Thursday, July 18, 2013

Book Review: Tempest Reborn

Book Description

Release date: May 28, 2013 | Series: Jane True (Book 6)

Anyan may be trapped in an evil dragon and Blondie may be gone, but Jane knows one thing: she's not about to give up. She's ready to tear down heaven and earth to save her lover, despite those who believe he's lost.
Luckily for Jane, those who've given up on Anyan do not include those closest to her. Defying The Powers That Be, Jane and Company form their own crack squad of misfits, in whose hands the fate of the world may well rest.
With a little help from her friends, the Universe, and lots of snacks, Jane embarks on her greatest adventure yet, confident that with great sacrifice comes great reward. The question is, who will be that sacrifice?
The fantastic conclusion to Nicole Peeler's urban fantasy series featuring Jane True. (From amazon.com)

 

Review:

I wanted to love this book, I really did. I’ve been a fan of Jane True and company since Ms. Peeler published the very first Jane True several years ago. Jane is a spunky character who fiercely loves her friends, family and  hometown (and the ocean).

Warning: slight spoilers for earlier books included in this review. If you haven’t read previous books, stop here, do not pass Go, do not collect $200, unless you don’t care about spoilers. Me? I read the end of books first because I have to know, but I digress.

I realize many of my problems with the book are personal preference. When did Jane become British? She began using “whilst” in her inner monologues this time around and it nearly drove me insane, like it always does when American authors use that. To me, it’s like they are trying to sound fancy and more scholarly—Ms. Peeler is smart, she doesn’t need to “try” to sound smart or European. It also irritates me when American authors use “as” in place of because. It comes off as a misguided attempt to to sound literary.

Word choice quibbles aside, Jane read completely different this time around.  Her personality was more abrasive to me; she also seemed more frail emotionally, (understandable) because her lover was not there and she had a lot of inner turmoil relative to the methods she might need to use to save him. I did love the emphasis on friends working together to save the world and how they all had each others’ backs during fights. I didn’t really buy her as the champion. Yes, she had the power that was gifted to her and she listened to her friends who had more war experience (planning and execution of those plans) than she did, but it still didn’t “feel” right to me as a reader.

Anyan and Jane /sigh. I’ve been cheering for them to get together since the first book (never did like Ryu as a leading man), but I didn’t like them together as much as I wanted to. I loved the build up, but the keeping them apart felt artificial. Also, in the past few books, Jane calling him “Puppy” just didn’t sit well with me. Seemed too weird. I know he’s a barghest (big black dog) shapeshifter, but I still didn’t like that term of endearment.

All complaints aside, overall the book was well-written and was a (mostly) satisfactory conclusion to the series. I definitely would not recommend picking this series up with the final book, because of back story involved but it’s a must-read if you’ve read up to this point (Book 6 in the series). It’s an easy, light read, I just couldn’t get into it as much as the other books, which I tore through from the moment I downloaded them to my kindle.

Recommendation: If you have started the series, you should read it to complete it. You’ll probably enjoy it, I just had personal issues with the book that detracted from my enjoyment.

Sensuality: some descriptive sex scenes, not for younger teens.

Rating: 3 stars (that’s a bit generous  because it took me about a month to finish it when I normally devour a book in an evening)