Broken Sunrise

Rating:
Summary: The Absolute Best
Review: Broken Sunrise was the last and BEST book of the Wicked Willow trilogy. Book 2 blew me away but book 3 left me speechless. What made this book better than the others? The Gnarl. Yvonne's use one of the Buffyverse's best and utterly creepy of monsters sent chills down my spine as I was reading (in daylight no less!). Each page had such great detail and suspense that you were left wanting more after every chapter.
Willow has always been my favorite of characters and her "gone bad" attitude in this novel never let me down. The author did a great job in showing that even the brightest and shiniest of people can have a darkside and when triggered, in this case getting back the love of her life, Tara, nothing can take away the pain. You just have to deal.
I loved this book and whether you are fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or not I highly recommend this book for a great, spine chilling read. Be careful, though. You may want to keep a lookout for a Gnarl!!! Sean

Rating:
Summary: willow has had enough
Review: at first willow is distraught that the ghost of tara has left her becasue she thinks that she is the cause. but when she finds out that the scooby gang is responsible, her wrath knows no bounds. the evil plan that she sets into motion for revenge makes the monster of the first 2 books pale in comparison.

most people did not like this series. this last book was quite interesting, had more deph and a better monster for willow to release.

Rating:
Summary: Strong character study.
Review: Broken Sunrise wraps up the Wicked Willow trilogy. Clearly, most reviewers did not enjoy the series. But I'm going to disagree. Unfortunately, to make the point, this review includes some spoilers. So don't read it if you want to be surprised by hwo the story ends.

The premise of the Wicked Willow trilogy is that Willow went bad at the end of season six, really bad. But she didn't try to end the world. She focused her energy on bringing Tara back into the world instead. The god of death, Osiris, told her that it could not be done, but she wouldn't take no for an answer. She set off to gather the power to bring Tara back. And she would let nothing stand in her way.

In the first two books, Willow tries to gather power, something that nearly kills Buffy and Anya. Then she tries to kill Buffy and the rest of the Scoobies. Both backfire on her. She's furious. And then Giles steals the Ghost of Tara from her. Once that happens, her anger is off the charts.

Broken Sunrise is all about Wicked Willow and her personal journey. The fact that the series is called Wicked Willow and not Evil Willow is important. Willow never becomes truly evil. She's angry, hurt and misguided. And in Wicked Willow we get to experience all the angst with her. This is, as I said in my review of Shattered Twilight, a character study with some action and adventure thrown in, rather than the opposite.

In Broken Sunrise, what is left of Willow's life falls apart. Her coven still has doubts about her, questions are being asked about the missing members of her coven and her former friends have stolen the ghost of Tara from her. Willow's anger escalates and she attacks the Scoobies yet again. Unfortunately this time she succeeds. And, as three Scoobies lie in the hospital near death, Willow must make a choice. Does she save her former friends or let them die?

Throughout this book, Willow wrestles with her pain and anger and, ultimately, her goodness. And that is really what Wicked Willow is about, that Willow's pain drove her to do some terrible things, but Willow is still Willow and there are limits to the horrors she will commit. She still has a conscience and a soul.

If you're read any of the other reviews you know that the ending of the book returns the story arc to the Buffyverse. And, if you're paying attention, you'll also realize that the Gnarls are the same demons who capture Willow upon her return to Sunnydale (when she is invisible to her friends) in Season 7.

While there may have been more satisfying endings for some readers, I believe that this ending made the point. Willow could never be truly evil. That wouldn't just be an alternate story, it would be an alternate reality and no one said this story took place in an alternate reality. This story is simply a continuation of Willow's time as dark Willow. Willow is still Willow. Keep that in mind and you may find the story more satisfying. And, if you truly want an alternate reality, skip this one.

Rating:
Summary: I thought it was a good book to read
Review: I liked it though I do not think that every one will I have read a lot better I just hope they continue to publish BVtS books they are the very good and now since the show has gone into tv history they are the only way to get a fresh Buffy.

Rating:
Summary: A very disappointing ending.
Review: I was enjoying this trilogy for the most part, until I got to the ending. Then it really fell apart.

The whole point of doing "alternative universe" stories is to shake things up. Witness the marvelous Buffy episode, "The Wish." Yeah, the Magic Reset Button was pushed at the end of that episode but look at what happened in the Wishverse. A simple premise, "What if Buffy Summers never went to Sunnydale?" The status quo was shaken up, with Willow and Xander being vampires, the Master ruling Sunnydale, Buffy being cold, and just about everybody dying at the end.

Now here we have the premise, "What if Dark Willow stayed evil?" And apparently the answer is, "Nothing at all, the Buffyverse remains exactly the same." The only thing this trilogy did was insert some extra story between "Two to Go" and "Grave." To end this story in EXACTLY the same way that "Grave" ended, with very minor changes, is unacceptable for an "alternative history" story.

What was the point of bringing Spike and Oz into this story at all? They were prisoners, then after they were freed they mostly disappeared. I so badly wanted to see Oz go off on Willow for turning him into a werewolf but that scene never happened. Such a wasted opportunity. Spike was completely useless outside of one "deus ex vampira" moment. And both of them were complete non-factors in the ending.

I flipped to the last page, and all I could think was "such wasted potentinal." This book definitely needed a different ending.

Avoid this trilogy. Or at least demand that the author rewrite this book.

Rating:
Summary: Very well written
Review: I'll confess upfront I'm *not* a fan of Alternate Universe fiction and this opinion, along with the fact that Ms. Navarro decided to ignore show canon and state Spike (my favorite character) was tricked into getting his soul, instead of deliberately seeking it out, made me hesitant to buy the books. Plus, I thought the Willow magic=addiction story arc of season 6 was poorly done, imo the weak link of an otherwise great season.

