About This Blog


This blog was started as a place to post book reviews. The books reviewed here will be mixed. Science Fiction, Fantasy, Romance, General Fiction, NonFiction and more. Both positve and negative reviews will be posted, as well as reviews for books written for all ages and all reading levels.

Many of the books reviewed here are ones that I have purchased for my own reading pleasure. Some, I receive free in exchange for reviews. Beginning in December, 2009 you will know which are the free ones if you read the final paragraph of my reviews.

Also of note: I choose what I will read, attempting to avoid the books on which I would end up writing a negative review... but I have been known to make mistakes. Thus you see some one and two star reviews here. Since I don't enjoy writing negative reviews, I only write them if the review was promised, or if the book was so exceedingly bad, I just had to say so. Regardless of the percentage of positive to negative reviews on this blog, I give my honest opinion each and every time, and have never received financial compensation for posting my reviews.

Note that, except for fair use portions quoted from some of the books reviewed, all copyright in the content of the reviews belongs to Lady Dragoness.


Sunday, November 2, 2008

Magical Romance

A Distant Magic
By Mary Jo Putney
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Del Rey (July 17, 2007)
Rating: 3 stars of 5 possible

Jean Macrae’s family is one of the most prominent clans of Guardians, humans whose magical powers come from nature, but Jean considers her skills modest at best. She has never been able to summon the intense, earth-altering ability that has marked the most talented Guardians, and she is content without the adventure that such skill brings . . . until the day she is confronted by a handsome stranger whose magic imprisons her on his pirate ship.

This is a blend of fantasy and romance, but not quite my cup of tea. The novel is slow-paced and seems to drag on forever before it gets to the conclusion. Perhaps it would have been better if I read the previous two books prior to beginning this one, but then again, perhaps not. What comes before doesn't always boost a weak ending.

While parts of the story made me want to continue reading through to the end, I also found parts of the story almost too slow-paced for my tastes. Fortunately the good parts were spread about in just the right places... All-in-all, I'd say this trilogy would probably be better off as a single novel, but condensed somewhat from the length of the three individual books.

Recommended: Adults 18 and up, but only if you like slow-reading romances. There's not nearly enough fantasy here for die-hard fantasy fans like me.

No comments:

Post a Comment