Soul of a Warrior Description
A handsome blond stranger shows up at Kimi Wicker’s place of work claiming to be her mate. But he also claims to be from another world. She does what any sane woman would do in her situation. She runs. Tagging along are her two best friends and a feisty tabby cat. No one could anticipate the second stranger showing up, one with a completely different agenda.
Kimi and her friends are abducted by the second man, a vampire, then tortured and abandoned on a hostile alien world. Given only the clothes on their back, they must now try to find a way back home again.
One man will do everything in his power to see Kimi and her friends are brought safely back home, even sacrifice his own life. The second man wants Kimi and her mate to suffer, alive, but forever out of reach of each other. Kimi and her friends must work together against astronomical odds for any hope of surviving this nightmare.
Ghost Warrior Description
Amanda Cross survives one nightmare only to face another. She’d always thought of herself as a strong woman, but her many trials on the hostile planet Lavina almost break her. After her rescue, it should be an easy decision to return home to Earth, but she didn’t count on her attraction to the tall, handsome shapeshifter.
Tallyn’s parents rule the most powerful werewolf pack on Laizahlia. As heir to the crown, they expect him to mate with a strong female, but he can’t deny his attraction to the short, curvy woman from Earth. He suspects there is more to Amanda than first meets the eye. To learn what, he must first convince her to trust him enough to remain on Laizahlia. Knowing he might need help, Tallyn calls for assistance from Calem, the volatile tracker who was key to Amanda’s rescue off Lavina.
Calem has waited centuries to right a wrong done to his mate and only daughter. Their deaths nearly destroyed him, but he sees a chance for redemption through Amanda. Tallyn was right to ask for Calem’s help because he is the only one who can guide the petite female toward her destiny. Calem is determined to protect Amanda from facing the same fate as his mate and daughter, even if it ends up costing him his own life
Karen’s Magic Review
I don’t often do two book reviews together, but there is a reason. Neither do I write a review for a book I didn’t finish. If I didn’t finish it that generally means I didn’t like it and, as I don’t give bad reviews, I just leave it be.
However, some books still deserve the positive review I would have given it had I finished it, plus, I like to explain why I didn’t compete the whole story.
Soul of a Warrior is the book I finished, and I must say I adored it. It was on free promotion so I grabbed a copy. I have seen it on free before but I’m not one for fantasy or dragons and shapeshifters, and certainly not one for Science Fiction where planets and character always have indecipherable names.
But, having read of two of Denna Holm’s before, Claimed by Nicolai and Claimed by Rafa, and adored them both. They are everything I am supposed to hate, yet I loved them, and to me, that says a lot. She is a world builder. She likes to make sure the reader sees everything as clearly as she does. She doesn’t go for the weird names, either. Yes, there are one or two but it really doesn’t matter. Everything is described in detail, which is why her books are generally big ones.
Soul of the Warrior is the first in a series, and from it I take one endearing image – a dragon race. I don’t think I’ll ever get that from my mind. Described in detail so as a reader I was able to visualise it perfectly it. It was the most wonderful imaginative scene I have ever read. Just genius!
Her character are always vivid and likeable and usually, or so far, the protagonist is a normal person from earth. They get whisked off into a new world by aliens! The aliens are usually hot looking, very tall, very handsome men.
They are all essentially romance books. It takes tall, dark and handsome to another level all together. Denna Holm said to me how she was always a little worried about this first book because they is not a great deal of romance in it compared to the others. She is right, there isn’t. But what it lacks in romance, it makes up for in every other way. That dragon race in the sky will keep you hanging on for dear life! Her stories really made me believe there is something up there; whole worlds that we know nothing about. I wouldn’t mind going!!
So that brings me onto Ghost Warrior. In the first book Kimberly and her friend Amanda get kidnapped by two aliens looking for the soul mates. Soul of a Warrior dealt with Kimberley and Ghost Warrior is all about Amanda. The story was wonderful, and I never thought I would enjoy shapeshifers of which I know little about, as much as I did. In fact, in a round about way it was this that put me off and stopped me reading any more.
Amanda never knew she had this capability, and she needed to release her inner wolf. She is guided and walked through it with her mate, and another every experienced warrior. I was totally hooked, I loved it because it was so fascinating. I couldn’t help thinking of the scene in Twilight when Belle was confronted with Jacob in his wolf form. That was mesmerising and this gripped me in the same way.
The story line was full of so much more than Amanda and Tallyn. There were stories weaved into stories so you had a fully functioning world and there were no unanswered questions about how it worked. But, this is where I stumbled. During the time of Amanda learning to shift, the story moves away from them to another character. A very interesting character, who had a fascinating history. It also moved to the world of Tallyn and how his parents, the king the queen came to be, again another interesting storyline. I was already half way through the book, and normally at this stage of a story, it would be winding down to the climax. As I said, Denna’s books are big ones, so I knew there was a lot to go yet.
Amanda’s story was concluding in my mind, with just the ending to go. Because of all the extra characters there was a lot more intrigue to come. I just wanted Amanda’s story this time. I didn’t want it to move away to other characters at the points it did. When it happened again, I closed the book and have not opened it since as I moved on to something else. Each of the people in the story could have had their own books. And some have!
There are several Warrior stories, and several novellas. Reading Denna Holm can become an addiction to those who likes their novels to be big and full and keep their attention right to the end. So much of the detail will linger in your minds for a long time to come.
So, there we have it, two reviews in one. Both books are highly recommended and readers will enjoy the entire series, plus the other series she has which features the same worlds, and similarly wonderful characterisation.
Karen J. Mossman 