Category: character review

Character Review #6: Queen Adara

First off, let me apologize for the tardiness of this post. Character Review #6 was supposed to run along the same schedule as the first five reviews. However, Mother’s Day arrived and with it a day of decadent laziness highly encouraged by my hubby. So you see, it’s his fault (don’t tell him I said that). I do normally write the posts on Sunday (usually at the last minute) and schedule them to post first thing Monday morning for your viewing pleasure. Well, as I said, with Mother’s Day falling on this past Sunday I did nothing but read all day long and by the time I was ready for bed there was no getting any writing out of me.

But alas, here I am, only a few days late and ready to tell you all about Queen Adara of Taagaria, the abandoned wife of Christian of Acre, in Kinley MacGregor’s Return of the Warrior. First off, even if you’ve never read Kinley MacGregor you may have read her. She is the alter ego of Sherrilyn Kenyon, better known for paranormal romance than historical. One thing both authors have in common is hot, strong men and their equally strong women. That is something that draws me back to her work time and again. Off the top of my head I don’t think I’ve ever read a TSTL (too stupid to live) heroine in any of her work. Queen Adara absolutely doesn’t fit into that category either. She is a queen after all. She is noble, beautiful, brave and strong…and has the balls to travel through hostile lands to find her husband.

In this installment of the Brotherhood of the Sword series, we meet Christian of Acre. He is a wounded hero wanting nothing more than to fulfill the moral obligations he placed on himself when imprisoned alongside other brave men. They formed the brotherhood to stay alive and aid each other, and now nothing and no one has his loyalty but them. Until he steps into a room to find a beautiful, naked woman claiming to be his wife. He refuses her but decides to help return her to her kingdom through harsh, dangerous lands. Adara is no fool. She quickly realizes she is in serious danger of not returning home in one piece. She also decides not to give up on the tormented warrior she married as a child. She shows strength of will as well as true courage and feminine stubbornness. She easily became one of my favorite female characters.
Though she is cunning and fighting for the strength to care for her people, she isn’t an over-the-top, kick-ass heroine. She knows when to hold back and let the hero have his pride.

Do you prefer the kick-ass heroine that takes over from the start? Or is the more subtle femme fatale more to your reading taste? Tell me in a comment below or just recommend a female character that stayed with you long after the story ended. One reader will win a slightly used (but in VERY good condition) copy of Return of the Warrior. Be sure to include your email addy.

Character Review #1: Christine Feehan’s Carpathians

For my first character review (which will hopefully be an ongoing blog feature) I’ve decided to review a set of characters that all have very similar characteristics: Christine Feehan’s Carpathian males. If you’re not familiar with this ongoing series you can find out all about it here. At the moment it’s a 21 book series that has a HUGE following, and rightly so. I honestly enjoyed the first dozen or so books of this series. Unfortunately I’m the type of reader that gets burnt out on a series of this size. I’m struggling to stay faithful to Anita Blake at the moment as well. So, I own about half of the Dark books, but have read more by borrowing from a friend and the library.

What do I think of the Carpathian males? Well, first and foremost, where can I get one?! These fiercely loyal men are HOT,HOT,HOT! Every one of them is a study in masculine perfection of the physical form (well, duh). They’re tall and gorgeous, some dark, some light and ALL alpha male. To be completely honest, I wouldn’t mind having a man who could toss a small car, with an overprotective streak ten miles long, wanting to pamper me and set me on a pedestal. My biggest beef with this series is how many of the female characters get angry at them for these inherent characteristics. I’m all for women’s rights but can easily put them aside for a little pampering. I mean really, is it so hard to let the man take over where your life is being threatened? No. So, overall these men are strong, fight vampires and whatever else threatens their lifemates, friends and families, and are nigh indestructible. They can turn into mist, sleep in the healing earth of the Carpathian Mountains and prefer blood to beer. What’s not to like?

The Carpathians are not exactly vampires because vampires are evil, former Carpathian males who resorted to killing their prey. Carpathians do drink blood but don’t kill innocents. They exist in a muted world of black and white, with no emotions until they meet their lifemates for the first time. Once they meet their lifemates, they hate to be separated from them for any length of time, which really pisses off a lot of the women. Their female lifemates can be converted into Carpathians, however, reproduction is a problem that hadn’t been solved by the time I stopped reading the series. They were working on it though. There are humans who know all about them and work with them in some way. They have enemies in both evil vampires and humans. They live all over the globe.

That is the Carpathians in a nutshell. I did enjoy most of the books, but became burnt out and found it hard to keep reading. I still have a couple on my TBR shelf. One of them, that I did in fact read, is Dark Possession (#18). It’s a good story that can be read alone, though the information about will also explain a lot. The copy I’m giving away was read once and is in very good condition. Do you want it? Just post a comment below, either with your own opinion on the Carpathians or just to say hi, and you’re entered to win. I’ll draw a winner on Wednesday, April 6th.
Good luck!