thank the author and publisher. It increases the value and enjoyment of the book in a marked way. I definitely recommend this book and series.

Is definitely a bridging novel and somewhat lacklustre. The five main characters have to work on survival both magically and physically, the dice are loaded against them with the society they live in and things keep getting harder. Somewhat repetitive and you can see where the characters could have learned something by talking to each other but the biggest problem they all have is who to trust when they're all pitted against each other. If this was a standalone I probably wouldn't keep it but I'll wait until after reading the sequence before deciding about whether or not to keep them.

Is there another book ,ie sequel? This book ended with so many lose ends that it made me angry! Up until then I was hooked!

I liked it-I felt bad for Solfastis, but I wish she'd simply told everyone to ASK her what she wanted and listen and respect her wishes.

This is one of my all time favorite series. I love the relationships and politics through out the whole story.

I wish she would do more - The Blending the first year etc...

Quite a light romance. Haliand is the daughter of the Moon who has to chase the missing Great Flame of the Moon along with Jentris the Sun Prince and a mysterious bandit from Earth called Skyhawk.

It's a bit weak really, Haliand is a bit light and while she does grow a bit seems to be more worried about what she's wearing than the problem at hand. Readable but nothing exceptional.

(Alistair) Well, there's not much I really have to say about these three books, the Blending Enthroned trilogy - one reason I'm booklogging them together - partly because, again, these were books I read during the whole Long Night of Server Installs, and partly because a lot of it would be a mere recapitulation of the issues I had with the Blending pentalogy (Convergence, Competitions, Challenges, Betrayals, Prophecy). That said...

...they are something of an improvement over the previous books. The pure fuliginous paint slapped over the villains earlier dissipates, to some extent, as we see some not-as-bad-as-all-that and some actual redemption happening. The Jordanesque relationship issues, while not gone, are at least used considerably less and more lightly painted. We meet some interesting new viewpoint characters (and other Blendings); we visit a foreign country which is nicely gray and with their own scheme of Blending to support their republic, which although faulty is interesting, and fight off some invaders who are using the ability to Blend in a much darker way.

So, yes, some interesting stuff, some improvement, still a pretty fun, light read, and then you get to the absolutely huge, reaching back across all eight books, deus ex freaking machina right at the end, and that, gentle reader, is when you pitch the last book at the wall.

I don't exactly regret the time I spent reading these, but I wouldn't exactly recommend them, either.
( http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/cerebrate/2008/09/intrigues_deceptions_and_de... )½