The Last Woman in the Forest by Diane Les Becquets – Review

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4 stars, Book Review, contemporary, Diane Les Becquets, dogs, mystery, nature, suspense

About The Last Woman in the Forest by Diane Les Becquets

Marian Engström has found her true calling: working with rescue dogs to help protect endangered wildlife. Her first assignment takes her to northern Alberta, where she falls in love with her mentor, the daring and brilliant Tate. After they’re separated from each other on another assignment, Marian is shattered to learn of Tate’s tragic death. Worse still is the aftermath in which Marian discovers disturbing inconsistencies about Tate’s life, and begins to wonder if the man she loved could have been responsible for the unsolved murders of at least four women.

Hoping to clear Tate’s name, Marian reaches out to a retired forensic profiler who’s haunted by the open cases. But as Marian relives her relationship with Tate and circles ever closer to the truth, evil stalks her every move.…

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Review of The Last Woman in the Forest

My first review impressions of The Last Women in the Forest: Great story. Creepy. Hindsight. What do we overlook in the people we love?

Before I go on, there may or may not be spoilers in this review. This book is difficult to review without revealing a few things. Though I think the book blurb does automatically lead to you suspect Tate. And not far into the book, when Marion contacts Nick, the forensic profiler, you know that she suspects Tate. So, because of the way the story was laid out, there were no surprises. Any reader of suspense will anticipate many of the events up to and including the ending. At a certain point in the story (about one-half to two-thirds), I just want to be done to see if I was right. I was.

Before that point, I admired the detail presented from Marian’s viewpoint and from Nick Shepard’s viewpoint. Each had their own perspective. Marian as Tate’s former girlfriend, and Nick as a profiler who has studied the victims and perpetrator of the Stillwater murders for years. Marian loved Tate, but there was something about him that made her begin to doubt Tate. That prompted her to contact Nick. This makes my skin itch with suspicion. I think the author intended that way. Every time a suspicious Tate incident is described, the reader nods her head thinking, yep, bad guy. Even though Marian does not realize it. She loves him and is therefore prone to believe his excuses and even to make excuses for him. Her co-worker, Jenness, repeatedly warned Marian to be careful, but Marian ignored her.

It is Nick’s descriptions of the perpetrator that drive home the creepy tendencies of this serial murderer. Manipulative with a capital ‘M’. That is what I take from this. And that is exactly what Tate was – manipulative.

I give The Last Woman in the Forest 4 stars, losing one star for predictability. I anticipated the last two victims way too early. Maybe I was supposed to. I’m not sure. I prefer not to know how it will end. The discovery of the bad guy is irrelevant, as long as he is discovered. Everything up to that point is better if it is a surprise.

The review quote on the cover from Fiona Barton said “Beautifully paced and twisty.” Yes, to beautifully paced and yes to twisty. But not twisty as in unexpected turns in the plot. Twisty because serial killers are twisted.

I won an advance copy of this book in a contest. Thanks to Berkley Publishing for that contest.

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The Women’s War by Jenna Glass – Review

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4 stars, Book Review, cliffhanger, fantasy, Jenna Glass, magic, sexual oppression

About The Women’s War by Jenna Glass

In a high fantasy feminist epic, a revolutionary spell gives women the ability to control their own fertility—with consequences that rock their patriarchal society to its core.

When a nobleman’s first duty is to produce a male heir, women are treated like possessions and bargaining chips. But as the aftereffects of a world-altering spell ripple out physically and culturally, women at last have a bargaining chip of their own. And two women in particular find themselves at the crossroads of change.

Alys is the widowed mother of two teenage children, and the disinherited daughter of a king. Her existence has been carefully proscribed, but now she discovers a fierce talent not only for politics but also for magic—once deemed solely the domain of men. Meanwhile, in a neighboring kingdom, young Ellin finds herself unexpectedly on the throne after the sudden death of her grandfather the king and everyone else who stood ahead of her in the line of succession. Conventional wisdom holds that she will marry quickly, then quietly surrender the throne to her new husband…. Only, Ellin has other ideas.

The tensions building in the two kingdoms grow abruptly worse when a caravan of exiled women and their escort of disgraced soldiers stumbles upon a new source of magic in what was once uninhabitable desert. This new and revolutionary magic—which only women can wield—threatens to tear down what is left of the patriarchy. And the men who currently hold power will do anything to fight back.

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Review of The Women’s War

The Women’s War is one hell of a story. Based on a society where women are considered second-class citizens, if they are lucky, this is the story of revolution led by two extraordinary women.

Alysoon Rai-Brynna is a widowed mother of two and daughter of a king. When her father divorced her mother in favor of a more politically advantageous marriage, Alys and her brother were declared illegitimate. And her mother became an Unwanted, sentenced to life at the Abbey.

Princess Ellinsoltah of Rhozinolm will become queen when the two most likely male candidates to the throne would most like cause a war. The plan: after her year of mourning, Ellin will take a husband who will then become king. Or so her council thinks.

These two women will become the pivotal characters who react and overcome so many obstacles thrown at them in the aftermath of the world-altering spell.

The story is complex and so many characters lives are intertwined it is impossible to represent all of that here in a review.  So I will pick and choose a few characters…

Crown Prince Delnamel (half-brother to Alys and Tynthanal) is the villain to boo at every time he turns up. Occasionally, he seems to have a teeny tiny bit of heart, but don’t let that fool you. There is one horrible scene where Delnamel arrests three senior abigails and then allows his men to rape the women of the Abbey. My heart ached at the scene, but it a critical event that changes the raped women in such a way that those men will have cause to regret.

Tynthanal, brother of Alys and lieutenant commander at the Citadel, escorts the women of the Abbey to the wasteland to their new home. It is because of him that the women discover the new Well of magical elements. Thus Women’s Well was founded. Tynthanal is one of the few male feminists in the book.

