DragonSpell by Donita Paul

One Dragon Egg Holds the Key to the Future.

Once a slave, Kale is given the unexpected opportunity to become a servant to Paladin. Yet this young girl has much to learn about the difference between slavery and service.

A Desperate Search Begins…

A small band of Paladin’s servants rescue Kale from danger but turn her from her destination: The Hall, where she was to be trained. Feeling afraid and unprepared, Kale embarks on a perilous quest to find the meech dragon egg stolen by the foul Wizard Risto. First, she and her comrades must find Wizard Fenworth. But their journey is threatened when a key member of the party is captured, leaving the remaining companions to find Fenworth, attempt an impossible rescue, and recover the egg whose true value they have not begun to suspect…

Weaving together memorable characters, daring adventure, and a core of eternal truth, Dragonspell is a finely crafted and welcome addition to the corpus of fantasy fiction.

 

DragonSpell follow the unique and thrilling adventure of a young girl, Kale. Although the writing is a bit dry, the plot line kept me reading this book, for it is a truly remarkable idea.

 

I was surprised by the amount of fantasy concepts introduced in one novel. From magical urges to multiple races, light magic, mind-speaking, and one cannot forget the Dragons. I am, by no matter, a newbie to the fantasy genre, in fact, high fantasy is one of my favorite genres, it's just surprising that so many types of magic were used. I'm still trying to decide whether I like it or not.

Montana Sky by Nora Roberts

In life, Jack Mercy hadn't been a kind man. In death, he was no different. His daughter Willa expected to inherit his ranch, the place she'd put her heart and soul into. But at the reading of the will, she learns that her home has been given not just to her, but to two sisters she barely knows as well. And in order to inherit, they must all live on the ranch for a period of one year.

None of the three sisters are happy with the arrangement. And apparently, neither is someone else as deadly incidents begin occurring around them. Willa, Tess and Lila find themselves fighting for their lives alongside the men who have become part of the lives and their hearts.

Okay, I just want to start off with, I fell in love with the movie about five years before reading this, so I had prior knowledge to who the killer is, how everything turns out. You know, the whole 'mystery' part of the novel?

I have to say, the funniest part of reading this book was trying to figure out what was different between the book and the movie. Characters have different careers, events happen in a different order, more murders happen in a book, important events in one are downplayed in the other. I have to say, though, I loved the book about as much as I loved the movie.

 

Anyway, like all of her other books that I've read, Nora Roberts is an expert in the Mystery Romance category. She deserves a gold medal, or something. 

By the way, I'm watching the movie as I'm writing this review. :D

Grave Mercy by R.L. LaFevers

Why be the sheep, when you can be the wolf?

Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others.

Ismae’s most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany—where she finds herself woefully under prepared—not only for the deadly games of intrigue and treason, but for the impossible choices she must make. For how can she deliver Death’s vengeance upon a target who, against her will, has stolen her heart?

When I first read the summary, I said to myself "Assassin nuns? WTF?" But then I read the first few chapters and it made sense. It took me 4 days to read the first half of the book. But only 4 hours to finish it.

It is rare to find the perfect match of multiple genres, but Grave Mercy has it all; fantasy, action, historical fiction, romance. I loved it!

Ismae is one of the best female protagonists I have read about in a while. She is strong, stays true to what she believes in, doesn't let a man stand in her way (even as she's falling in love with him) and puts her Duchess and country before herself and her love.

On a side note, I loved that this was set in Brittany. I've always wondered about the history of the Kingdom (Duchy, Province, whatever), as I share the same name!

I highly recommend this book/series to fans of Tamora Pierce, Kristin Cashore and Cinda Williams Chima.