Gail DaytonRecensioni

I was absolutely LOVING this right up until GREY turned into an absolute BASTARD - I could forgive his Initial shocked reaction but his subsequent disgusting behaviour towards Pearl in the following weeks was inexcusable - I was honestly hoping that someone had hexed him to explain his behaviour, but nope he was just a GRADE A DOUCHE.

Jack 😍😍

"She feared her hand smelled of bacon, but he didn’t seem to care."

Random thoughts:

The first chapters were lovely. Made me expect much more than was ultimately delivered.

I loved that the first description of the heroine is that she is strong.

Most sensual and arousing finger licking in the history of finger licking.

Also loved the fact that we see the characters bonding through the course of many weeks. The plot devices used for this needed to be more transparent.

I liked the tentative way in which sexual assault survivors were written.

I did not like that the sex scene of the book was written in a sensual way to titillate the reader while comparing and contrasting every move the male character did with that of Amanusa's rapists.

I also didn't like that from the start I knew that there was going to be a public display of how she was raped and abused, in front of important people so she can be exonerated for her alleged crimes. It is a trope we often see in such books and is one that really annoys me.

It skipped and skimmed though important parts of the plot but made sure to reference every wardrobe change, every touch of hands, in detail.

The evil characters were caricatures obsessed with hurting the heroine just because.

Character consistency was nonexistent. The heroine is from a village in Romania but all she needs to be able to blend in high society is just a new dress. She truly is a Mary Sue.

The sexism is over the top absurd. It's ridiculous to think that high society men, even in an alternate reality of the late 19th century, would shout at a woman they just met that she is a whore, while in the presence of other respectable gents.

Again the trope of writing everyone as shitty a person as possible so the heroine can shine.

What about the freaking dead zones then?

Wow I just read 500 pages in a day. I suppose this speaks in favor of the book.

Don't know if I'll read the rest. I'm glad to see they focus on other couples but i heard that the dead zone thing lies still unsolved by the end of the second book.

While I found the relationships interesting I did have issues with the fated mate trope and I find it difficult to believe in consent in a situation where there is relucatnce with some of the parties that is overridden by "the Goddess wills it." I could also almost do with a chart to graph the different love/lust/support or primary/secondary/whatever relationships between characters. It's the second book in a series and it is setting things up for the end-game. It would possibly have been better if I had re-read the first book before reading this one.
Not a bad read but I felt a little uneasy about consent.

Didn't even make it past the second page.

Didn't even make it past the second page.

Ahh! At last I found the kind of smut I've been looking for in a book. Very much in the fantasy/alternate universe genre. Romantic without being unduly insulting to the reader's intelligence. Plenty of sex (the language is more romantic than graphic) and an adventure at it's core.

AND as an added bonus - it contains NO vampires!! (Hooray!)

The book features polyamory, multiple-marriage, group sex, and some very very mild elements of same-gender sex and bondage. I should say that if you're looking for gay erotica or bdsm, you probably won't like this book. We're talking hints here people - not full on pony-boys on parade.

I really enjoyed this book - it was pure fantasy, easy on the brain, titillating, good story, good characterizations, tawdry, but not smutty enough to make a person feel guilty for reading it. If you like fantasy and are looking for a good sexy beach read - I highly recommend giving it a try.

It's been a long wait since the second blood magic book, through no fault of the author. Fortunately, it was not at all difficult to pick up where it left of without rereading. It's not an especially intricate plot, but it's a fun adventure. Elinor and Harry both sometimes acted a little stupider than was strictly necessary during the Mandatory Black Moment, in my humble opinion, but when they aren't being stupid their relationship is enough fun to forgive them. All in all this is just good solid entertainment, no more, no less.

Wish there was an epilogue to tie up the questions I had about her father.

Amazon preorder

Interesting take on magic, liked the blood stuff, wasn't sure I would. No vampires, which I was afraid of. A little heavier on the "we don't let women . . ." meme than I care for, but overall a nicely done story and romance.

Review to come.

The hero was a prostitute???

Magical mage and captain in the palace military, Kallista just wants to spend time with her family, but demons threaten the land and only her powers can save the queen and all her subjects. Split apart from several of her family members, Kallista must seek out the powerful demons and destroy them while gathering intelligence on rebel forces. Will she be strong enough to defeat the enemy? This second book in the author’s Rose trilogy (The Compass Rose is first) drew me in with its sympathetic heroine. Once I got past the notion of a woman having several husbands and them all sharing a bed, I became engrossed in the world Dayton has created. I’m now anxious to read book three and have already ordered it.

