Frost Line

Review by: Kyraninse of Night Owl Reviews

This was a fun start to what seems like a promising series.

I really liked Lenna and I adored her devotion to Elijah. The way Lenna dealt with Caine was really fun to witness - the perfect blend of strength and grace.

There were many ways in which the authors could have taken this with the stereotypical notions of a strong woman, but they didn't, and that was great.

What I didn't enjoy as much was how the Tower was the villain in the situation. Personally, I have a great fondness for those who dare to shatter the order so that something new may be wrought and I thought having the Tower be the irredeemable villain was taking the easy way out. I hope that Veton is able to get himself together, find a better way of channeling his urges, and maybe get his happily ever after at some point.

I really liked "Frost Line" and I'm looking forward to the next book in the series. And would love to see more of Elijah!

Disclosure: courtesy copy from the publisher/author for an honest review.

Warning - this is a very different type of book. The main characters are manifestations of tarot cards. The story starts with the human child Elijah watching Uncle Bobby kill his mother. He runs and hides at his best friends house in the closet. He knocks over some cards, cries "Help Me" and a woman appears. She is Lenna (Strength) and has come to answer his plea. Others from her realm come to hunt her down. All but one (Caine) is looking to eliminate her; Caine is looking to bring her "home". Lenna is moved by Elijah's circumstances and is determined to help him. The story continues with Lenna and Caine helping Elijah stay safe while trying to get Justice for his mother. I'm not going to say more or I'd give it away. The story interested me enough to keep reading - I needed to find out the ending but am not sure I'll read more in the series (if there are any). (I checked this book out from my local library.)

This book is not very typical of the Linda Howard writing I fell in love with. I guess the collaboration influenced the outcome. I like Linda's spy novels and even some of her Western stuff, and I've read plenty of sci-fi romances about shape shifters, vampires, whatever. Alas, there's not much sci to this fi. Happily, the authors were able to create and maintain the sexual tension pretty well. Once you get to the actual sex, it's fairly ho-hum. I liked the epilogue, also--it made it worth slogging through the dull and confusing otherworld details to get to the end.

On the minus side, the characters are barely developed and, while the Hunter is a decent alpha male, there is not enough story to hold my attention. Instead, I am distracted by unanswered questions about the Major Arcana. (Seriously, Tarot card people as superheroes?!!) Why are they unable to travel? Why the five-day time limit for a character who is supposed to be unable to travel? Why/how would the absence of one character destroy their perfect world? If the Major Arcana don't travel, what do the Hunters normally hunt, and who are their employers? Why should I care? Maybe all that is designed to make me want to read the next book, but you can bet I'll be flipping through it looking for Tarot references, and if there's a new Tarot character busting out of the deck, the book's going back on the shelf. I think I would enjoy reading more about Hunters and their world (or any other world, really) and leave the Major Arcana packed away in the closet.

I'd read two other collaborations by these two authors so I tried this one. Blood Born was awful, Running Wild was very good. This one just missed all around. I don't know if this is typical of fantasy books but it just seemed silly. Plot element: destroying one taro card will destroy power so we can't have that, then the authors (spoiler??) destroy a card and everything is hunky-dory.
I guess I wasted my time by not reading more about the book before getting from the library. At least I'm not out anything but my time. Lesson learned.

On a whole, this is a mildly entertaining book with a rather simple plot. Although the book opens with a rather powerful scene (I'm pretty sure Linda Howard wrote this part), it fails to keep the momentum going and falls through in the end. The suspense element sort of sizzles and dies with barely a hiss. The relationship between Caine and Lenna develops real fast within a span of 5 days.

A great fantasy murder mystery. The heroine from another world is drawn to protect a young boy from a killer. She needs to learn earth ways while helping the child find justice and also evade hunters from her world. Loved it.

It's sort of weird. Definitely new and really interesting. It's like their previous collaboration in some ways. I liked it, but it was also sort of like another book that was sort of weird and odd. Ah well. I liked it enough to finish, and that's good enough for me. The epilogue was really nice.

I loved it. Read every Linda Howard book ever issued, and have never been disappointed. I couldn't put this down in the beginning. Then I read the story line and realized it was a fantasy. Wasn't sure whether I wanted to continue. But I am so glad I did. So, it was different...a delightful change for me. It was unbelievable because it was fantasy, but it was whimsical, light, warm and kept my interest.

So! The blurb about this book makes it quite clear that it's sci~fi, if that's not your thing, don't purchase it. Remember that collaborations between a beloved author, and one whose writings you wouldn't read for her own sake, are not always successful; be guided accordingly. i am a big Linda Howard fan, not so much Linda Jones, so yes, I was disappointed. I should have taken my own advice.

I really enjoyed this book. The theme is unique, the characters well-drawn and interesting, and the sexual content does not overwhelm the story. I imagine that this is the start of a new series and look forward to reading more about the Tarot entities.

It had everything i want in a story - innocence of a child, resilience, belief in the improbable, a strong hero & heroine with principles. An assassin who chose to do good, just desserts for the villian, and magic.