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Liked It “Amanusa is a half-English, half-Romanian healer/hedge-witch living in a small cottage in the forest in Transylvania. When she was a child her family was killed by the rebels roaming the hills, rebels who still plague her, demanding she tend to their wounds after she learned her skills from the...” see full review » see other reviews » |
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“Amanusa is a half-English, half-Romanian healer/hedge-witch living in a small cottage in the forest in Transylvania. When she was a child her family was killed by the rebels roaming the hills, rebels who still plague her, demanding she tend to their wounds after she learned her skills from the former local wise-woman.
aprillee wrote this review Wednesday, May 20 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Into her life stumbles Jax, an Englishman and bound servant to the last blood sorceress who, before she was killed in the 1600's, commanded him to search for her apprentice/successor and give her the knowledge she placed in his head. He has been searching for some two centuries. Blood sorcery has a dark reputation, but Jax explains that what most people believe is untrue; it's a magic that works with life and for life, and any blood used is minimal and must be freely given. Amanusa does not trust men, due to her horrific past with the rebels, but she no longer wants to be prey to the same vicious men--and she also wants justice for her murdered family.
Together, she and Jax face the rapacious rebels and ruthless Austrian Inquisitors--and the danger of the spreading Dead Zones with their mechanical creatures--and flee to Paris, hoping to claim a position among the Conclave of magic users and help them, despite their hatred of blood sorcerers, to save them all from the Dead Zones.
Both Jax and Amanusa grow as characters and their actions and relationship is fascinating and feels authentic. Despite both being damaged, their hearts are good and they both continue to fight for each other and for what is right. Jax's role as a bound servant to blood sorceresses makes for a very different angle than the typical hero. And it is Amanusa who is the focus and the power in their relationship. The secondary characters are all interesting, too, although a few of the villains tend toward the two-dimensional. The world-building is solid, making for a strong fantasy plot that should please those who wish for a more complex story than just the romance.
I was extremely happy to have stumbled upon this book in the bookstore. It was a very satisfying read, full of danger and adventure and magic and a few steampunk elements, as well as a good romance. I was happy to learn that a sequel is in the works as I did not want the book to end and because there is clearly much more to explore in the world and the events and between the two main characters and their friends.”
“I wrote this book. Of course I think it's wonderful.”
Gail Dayton wrote this review Wednesday, March 18 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“A good start to, I’m hoping, a new series.
GinRobi wrote this review Monday, December 22 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Jax has been looking endlessly for the previous blood sorceress’s successor, one who would unleash the knowledge Yvaine had stored in his mind, the magic in his body.
Amanusa lost her family at a very young age, was raped and beated repeatedly since, and has lost a huge chunk of herself. When Jax approaches, she doesn’t believe him and sends him on his way, for a woman in Romania is forbidden to perform any sort of magic. Jax has to find a way to convince Amanusa that she is a blood sorceress, and when she unknowingly uses the biggest of spells against the men who hurt her, killing them, she has no choice now but to flee to France with Jax.
Between “dead zones” and having to dodge those would wish them dead, arriving in France should be a means of safety. But none of it ends there. From performing magic to contain a “dead zone” from becoming bigger, to being face to face with the one man, above all others, who want her dead, Amanuza and Jax face their biggest threat and challenge yet.
I’d have to agree with new_user’s review (to read her review, click here.) The relationship between Jax and Amanusa builds slowly, with Amanusa needing to learn how to trust a man. Period. Jax learns that Amanusa is in no way like Yvaine, who treated him as most treated servants. Amanusa treats him with more kindness than he even believes he deserves.
Watching their relationship grow was, I think, the highest point in the book. They learn about themselves as well as each other, and it grows from trust, grudgingly to love, until both realize they can’t live without the other, regardless of a blood bond. What they feel is incredibly much deeper, and both deserve to feel that way. And Amanusa teeters on that fine line between justice and revenge.
I did find that the scene at the rebellion camp to be a bit much - it lasted way too long, and I feared that the entire book was going to play out there. While I could understand that their journey through “dead zones” were played out to keep themselves alive, I wished there was more sexual tension between Amanusa and Jax, especially on her part. Knowing what had happened to her until Jax came along, I wanted to see a bigger fight of her feeling towards Jax in that aspect, not just her heart and mind.
And while I could understand that, in the past, women had a much bigger fight to being equal to men, in all aspects and not just magic, I thing her speach at the end was a little overdone. I think the story would have been just as good with a shorter speech.
And the “dead zones”. I really liked that twist. How not just magic, but life, seems to be sucked away until there is nothing left except mechanical machines that want to destroy everything that crosses their path, and that seem to be created by something other than man; no bolts, nuts, soldering are keeping them together. They are seemless . While all sorts of magicks and spells are worked to contain the zones, it took Amanusa’s blood magic to combine them, to make the containment spell work.
All in all, I enjoyed the story and I sure do hope that this is the beginning of a series. I’d snag the second book, just to see what else Amanusa learns of her magic and more about the “dead zones”, like who, how and what created them. Ms. Dayton, I look forward to reading more from you!
Rating: 3.5 stars”
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