One more down from my TBR pile.
The book, Daughter of the Flames by Nancy Holder, is a Silhouette Bombshell category with a sequel or the first in a trilogy or series, I’m not really sure which as the Bombshell line fizzled out in January 2007, so all I know is that it’s Book 1 and there’s Books 2 and 3. Did I know it had a sequel at first? Nope. Otherwise I wouldn’t have read it until I had the second primed and ready to go, but the story ended in an unsatisfying manner. The story is rich in descriptions, the main character is fully fleshed out, but bits and pieces left me confused. I had to reread several lines (especially of dialogue) to understand what exactly was going on, but I enjoyed the story enough to push through.
Then the ending. The main characters land in New Orleans. A comatose long-lost mother dies–wait, no, not really died died–hang on, magic brought her back maybe?–um, wait…okay, now she’s only mostly dead but still not really–wait… Well, you get the idea. A battle seemed to erupt for seemingly no reason. Still, I could go with all this, as the story’s from the heroine’s point of view who, obstensibly, is as confused as I am.
What got me is the confusion between two romantic interests. Toward the end of the novel, she realizes she’s in love with Guy #1. They make love, it’s beautiful, and she leaves. He’s a kind, moral fellow. I really prefer Guy #2, who’s the brooding, uber-responsible type, but I can go with her decision. A Southern, sunny, sweet cop? Yeah, fine.
Then, during the Sudden Inexplicable Battle, Guy #2 kisses the heroine “like a lover” (admittedly, the vibes between the two have been described over and over again so in all honesty I totally should have seen this coming) and then gets hit by…something. A bullet, an energy ball, a renegade mosquito, I’m not really sure. But he’s down, she’s freaking, and he’s carried off for impromtu surgery in the mansion’s OR. Yes, that’s right. The mansion has an operating room.
I’m pretty sure he doesn’t die because he pops up in the synopsis for the second book, but he doesn’t recover by the end of the book, and the heroine tells him through their mental connection that if he dies, she’ll die too. Now I’m a bit frustrated. I’d been rooting for Guy #2 but had finally resigned myself to Guy #1, and now she can’t live without Guy #2 even though she spoke to Guy #1 and confirmed her love for him right before her mental chat with Guy #2 on the operating table. What the hey? No having of cake and eating it too, missy!
And even though I preferred Guy #2, I wasn’t 100% on board with him either as he used magic for things like flipping on a car’s turn signal. Yes, that’s right. He waved his hand over the steering wheel to magically flip on the turn signal. It’s not like his fingers were broken, and the fact that he had to move his hand anyway seems like it’s just as much effort as having done it manually, so my practical side’s kinda rolling her eyes at that. And I’m not even going to get into the fact that he gets the car to magically drive itself despite the fact that they’re in the city where he has repeatedly told the heroine the magic comes and goes. You’d think the possibility that the magic would suddenly not work and the car may crash would have him paying closer attention, but hey–what do I know?
But despite all my quibbles, I’m adding the second book, Daughter of the Blood, to my To Buy list once I’m done with the TBR Challenge. I have a sneaky suspicion that, at the very least, these are two books of a trilogy since the second ends “with a shocker”, but with the next book, Son of the Shadows, now carried by Nocturne, I’m more optomistic that I’ll be able to finish the storyline because, in all honesty, it is a good story.
