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Monday, January 21, 2013







Book 1!
When I get a book for review, I try to not look at the cover or synopsis. I do this so that when I read I have an unbiased view on this book.  This set of books I was lucky enough to go in pretty much blindfolded. I was told it was a little witchy and a little shifty. So I expected witches and werewolves. What I got was something pleasantly unexpected. 


This series is filled with American Indian Lore, history, some and some witchy stuff. Before opening the books to read, I expected it to be our average fairytale-made up magical foo-foo stuff (think twilight and peter pan). I got something completely different. 


From the moment I read the first paragraph until I sat down the third book I became part of the story. I felt every step, breathed in the air, felt the heat and the cold. I was there; every ounce of me was in every scene. I love when authors do this for the reader. The flow of the story line and the information we received was pleasant. The beginning was not junked up with facts and character information. We seemed to learn about the characters gradually as we read. This was a nice change in format. 


Book 3!
I am so accustomed to books that lay out all the facts right in the beginning that I pretty much expect it in every book.  My outlook on the way an author tells a story and introduces their characters from now on is going to be very different. I no longer believe that you have to introduce the characters fully in the beginning. I think you can forgo a lot of the tedious factoids at the beginning and spread them out throughout the novel.


In the beginning of Seized we meet Naomi and her best friend Shannon.  We learn a little about their jobs and personalities as they run through Naomi’s relationship break up and decide to attend a Native American sweat ceremony. During this sweat, they meet a lot of other characters, all having a great deal to do with the rest of the story.  The synopsis will give you a better idea of what is happening through each novel, which will be included below. 


Book 2!
I loved this series and look forward to the next two books.  I know there is a total of five books from listening and participating in The Indie Exchange Radio Show that is held every Friday.  I had the opportunity to tell Lynn just how much I loved her books and why.  I rarely get to tell and author anything, let alone get feedback, so this as you can imagine was like getting my cake and eating it too. 


I love that she already has an idea where the story is going. When I write I kind of know where I am going but sometimes I take wrong turns or other things happen and I find the story nowhere near where I wanted it to be.  After re-reading a few things in the books I have decided that I like her approach to writing so much so that I am going to try to incorporate my characters information and plot mapping in a similar manner.  


I am rating all three books a 5 out of 5 and recommend that everyone read them!

Synopsis for Seized:

 The winter solstice 2012 won't be the end of the world. It will be the beginning of the end....

Naomi has a pretty sweet life. Respected as a skilled mediator, she has an almost uncanny knack for getting people on both sides of a dispute to agree. And her handsome boyfriend Brock has just proposed to her. But a white buffalo calf is bowing to her in her dreams. And who is the Native American man who has been following her around?

Naomi doesn’t know it, but things are about to change....

Synopsis for Tapped: 

Ah, winter in South Dakota….

Naomi Witherspoon, chosen by a Lakota Indian goddess to mediate a truce in heaven, is in the midst of a number of down-to-earth problems. She hasn’t heard from her boyfriend, Joseph, in weeks. She has also been attacked recently by a man channeling an Aztec jaguar god. Her best friend Shannon thinks she ought to get out of town for awhile – but what Shannon proposes is a road trip to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to track down Naomi’s father, who doesn’t know she exists. Naomi agrees to go, but the additional stress literally makes her sick.

Their search is complicated by a surly teenager; a mysterious walled compound that may or may not belong to Loki, the Norse Trickster; and a blizzard or two. And why, to top it off, is Naomi dreaming of a wolf? As she tells Shannon, the way the woo-woo usually works, she figures the two of them are about to find out.

Synopsis for Fissured:

If anything can go wrong…

It’s not bad enough that Naomi Witherspoon is second-guessing her relationship with her new boyfriend, Ute shapeshifter Joseph Curtis. Now she’s been attacked by a jaguar in downtown Denver. And somebody has built a hydraulic fracturing operation down the road from their friend Charlie’s ranch. An independent filmmaker named Jack Rivers has conveniently appeared, and is documenting Charlie’s problems with the fracking operation. Naomi thinks Jack might be the Investigator – the fourth member of the team a Lakota Indian goddess set up to help Naomi broker peace between Jehovah and the pagan pantheons – but Jack seems more interested in causing trouble among Naomi, Joseph, and her best friend Shannon, than in helping out their team.

When the operator of the fracking facility turns out to be an old acquaintance, Naomi begins to wonder how many Tricksters it takes to make a divine deal….

About the author:

Lynne Cantwell has been writing fiction since the second grade, when the kid who sat in front of her showed her a book he had written, and she thought, "I could do that." The result was "Susie and the Talking Doll," a picture book illustrated by the author about a girl who owned a doll that not only could talk, but could carry on conversations. The book had dialogue but no paragraph breaks.
Today, after a twenty-year career in broadcast journalism and a master's degree in fiction writing from Johns Hopkins University (or perhaps despite the master's degree), Lynne is still writing fantasy.





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2 comments:

Lynne Cantwell said...

Thanks for the kind words, Leanne! I really enjoyed talking with you Friday night, and I'm so glad you liked the books.

(One quibble: Fissured is book 2 and Tapped is book 3. ;) )

Unknown said...

hmmmm wonder why I got them backwards! I can fix this not a big deal lol I will fix it tomorrow. I am exhausted right now. Glad you liked the rest of it though!