Book Review: Ignite

"With a deep intake of breath, I squeezed my eyes completely shut once more.  Damian, I love you. No matter what happens, I hope you always remember that.  And then I burst off the ground, lunging for the sword lying on the lap of the guard closest me."


I have a theory.  Right now, I'm reading a fairly long book, and so, if I review a book a day in the meantime, I may actually catch up with my book reviews! 

Remember when I reviewed the book Defy about a year ago.  So, it was a book that was written by the daughter of my coworker.  Here you can read that review. Well, the second one is out, and it is called Ignite. 

So, I read it as well.  In this one, Alexa, now known to the whole kingdom as a woman, but still one of the king's guards is faced with a-whole-nother set of problems as two new ambassadors come to the kingdom.  When the king's half-brother, Jax, is kidnapped, it is up to Alexa to figure out what is going on, before their new allies, the Blevonese, are wrongly accused. 

This one is the author's second book, and you can sense that she has learned a lot as a writer.  It still has a healthy helping of romance, but it is less than the previous, and a lot more subtly done.  I am not, however, happy with the direction this love triangle is going, because I am rooting for the other one.  I tend to do that in love triangles---I was for King Arthur in the original love triangle.  I was for Jacob in Twilight.  I guess I was for Peeta in Hunger Games.  Oh well.

As before, do I think that this will be remembered as one of the greatest fantasies of all time?  No.  But, I do think it's fun and pulls you in.  You can't stop reading.  A lot of people say the world-building is bad because, "You can't have a Western-esque society in a jungle."  Why not?  And people complain that there is no map at the beginning.  Oh, I'm sorry.  You can imagine maps for yourself?

A nice solid 4.  Could be better.  Didn't blow me away, but drew me into the characters and made me want to read more.

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