New Blood is my first steampunk. For those who don't know, steampunk is fiction involving an alternate vision of the Industrial Age (1800s), usually with more technology or, as in this case, the paranormal. Envision the 1800s if magic had been a fact of life. That's New Blood, perhaps the first steampunk romance I've seen. With all that said, New Blood is a solid read, particularly if character development, unraveling mysteries, and action are a priority for you. A good part of the novel involves Jax and Amanusa on a cross-country journey to escape the villains, and while I don't usually enjoy that particular device in literature too much, these moments with only Jax and Amanusa were some of the best in the book for me. The relationship built between these two is natural and unique to them. We don't find here a generic romance formula but a case of circumstance revealing two people's strengths and innermost weaknesses. Naturally, the atmosphere of mortal danger helps to deepen their relationship as they rely on each other to survive. Even as Jax and Amanusa travel together, these characters undergo a personal journey, learning about themselves and their demons and growing as they go on. I thought this was well-written too. Their progress didn't feel contrived; the development was steadily paced, as well it should be at nearly 500 pages, LOL. It was also interesting to read about the other magicians that Jax and Amanusa meet, like Harry, Elinor, and Grey. I thought the care that the author took to develop even these secondary characters and their dilemmas was very well done, and by the end I was ready to read about their adventures. I'll look for them in a sequel. ;)As far as the overarching plot, I felt that the first phase (the bandit camp) did not quite set the scene for the audience. I wasn't sure of the setting or the history between the characters and this phase seemed a little aimless when I saw no indication from the characters that they would eventually move on (dialogue, thoughts, etc.) I was afraid for a little while that Amanusa and Jax would stay there indefinitely. For me, this portion lagged a bit, but the book picked up quickly after this point. I did like the world-building. It was easy to imagine the sinister anti-magic creatures and their danger. I appreciated all the detail taken with the infrastructure of the magicians' society, conclaves and councils, trials and presiding officers and so on. This gave the world more substance, and I definitely liked that the author did not forget the times in which the story is set, including hints of scandal when a magician took a female apprentice, the mode of dress, and of course, the very Victorian title of the magicians' conclave: The International Magicians' Conclave of All Magic, I believe it was.Considering the setting, I could understand Amanusa's struggle for female magicians, but I did feel it became a bit tedious at the end, when the heroine debated with the villains about women's rights. I thought that was a little over the top. I generally prefer any messages or themes I'm taking away from the story to be a little more subtle. I also felt that as a romance novel, the book could perhaps use a little more heat or sexual tension, perhaps a few more of those delightful moments with the finger-licking goodness and Jax's hot eyes, LOL. ;) Overall, however, I enjoyed New Blood. It read a little like an action steampunk flick put to writing, (maybe League of Extraordinary Gentlemen?) except with much better character development and I'm looking forward to more work from this author.

This novel was first published by Luna, a Harlequin imprint marketed toward fantasy readers that drew from both romance and fantasy writers. I generally felt most of their books were too romance aisle and not strong fantasies. The Compass Rose is actually one of the exceptions in that respect among the Luna books that I liked with some creative world-building.

I thought the world Dayton created was intriguing: Adara, a matriarchal society, practices group marriage requiring at least four members. This society is magic-based--there's North, South, West and East magic. The protagonist, Kallista, is a naitan, a magical practitioner of North magic and captain in their army who can call down lightening. When it looks like she might lose a battle she calls on the Goddess--and finds herself able to destroy the invading army--but there's a catch. She's now "god marked" and tied to others so marked she must marry and with whom she can tap magic to defeat the forces arrayed against her nation: her bodyguard, with whom she's been partnered a long time, two prisoners of war, a female refugee and a foreign merchant.

I'm generally not a fan actually of fiction involving polyamory--or forced marriage, and in a sense the "god mark" acts as such a device. I prefer stories that develop intimacy between just two, not only because multiples aren't appealing to me and to my mind just two in real life terms hard enough, but in fictional terms more than two major characters can become unwieldy and there's little chance to develop six.

I think I liked this work involving polyamory more than most for several reasons. Unlike say LK Hamilton's Anita Blake series, I didn't feel this was some piled-on harem--each character had their own conflicts and brought something into the mix--the inclusion of foreign characters, even ones from an enemy nation, meant Kallista and the others really had to work to form themselves into a family. Together with the matriarchal culture and the magical system I thought this brought an interesting dimension to the plot. In that regard this brought to mind Marion Zimmer Bradley's Forbidden Tower with its clash of personalities and cultures within a group of people who must find a way to mesh together magically and sexually in order to survive and flourish.

