A young, married woman of strong Christian faith finds herself trapped in a small Louisiana town while spending a restful weekend away from home and crosses paths with a serial killer. He's a serial killer with a diabolical goal that involves Barbara Everette and she has to stop him or get run over by him. An interesting dark fantasy that pits a homemaker steeped in Christian faith against the forces of darkness. Three tales of various lengths fill this book which is billed as the first in a series. When more appear, I will snap them up. ( )

I don't know. It's exciting, certainly. Coincidence - or possibly the hand of God (one or another) plays a major part throughout. I find Barb a little uncomfortable, as a Christian believer - it's not a viewpoint I can understand. Church as community, yes; God as a guiding principle, maybe - but simple belief that God takes a direct interest in her and her actions...awkward. Especially when the story shows she's right. The first story, in the bayou, is so heavy with coincidence (in getting her and the cop there, just at the right time) that it didn't really catch me. The story at the con was better, if only because I could recognize and enjoy a lot of the setting (though I generally avoid most of the backbiting and in-groups at cons, so that part was less interesting). And the third one was weird - a lot of belief, but no actual power until Barb showed up. Lazarus and the effect on her daughter...seem a little excessive and setting up for the next adventure. Silly coach. The end is - somewhere between awkward and amusing, as Barb's husband finds out she's no longer completely obedient to him. Whatever. ( )

This book is very different from John Ringo's books (or at least the ones I have read). This one revolves around a cross between a soccer mom and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Its a fun, relatively light read and doesn't have nearly as much combat as the other Ringo books I've encountered. The book takes the form of two short stories and a novella, with the novella having a pretty obvious dig at David Drake, which I thought was a bit odd. Overall, I enjoyed this book.

http://www.stillhq.com/book/John_Ringo/Princess_of_Wands.html ( )

The first section of th book was the best when our heroine battled a beasty incarnation. I appreciated the fact that Barb was a Christian warrier -- perhaps the most redeaming aspect of the book.

The second book was really poorly written. It was basically a lecture on what goes on at a con and a mini-tutorial on demons. How many times does he have to infer that DragonCon is the place to be to ogle women?

The third book was brief and basically a pointless addition. The book would have been MUCH better if it flowed fom Book One to an expanded Book Three -- building the drama of your teen being possessed by the devil while you're a Bible believing Christian. ( )

I think one of the reviews on Amazon summarizes this best: June Cleaver as a ninja warrior of God.

Barbara Everette is a Mississippi soccer mom and devoted Christian. She's also trained in multiple disciplines of martial arts and an excellent markswoman. Little does she know that a weekend getaway will land her in a huge mess of a Cajun cult trying to summon a rather nasty demon, and thus introduce her to a new line of work in the government's secretive Special Circumstances division.

John Ringo manages to make some creative twists on the newfangled Buffy-the-Vampire-Slayer-grows-up theme. Barbara may be a Christian, but she's no Bible thumper, and she doesn't usually preach at people; this causes some conflicts amongst her new peers who are mostly pagan and bullied by so-called Christians as they were growing up. Barb constantly has to battle against people's poor expectations of her and her tolerance. Ringo's definite strength is during action scenes. He builds suspense and you can picture the battle scenes, movie-style. His descriptions... not so much. I really got tired of Barbara's well-endowed chest being mentioned and commented on by random folks. Okay, she has big boobs, I get it. The best part of the book is Ringo's dead-on lampooning of a small sci-fi convention, complete with intellectual debates, the socially-inept, and snarking authors obviously based on real authors. The obvious slam on Robert Jordan had me giggling out loud, especially as the plot developed.

This was a fun and fast read, and I'd like to read more in this series. It's nice to see a fantasy book that isn't anti-Christian, but actually explores the dynamics between religions old and new and makes good points about how you can tolerate folks without compromising your morals. ( )