Taryn MacTavish found the egg in a pile of wet leaves on a camping trip when she was only nine years old. A nine-year old believes in a lot of things–killer snipes, flying dragons, magical powers and fantastic worlds–but the woman that Taryn has become is firmly rooted in the real world…until the egg she has safely kept all these years hatches into a baby griffin. Now she must make a choice: … choice: Abandon Aisling and lead a normal life, or follow a mysterious singing gypsy out of Earth and into Arcadia, where wizardry is very real and each new day brings unimaginable new dangers.
The first installment of R. Lee Smith’s Lords of Arcadia series, THE CARE AND FEEDING OF GRIFFINS tells a fast-paced suspenseful story that takes the reader right to the edge of the darkest thrills.
Look for Lords of Arcadia: Book II
THE WIZARD IN THE WOODS
Coming in May 2010
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1) mind blowing descriptions and world building
2) wonderful meanderings and blathering, that would piss you off if they showed up in any other book by any other author..but go hand in hand with this authors writing style
3) building of relationships/friendships that recognises faults in/on both sides (and lashings of guilt )
4) somewhat dubious characters that ‘help’ but are vague/hinder and confuse our h
5) the worst ( and I mean best ) bad guy that you want to thump…seriously I hate this guy as much as I hated Scott from TLHOG!!
6) a horrifically naive h that you want to thump for falling into aforementioned bad guys trap time and time again
7) TRIGGER WARNING – non consensual sex/rape both in dreams and physical time
8) slow burn building of relationship between h and H
I don’t think I’ve left anything out….
Oh hang on yup….
I HATE THAT FUCKING WIZARD!!
4.5 Stars
I really enjoyed This: yeh it wasn’t perfect for me but there was still far more pro’s than con’s and though not my favourite work of this particular author this still managed to keep me onboard and invested in the overall concept and I will definitely be continuing on to the next instalment here.
I adored the whole premise here and the world-building and creativity throughout was second to none.
In fact, this to me belonged more to the fantasy genre than any romantic one and it was the erotic scenes themselves that for me dropped my rating down a tad.
Maybe because these instances were mostly of a non-consensual nature: not in an actual physical fashion though as each instance was mostly in a spiritual or dream sense which somehow made it a lot easier to actually accept and experience.
There were some physical actions but these were of a more forced intimacy and there was no great detail used: I’m not trying to downplay this just it’s hard to explain: yes it was non-consensual but it wasn’t really that severe in nature compared to other books of a similar fashion.
This is what spoiled The Care and feeding of Griffins for me: that bloody evil wizard and his nasty pervy schemings towards Taryn: it really brought the tone down.
Hated that wizard so much: without magus and his malicious intentions, I would have liked this so much more.
So despite the above, I devoured the rest of this: the sheer imagination used here made this so fantastical and anything with Griffins, centaurs and minotaurs was always going to be a definite winner for me: but hands-down my total winner here was that minotaur I adored him and his snarky gruff attitude.
“Aye, well, I could forbid that one a thousand things and she would march out on her own merits even so. Willful, arrogant human.” “Then tell her plainly you are her lord.” “I have done.” Tonka drew back, puzzled. “Then she will obey, surely,” he said. “Ha!” Antilles threw back his head and boomed black laughter down at Taryn’s tent. “Nay, if I ordered her as lord to breathe, she would drop blue-faced and defiant at my hooves! Self-willed, stubborn little…arrogant human!”
And as she slowly manages to win her new neighbours to side against what originally seemed insurmountable odds.
“She is… remarkable…isn’t she?” Tonka paused, glancing back over his shoulder. His lord was still staring down into the plains, still brooding. “Aye,” he said softly. “She…She’s made me somewhat fond of her.” Tonka’s tail flicked. “Aye,” he said again. Antilles scowled even harder. “That greatly annoys me,” he said. And stood up and left the overlook.
So don’t expect any great romance to enter into this story yet: this is very much slow burn in nature: though near the finish here we do get to see some developing interest as of yet there is no actual warm and fuzzies to be had here: none at all.
What we have got is an imaginative fantasy with some darker elements included,
This is also beautifully written and the narrative used has such a lyrical old world feel to it at times,
I adored this aspect completely and thought the prose here was definitely a great strength.
I am ever so excited to see which direction this is heading: this was also such a unique undertaking and in its own entire league in terms of actual setting.
This one still gets a definite thumbs up from my camp despite my grumbles
You can borrow this with a KU subscription.
All opinions expressed here are entirely my own.
Reviewed By Beckie Bookworm
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