I also thought this novel was on the whole well-written. It's a complex plot and world and Dayton builds it well--gradually letting you in on its ins and outs through the story itself instead of wads of infodump. I think the novel's biggest fault is that I think its conflicts both internal to the group and in terms of the menace they face was resolved far too easily.

The novel was a good, entertaining read--a solid work of fantasy even if not a favorite or one that has me rushing to read the next book in the trilogy.

Gail Dayton continues to explore a facinating steampunk universe that she has created and an interesting magic system. The characters are likeable, strong, human, and just a bit too stubborn for their own good, but it suits them. Unfortunately this series lacks the nuance of the author's previous One Rose Trilogy. Whereas there she acknowledged shades of grey in character's perceptions of the world, in this one we see that the only character who disapproves of sorcery as "blood magic" is a pathological misogynist - as if there can't be anybody who is perfectly comfortable with women and female magicians but has some trouble putting aside the misconceptions about sorcery that have been taught for two centuries.

See review of complete trilogy at http://www.librarything.com/review/52272704.½

See review of complete trilogy at http://www.librarything.com/review/52272704.

Summary -- I found this series intriguing enough at the outset to follow it along but recommend stopping at book 1.

The primary character weirdly devolved through the three books from a kick-ass female protagonist to some kind of really lame romantic heroine. In this, the last of the trilogy, she and others frequently comment or refer to the fact that she's not the one for thinking (she has her men for that!); far from having a will of her own, as she did in the first book, she is routinely tricked into things for her own good; far from being a strong military leader as she was in the first book, by the third book she has to be rescued psychologically, and she is portrayed as having no fighting skills. To the extent her personality is described at all, it's really annoying. wtf? Well, none of the other characters fare much better -- a couple of the male characters are fleshed out a bit more in this book than in the preceding two, but in general the reader gets very little sense in this book why one might care about any of the characters.

Another complaint -- the same-sex erotics that would logically follow from the group marriage, as described in these books are downplayed to the point that one suspects homophobia. The publisher (Luna) is the paranormal romance line of Harlequin, so maybe it's a publisher issue, or maybe just the heteronormativity of the author. Either way the very few nods that Dayton makes to same-sex erotics simply highlight the disparity in treatment.

The plot starts to really wear thin after the same elements are repeated over and over--an attractive man? Who is somehow unacceptable to the group? Why, he must be the next iliasti, and Kallista will have mindblowing sex with him, and then everyone will be happily married. Someone is a jerk? Either they are possessed by demons (that Kallista will get rid of by "pushing" and "shaping" magic) or they're not really a jerk; they just seem that way because of their pride, and really they would make a great co-spouse.

The worldbuilding is indeed interesting, and definitely my favorite part of the books. Although it's a bit depressing to see societies created & then left hanging: "Oh, well, the demons were chased out, so all the bad caste-stuff disappeared, so who knows, maybe our bordering nation's society is better now." What? Doesn't she have spies, or traders, or news, or something? And the iliasti wedding ceremony is somehow logically Not Right. If you marry in, you hand out anklets, but receive bracelets. And that applies to everyone -- everyone hands out anklets. Everyone receives bracelets. Spot the logical problem.

So, in summary, I don't regret reading these books, but can't recommend any beyond the first.

Have you ever read a book that immediately wrapped you up in its magic and refused to let you go? That's what happened to me with Gail Dayton's THE COMPASS ROSE, the first in the One Rose Trilogy. From amazing characterizations to a world unlike any you've read about before, this book takes you straight into the heart of the story and makes you a part of the action, the mystery, the romance, and the unimaginable magic that is the nation of Adara.

Kallista Varyl is a Captain in the Adaran army, a woman intent on saving her city from the invading warriors of their neighboring kingdom, Tibre. The army of Tibre, unlike that of Adara, relies on man-made instruments such as guns and cannons to win its battles, instead of the magic that Kallista and her people use. Now, though, outnumbered over ten to one, magic doesn't seem to be enough-until Kallista, in desperation, calls upon a power that was thought to be only legend, and changes the course of history.