But, Ms. Navarro is one of the best writers in the Jossverse novel franchise. She's not afraid to make the characters a little darker, writes solid, believable dialogue, and most importantly of all, doesn't try too hard to make the books funny, which has been the downfall of many of the books. Overall, she has a solid grasp of each character's "voice".

What impressed me most of all is that she avoided the overdone and simplistic drug abuse metaphor that drove so many fans crazy. She focuses on Willow's grief being the catalyst for the misuse of her power and this downplaying of the Junkie Willow enables the story to center around the Willow/Tara dynamic.

My biggest disappointment is that the trilogy is very Spike-lite. Normally I only buy books where Spike gets plenty of page time but broke my rule because the novels are so well written and the story well plotted (in stark contrast to Heat, which was all over the map and as a result, confusing).

Rating:
Summary: Not the best, But certainly not the worst Buffy book
Review: Okay, now I am a huge fan of Buffy books (since the series ended I have to get my Buffy somehow) Before I bought the series, I read some of the reviews. Most of them were talking about how bad the book was, but I decided to give it a try.
WARNING: Spoilers ahead!
I'm going to start with the bad points:
The charcters of Buffy, Willow, Xander, Ghost of Tara, and Dawn are not very well written. Part of why Buffy is so great is that the language is so well written, but these 5 are not the same. Another bad point is that Dark Willow doesn't seem as evil as she was in the end of season 6. She seemed pissed off at the world instead of wanting to destroy it. Also she needed to capture all these women to give her more power. It seemed she was pretty unstopable in the show. But in the book she seemed to need to drain these witches of power just to fight the Scoobies. Finally, and probably the worst part, is that she kept summoning Demons to fight the Scoobies instead of doing it herself. That was a big Disappiontment.

But in light of all that, Here are the Many good parts:

I love the fact that Willow was haunted by The ghost of Tara. It was smart of Yvonne to do that to help give Willow some guidance in her darkest days. Dispite the 5 badly written charcters, Giles is great in this book. You can really feel his sense of conflict when Willow breaks his back, putting him in a wheelchair. You can relate to him and it brough a sense of 'this is an alternate reality. Willow could actually kill them'. Anya and Dawn really shine in this book. If you're a fan of these 2, this book is deffinetly for you. Most people don't do much with Anya and Dawn because "they're just two human girls right?' WRONG You've got a 1120 year old Vegence Demon and a girl that hold the Key to destroying the universe in her blood. Yvonne really bring the two of them into the mix and has them fight alongside Buffy, Xander, and later Giles when he regains use of his legs. (I was very happy because I love Anya!)

Overall, the good outwieghts the bad. This trilogy is worth the buy If you love DarkWillow, Anya, Dawn, and Giles. If you don't like it at first, just give it some time. By the end you will be glad you bought it.

Rating:
Summary: Damaged Goods
Review: This has been a hither and thither series. Based on the interesting premise that, rather than go into a near terminal depression after Tara's death, Willow decides to turn to the dark side to resurrect her dead lover. That this is impossible is besides the point, Willow is determined, and will stop at nothing - Neither Buffy, nor Giles, nor all the hauntings of Tara can stay her from the course. This is a new, daring and, to be honest, extremely understandable Willow. One whom, until this volume, was still a sympathetic character.

But now Giles has managed to imprison Tara. When she finds this out Willow sets about a uniquely horrible revenge as one by one she feeds her ex-friends to a Gnarl, who likes to eat his meals slowly while alive. In the process of this Navarro achieves what no Buffy writer has every accomplished before - a genuine horror story. Unfortunately, in the process, the author throws away an opportunity to say something unique in the Buffy framework Instead we wind up with a grim story in which no character shines, one that proceeds inexorably to an embarrassingly trite ending.

On Navarro's website she pointedly fixed the blame for the faults of this book on her publishers. Admittedly, the Buffy annals are more tightly controlled than almost any other series, but regardless of whose fault it is, Broken Sunrise is a poor way to end the Wicked Willow series. The writing is stilted, and the characters... Well, Anya makes a poor showing, Buffy is permanently perplexed, and Giles makes one terrible mistake after another. Tara, by the way, makes a very substandard ghost.

The strange thing is that Yvonne Navarro is one of the better writers to grace the Buffyverse. To have her suddenly turn out a series that is underwritten for an adult series and a bit to grim for the yound adult crowd is more than disappointing. If it was 20th Century Fox who set the rules, Navarro would have been better off to decline the offer. Or to write what she is really capable of and devil take the hindmost.

Rating:
Summary: Why bother?
Review: What kind of alternate Universe book takes you back to the regular Universe storyline? The point of an alternate universe tale should be to tell a story outside of the regular series canon. There is no point in reading this story because it doesn't change anything. The plot reads like outtakes from the script sessions and the characters are badly drawn. A waste of time.

Rating:
Summary: Get A Life Navarro Haters!!!!!!!
Review: While I haven't finished reading the third installment of the Wicked Willow trilogy let me just say that I have read other books by Yvonne Navarro and for those of you who have trashed her Btvs Wicked Willow trilogy let me just say...."Back the heck off!!!!" This women is a fantastic writer and her trilogy so far has kept me up well into the early morning hours. It is an alternate universe story that is absolutely what I was looking for. Some say that if you want a real good alternate universe story to check the fan fiction websites. Well I have read some of them and don't get me started about how horrible some of them are. Navarro haters should really check out a couple of her earlier books. The two that come to mind are Afterage and Deadrush. Both are excellent. This is my first review and it probably isn't like the normal reviews but I just had to defend what is probably one of the best authors around. Keep up the good work Yvonne. The Wicked Willow Trilogy is awesome so far and I hope to see a second book regarding Afterage real soon. I am and always will be a Navarro fan till the end!