Semsulin, is the lord chancellor and head of the royal council of Rhozinolm. He is the man who talked Ellin into taking the crown. His motives are not entirely clear, though as the book goes on, he seems to support Ellin more and more. I think he only wants what is best for the kingdom and that is a difficult thing to determine.

In a society where only men are allowed to use magic, it will come as quite a shock when those men learn that women are not only able to use magic in many ways, but they are also quite good at. If they don’t make room for women as equals, they will loose. Take as much of that as you wish as a commentary on any aspect of women’s history in our own world.

The cover by Elizabeth A.D. Eno, is beautiful and inciteful and truly represents the story. Ms. Eno must have read the book before she crafted her cover.

The Women’s War is 560 pages long according to the published page counts. You would think 560 would be enough to tell a story. It isn’t. Be prepared for a huge cliffhanger. The only characters whose stories are resolved are the ones that died. The description on NetGalley gave no indication that this was the first book of a series. The Women’s War gets 4 stars from me, losing one star due to the gigantic cliffhanger. (I may have thrown a fit when I finished the book.  I don’t remember.  It is all kind of fuzzy.) But if I was the type of reader who didn’t mind cliffhangers, I would give it all 5 stars.

Heartbreaking, hopeful, magical and emotional. The Women’s War truly is an amazing story.

Here is a quote from the book. It was said by Alys’s mother, right before the world upended:

Something is going to happen tonight. Something … momentous. Something that will change the world in ways I can’t entirely foresee.

Through Netgalley, the publisher provided a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Prime Target (Prime Chronicles, #4) by Monette Michaels – Review

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4 stars, Book Review, Monette Michaels, scifi romance, series, space opera

About Prime Target by Monette Michaels

Former Prime sex surrogate Susa Anghard has never been off her planet, let alone out of the Cejuru solar system. While she isn’t naive about men and what they want, she isn’t prepared for the predatory males who now have her in their sights. When she’s kidnapped on her way to a galactic rim jump station to visit her cousin Borac, she has no expectations of being rescued.

She vows to free herself or die trying.

When Borac Anghard asks Damon Martin to intercept his cousin Susa’s transport and escort her to their jump station, Damon agrees. When he arrives to meet Susa’s ship, he finds she’s been kidnapped by Dorian mercenaries. He goes in hot pursuit and prays he finds her before she’s delivered to the person who paid for the kidnapping.

He has vowed to save her.

When Damon catches up with the kidnappers, he hadn’t expected to find the resourceful Susa in the act of getting away. And he really hadn’t expected to be so attracted to her. An attraction that could go nowhere—she was his business partner’s cousin and Damon still wasn’t over losing the only woman he’d ever loved.

Take one alpha-male with a slightly broken heart, add in one Prime female finding her courage and self for the first time—throw them together in close quarters in a trip across the galaxy and love will find a way.

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Review of Prime Target

Prime Target continues the story of the Prime people who are losing the struggle with negative population growth. They are dying out as a people unless they can find a way to get past the doctrine that has been ingrained into them all their lives.

Prime should only mate with prime. Mating marks identify optimal mates, but with so few females in the population, the men are having a hard time finding their mates. Some women that did not mark, became sex surrogates to men who had not found their mates.

When the Prime joined the Galactic Alliance, the door was open to the possibility of finding other females that were compatible with Prime males. Some proved to be the Lost Ones, Prime females that had been send away for their safety during the war with the Antareans. Some proved to be humans.

Too many men, not enough women is a pretty common theme in this genre. So, while there are no points for originality, Ms. Michaels does take an old story and give her own spin, adding interesting characters, adventure, heat and romance.

Susa Anghard is a former sex surrogate who is excited and nervous about leaving her world to visit her cousin and his family. It is both a family visit and the adventure of a lifetime to someone who has never left her homeworld. Because travel for young women, especially an unmarked Prime female, is exceedingly dangerous, Susa’s cousin Borac sends Damon Martin to intercept Susa and escort her to the jump station that Damon and Borac own and run. When Damon and Susa meet, there is some instant chemistry, but acting on it doesn’t happen for a while. In fact, when they realize the strong attraction, they verbally discuss a week with no sex (mentally, neither wants to wait).

In the meantime, Susa is being hunted by an egomaniac who will stop at nothing to kidnap her and take her to his home world. He really is an icky little man and you will want him to get what is coming to him early in the book. And often thereafter. Damon will do anything to protect her, though Susa has a few tricks up her sleeve to. Like a ragbag. I know, doesn’t sound like much of a defense, but trust me. It is. 🙂

There is a great dynamic between Damon and Susa. Like I said, he wants to protect her. She doesn’t like being ordered around. They get along just fine. Well, maybe it’s a little bumpy, but with all that attraction, you know they are going to come to an agreement.

Having read books 1 and 2 a couple years ago, I must say that I remember more adventure and less sex. Prime Target has many sensual passages, even while Susa and Damon are abstaining from sex. Plus they are on a pleasure cruise where the main pleasure is sex. Prime Target is: Scifi adventure – yes, romance – yes, erotica – pretty close.

Prime Target is #4 in the Prime Chronicles series. Each book can be read as a standalone. Since I have now read all the books, it is kind of nice to have the backgrounds of expanding cast of supporting characters.

I’m going to leave you with a few thought that may or may affect your curiosity about Prime Target:

• Borac and Damon, two men that seem to have so much respect for women, need to do something about the lawlessness of their jump station. Boys, you are the law on that station. Do something about it!
• Ragbags make excellent bodyguards.
• Who names themselves ‘Prime’ and doesn’t expect other people offer up a little scorn?

The author provided a copy of her book in exchange for my honest review.

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