Sword
| Title: | Sword |
| Author: | Jean Johnson |
| Genre: | Fantasy, Romance |
| Series: | Sons Of Destiny (1) |
| Ranking: | Good |
| LibraryThing: | Title:Sword |
The first of the Sons of Destiny
Thoughts
I would class this as "paranormal romance" rather than pure fantasy, in that it has more emphasis on the romance than on the fantasy... and that style is not my cup of tea. You can tell it's marketed as romance simply by looking at the cover: a bare-chested muscled man, showing only from lips to waist. If it had been marketed as fantasy, we would have seen his whole face, and he would probably have been wearing armour as well as a sword.
However, the story grew on me. I was actually more interested in Our Heroine Kelly's interactions with the other seven brothers than in her interaction with Saber, the eldest for whom she was destined. There were some delightfully amusing bits as she stood up for herself rather than let herself get pushed around.
This author also demonstrated that she does know her way around fantasy universes; that while this might be a paranormal romance, the world-building makes sense, the plot hangs together, the characterisation isn't flat. Which I suppose sounds like damning with faint praise. But I've been burned before by things that have been labelled "paranormal romance", so I was wary.