Book Blurb: Cowboys and gunslingers meet wizards in this high fantasy set in a world inspired by the American Wild West. Silas Vendine is a mage, a bounty hunter authorized to hunt down renegade wizards. He’s also a freedom fighter, committed to protecting the non-magical people of the Wildings from the overreaching ambitions of the mages. It’s a dangerous life, and Silas knows it. Still, when he comes to the town of Bitterbush Springs, he finds far more trouble and excitement than he bargained for…

Silas is on the hunt for a renegade mage who has brought Bitterbush Springs to the brink of open warfare. In the aftermath of a shootout, he meets Lainie Banfrey, a young woman who is both drawn to and terrified of her own developing magical abilities.

Silas and Lainie team up to stop the lawless mage who has torn Lainie’s hometown apart. Their hunt takes them deep beneath forbidden lands held by the hostile A’ayimat, where only Lainie’s untamed, untrained gifts can save them from the rogue mage and the dark power he has discovered.

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: Five Stars – highly recommend

Similar Authors: Bandon Sanderson, Mercedes Lackey

Review: This book had me from page one. It has fantasy, mystery, and western with a great romance plot throughout. The intrigue kept me turning the page, and the well-developed characters made me care about what would happen next.

The plot was evenly paced, and it pulls you along to the end where you will immediately need to buy book two. There are western shootouts and farm hands looking out for their boss’s daughter. There were other magical races with an interest in one of the main characters. And there is a romance that changes the course of two character’s lives.

Lainie is a well-developed character with layers and competing motivations. She’s stubborn and loyal as all heroes tend to be. She’s not one to wait around to be rescued, but if she does need help she joins in to help her would be rescuers. She’s spent her life being told that magic is bad and Mages are soulless, but she believes in herself and trusts her instincts in the face of all she has ever been taught. She’s young and naive, but also strong and insightful.

The magic system is well thought out.  The magic has a color/essence and leaves an energy residue. It also has a cost and can be depleted. An overlord style mage council controls the bloodlines and procreation of Mages. The Mage School is used to break them and remake them into something unrecognizable. I can’t wait to learn more about the secret council, and the underground movement to protect plain folk (muggles).

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoyed Brandon Sanderson’s The Allow of Law.

Amazon link: http://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00P6TUSM0

Happy Reading!

Book Blurb: A fragile peace. A clash of magic. A woman with secrets.

The war between Bennamore and the coastal region was over almost before it began. But the uniquely powerful mage who forged the alliance is dead, and the coastal folk are restless. Now the victors are bringing their spellcraft to the Port Holdings, unaware that the locals have their own less conspicuous magical ability.

Fen’s new job with the mages of Bennamore seems pleasant enough, but their powers threaten to expose her shady little habits. And then she can’t shake off the attentions of the flirtatious and uneducated guard, Mal. Nothing, it seems, will deter him.

The mysterious disappearance of a mage uncovers a dragon’s nest of deceit. Mal needs Fen’s help to figure it out, but she has divided loyalties and her past drags everyone into the middle of a violent conspiracy. Yet she may be the only one who can stand between the two countries, and stop them plunging back into a war which, this time, would destroy all of them.

Genre: fantasy

Rating: Five Stars – highly recommended

Review: Pauline M. Ross is a master at creating multidimensional characters that you will be rooting for as you dive into her intelligent and highly creative plots. This book was a page turner that quickly evaporated any respect I had for the next day as I stayed up later and later to find out what happened next.

The main character, Fen, is middle-aged, heartbroken, and has left her life on hold because of a fruitless dream. And yet, she is also highly intelligent and strangely endearing. She has secrets that have secrets, and as the plot unfolds she must reveal them all.

The magic system of this world that Ross is building in her Bright Moon Annals just keeps getting better. Here the Mages of Bennamore call their magic “connections” and some of them may surprise you with the reach of their gifts. There are more ruins and more mysteries added to this world, and I can’t wait to see where these mysteries will lead Ross in her next installment!

The first person narrative is well done and pulls you slowly further into the mind of the main character as she admits more and more of her own reasons to herself. The action was perfectly paced and gripping. The side characters are well written, and the romance threads itself throughout the book as the backbone of the story.

I would recommend this to anyone looking for an intelligent main character and complex plot. Highly recommended!

I was given an ARC copy of this story in exchange for an honest review.

Amazon link: http://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00VZ4HSXW

Happy Reading!