Jamieson2

What would you do to save something you loved? What would you do if you were threatened? Would you cower? Or would you fight with everything you had, every ounce of strength and magic you possessed? Some of us aren't even given that choice.

When Jamieson Drake, evil sorcerer, attacks the settlement of Treown, Amanda Chariss is left with no choice. To escape Drake and his army, she teleports herself and her mentor, the wizened old wizard Hrazon to the Taiman family home. There, they may find help and Chariss may find a cure for the magic that has infected her blood.

Chariss has the geasa, magic older than time, and she must use it if she and the people of Onweald are to stay alive. For Drake hunts her, wants her dead on his blade. Why is anyone's guess, but Chariss has an inkling. For years, Drake has hunted her with the sole purpose of killing her. Chariss suspects that Drake is hungry for her power. But, in reality, Drake is in love with her.

He has enlisted the help of a Dragon who now walks in the human form of Julette. Older than time itself, she uses Drake like a pawn. She has her own plans, her own agenda and knows that she must help Drake to get what she wants. Of course, the fact that she is a Goddess doesn't hurt either.

Chariss must depend on all the help she can and her unsteady magic if they are to survive this first battle. She must be careful though, for she must make choices meant for Gods and one wrong move, one mistake, could lead all of them to death…

As a general rule, I don't read high fantasy. The whole genre bores me; it's grown stagnant with nothing new added to it. Each author that tries to write an engaging high fantasy tale fails to write anything new, anything fresh. Thankfully, Sandy Lender has changed all that. She has changed the very face of high fantasy itself.

Choices Meant for Gods is without a doubt the freshest most engaging high fantasy novel to come out in years and breathes new life into a tired genre. The characters leap off the page and the plot is lightning quick and deftly written with many layers that tease the mind and imagination.

What I love most about Choices Meant for Gods are the characters and how they interact with each other. She has thrown a new spin on what is good and what is bad and her characters are flawed and imperfect. They are people you grow to care for and, indeed, I didn't want the novel to end; I couldn't stand knowing that it would be some time before I saw them again.

She has reworked the standard quest into something meaningful and engaging. She has mixed magic with romance, battles, sorcerers, danger, and suspense; there is everything here that makes up a good story. My meager review doesn't even do justice to the plot. The pages flew by as I became ensnared under Lender's spell as she weaved her story. She writes with such assurance, such poise, that it is hard to believe that Choices Meant for Gods is her first novel.

Choices Meant for Gods is not a mere novel; it is a gorgeous piece of written art. I can hardly wait for the second book! If you read only one good novel this year, no, this decade, read Choices Meant for Gods. I'm going to be reading it for a second time. But read it yourself, won't you?

It will leave you breathless.

©Jamieson Wolf, gottawritenetwork.com reviewer
spring 2007

When she is seven years old, Jude finds her mother dead from an overdose.

A bottle of pills lay scattered on the bedside table and there is a note. Jude approaches her mother carefully, slowly. The note says: Jude, I have gone in search of Adam I love you baby.

Jude doesn't understand. She climbs into bed with her dead mother and curls up beside her, taking in the last of her mother's warmth. Taking in the last of her mother. She does not understand that her mother can't come back. She doesn't understand that she won't be coming back, Adam in tow beside her.

Her mother's death starts Jude on a downward spiral. Floating through a sea of emotions, she is adrift and without her mother, there is nothing to anchor her. She tries to find love from her father only to have him look at her strangely. There is no acceptance there; there is no love.

Jude begins to keep a book, a diary of sorts, where she collects anchors, where she gathers information to keep her grounded, so that she has something to hold on to. Something to mark time. She collects the number of coloured doors on the street, the number and colour of cars. The names, information on the neighbours, some nicer than others.

Something happens to Jude shortly after her mother's funeral that shatters something inside herself. Having no one to turn to for guidance, all Jude can do is collect, gather, observe.

And wait for her mothers return.

In Search of Adam is flat out incredible. We're only part way through 2007 and I can state without a doubt that In Search of Adam is the best novel of the year. Hell, it may very well be the best novel I've read in years. I don't have enough words to describe how good, how amazing, how mind blowing this novel is. I can't find the words, they escape me.

In Search of Adam left me breathless.

Jude is an incredible protagonist. She is the ultimate observer, taking in all and everything around her; you live through Jude, you breathe through her. This is her world and her life and you are looking through her eyes. She has been drawn so beautifully, so completely, that I found myself looking for her when I wasn't reading the book. She haunts me. While reading the novel I wanted to wrap my arms around her and hold her close to me. It has been an incredibly long time since I've been so moved by a book.

This is a grim book but never have child abuse, suicide, rape, emotional issues and death been written about so beautifully. Caroline Smailes is no mere writer; In Search of Adam is no mere book. She is a wordsmith, an artist and In Search of Adam is a moving, changing, gorgeous piece of word art; a tapestry that lives and breathes beyond its pages.

In Search of Adam is not just a novel you read. It's a journey you take with Jude, holding on to her hand for dear life and watching, feeling everything that happens to her. Are you brave enough to take her hand? This is a book you don't want to miss, a story that will move you and a journey that will touch your heart in its darkest places.

I am staring at the book as it sits on my coffee table and I can hear Jude calling to me. She still haunts me though I have closed the book; but I will pick it up again soon. Now, though, I run my fingers over the cover, over the image of Jude and know that, when I meet her again, I will know her.

©Jamieson Wolf, gottawritenetwork.com
spring 2007

Everyone wants love.

People crave love, desire love, need love. Some obsess over it; some dream of it. Some are even consumed by it. There are all kids of love in the world and with love, there is always pleasure.

But pleasure can bring you something else. Something darker that speaks to you in the shadows. Corlis knows what speaks there, what whispers to us as our pleasure crosses that very thin line and becomes something else altogether.

The sweet kiss of pain.

In A Collection of Love, Pleasure and Pain, Corlis Martin has crafted five glorious stories, each more different and shocking than the last. Each use love, pleasure and pain as a theme within the story. Pressed together, crammed within one hundred and seventy pages, the passion seems frantic and hot. Inviting but dangerous.

In the title story, Love Pleasure and Pain, we are shown just how far Christine will go to get revenge on the boyfriend who raped her. And what happens when she gives into her passion as she flees to another city aboard a rocking, rollicking train?

In The Absence of Pleasure, Jon Paul has left his lover Bradley after twelve years. Not able to admit his homosexuality to himself or to the world, Jon Paul leaves Bradley never knowing what consequences his actions will have.

In When Only Love Remains, Monique catches Mark, her husband to be, in bed with another woman. She has a hot night of passion with him, her jealousy inflamed, but realizes she must make a choice. Can she live without the man she loves more than anything in the world?

Corlis has written a patchwork quilt of lust, sex and violence. I will freely admit that I was made uncomfortable by almost all the stories in this gripping collection. At first I was really put off by this but then, something occurred to me: what is comfort but an absence of pain?

After that, I was able to read the stories in a new way, one that let me see into a world where pain and pleasure mix and swirl like a good red wine with a smoky aroma. Though I was uncomfortable, I needed to read more. The stories got into my blood and wouldn't let go.

Though A Collection of Love, Pleasure and Pain isn't for everyone, it is a gripping read. My only major complaint was that it could have done with some basic editing. But don't let that stop you from reading what is sure to be the most engaging, sensual, disturbingly erotic book that I have read in years.

Pick it up and read it. You might just have to examine where you draw your own lines between pleasure and pain but you'll enjoy every minute.

©Jamieson Wolf , gottawritenetwork.com
spring 2007