Kallista, beyond being a warrior, is also a naitan, a magic wielder. Some have even called her a witch. But her normal magic powers aren't enough to out-battle and out-smart the hordes of the Tibre army, and so she calls upon the One Goddess, something that her kingdom's myths and legends are made of. Only it wasn't a legend, as after calling upon the powers that be, the entire Tibre army is struck dead where they stand-all, that is, except for Stone, a warrior who stirs within Kallista feelings she's never before experienced.

Now she's conquered the rival Tibre warriors, but she's left with even more questions than answers. With a mysterious mark on her neck and the brooding Stone, Kallista faces her elders-only to find out that she's been Godstruck, an occurrence that hasn't happened in her nation for over a thousand years. With power beyond belief, Kallista must learn to control the magic that has made her the fulfillment of a prophecy, for she is now the one destined to save her people from the Tibre, and their demon-possessed king.

As if defeating the evil king and harnessing her powers weren't enough, the ruler of Adara decrees that all six Godstruck players, not limited to Kallista and Stone, marry and form an instant magical family. They're then ordered to infiltrate the kingdom of Tibre to overthrow its king, and everything that such a coup entails.

Gail Dayton has created a magical world unlike anything I've ever experienced. The strange sense of family that abounds in Adara becomes understandable as the story unfolds. The bond that Kallista and Stone share goes beyond mere passion and intertwines with their combined magic. The secondary characters in this book are so real that without them, the book wouldn't be the same. I can honestly say that I'm eagerly anticipating the continuation of this story with the release of THE BARBED ROSE.

If the fight finale took as many pages as the lead-up anticipated, then the book would be three times longer. That is to say, there was a lot of set-up and presentation, which was very intereting!, but then the big fight was over extrememly quickly, and suddenly the book's over.
I loved the description of the matriarchal culture; it was extrememly well thought out, down to men having a glass ceiling in military rank, and ancient laws allowing them to be forced to marry. The interaction between the two main characters was a perfect blend of secret love, military respect, and long-time friendship.
I was, however, rather confused about the magic/compass direction relationship. Certain types of magic are associated with certain compass points, but the specifics aren't fully explained, other than West, which is death.
Overall, very good!

Amanusa is a half-English, half-Romanian healer/hedge-witch living in a small cottage in the forest in Transylvania. When she was a child her family was killed by the rebels roaming the hills, rebels who still plague her, demanding she tend to their wounds after she learned her skills from the former local wise-woman.

Into her life stumbles Jax, an Englishman and bound servant to the last blood sorceress who, before she was killed in the 1600's, commanded him to search for her apprentice/successor and give her the knowledge she placed in his head. He has been searching for some two centuries. Blood sorcery has a dark reputation, but Jax explains that what most people believe is untrue; it's a magic that works with life and for life, and any blood used is minimal and must be freely given. Amanusa does not trust men, due to her horrific past with the rebels, but she no longer wants to be prey to the same vicious men--and she also wants justice for her murdered family.

Together, she and Jax face the rapacious rebels and ruthless Austrian Inquisitors--and the danger of the spreading Dead Zones with their mechanical creatures--and flee to Paris, hoping to claim a position among the Conclave of magic users and help them, despite their hatred of blood sorcerers, to save them all from the Dead Zones.

Both Jax and Amanusa grow as characters and their actions and relationship is fascinating and feels authentic. Despite both being damaged, their hearts are good and they both continue to fight for each other and for what is right. Jax's role as a bound servant to blood sorceresses makes for a very different angle than the typical hero. And it is Amanusa who is the focus and the power in their relationship. The secondary characters are all interesting, too, although a few of the villains tend toward the two-dimensional. The world-building is solid, making for a strong fantasy plot that should please those who wish for a more complex story than just the romance.

I was extremely happy to have stumbled upon this book in the bookstore. It was a very satisfying read, full of danger and adventure and magic and a few steampunk elements, as well as a good romance. I was happy to learn that a sequel is in the works as I did not want the book to end and because there is clearly much more to explore in the world and the events and between the two main characters and their friends.

Although Gail Dayton has once again done some fantastic worldbuilding, New Blood is a more simplistic book than her One Rose trilogy. The main characters are well-developed and have solid motivations and backstories, however the secondary and minor characters are rather flat, particularly the villians. In particular I was frustrated by the fact that nobody seems to be suspicious of a long-lost magic with a violent reputation unless they also have a problem with women. Still, I am looking forward to the next book in the series.

This was my first novel by Gail Dayton and I thought it was fantastic.It's not my normal genre but still I found it very compelling.