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Summary: Jones is the most talented upcomer in fantasy genre
Review: "Baker's Boy" kicks off the exciting, "Book of Words" trilogy. These are JV Jones first published books and already she had penned down all that we as fantasy lovers enjoy most about our genre. Picturesque settings, dangerous cities, noble and mysterious heroes, three-dimensional villains, plotting royalty, charismatic rogues, and it's all seasoned with just the right amount of sorcery. I was introduced to JV Jones with "A Cavern of Black Ice" which I enjoyed so much that I found myself reading all her books. Jones has an unsurpassed story-enhancing gift for detail that many writers over-look. Lovable peasants cook up mouth-watering meals in their cozy little cottages. Rowdy back-street taverns make you thirsty for a cold-one. Two-fisted action brings to mind Robert E. Howard's stories (which for me, like many others, were our first introduction to fantasy). There isn't a dull moment in this trilogy. Even the steamy love-scenes kept me hooked (that's something I thought I'd never say). They burn with passion but never cross the line. Jones creates a real depth in all the characters, even the most insignificant. Those of honor can be guilty of very grave actions and the most despicable can, at times, show genuine kindness. Like in all of Jones's works, these stories have many incidences of charity from strangers, which is almost unheard of in the genre. I noted none of the writing flaws that most new authors are guilty of and JV Jones stories are only getting better. With her only having five books out so far ( "The Book of Words" trilogy, "The Barbed Coil", and "Cavern of Black Ice", the first of "Sword of Shadows" trilogy) its been thrilling to follow this writers promising career.
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Summary: good start to a trilogy
Review: the baker's boy is a riviting and exciting book filled with deception, loyalty and intrigue. This book will leave anyone eagerly awaiting the next in the series.
Rating: 
Summary: Dang it...amazon was right...
Review: they are prophets... they predicted that I would rate it three stars... and I did, even though I didn't want too!! Well, I have just read this bok for the second time, and I must say that it was even better the second time around. But it left me just as mystified, and wanting to know a great deal of many characters, like Falk... who is he!? Well I can clearly recommend it to those who like intrigues and the not-so-hero-ish character... and of course some classical and not-so-classical bad guys... Enjoy it!
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Summary: parapa
Review: this is a ok book it is slow and not that good at first but look at this she wrote it in3 days so you can't expect it to be to good
Rating:
Summary: Must be getting old
Review: I thought this book started out in a typical confusing fashion- many characters thrown out per break in chapters and never maintaining a lengthy passage for any of these characters. But, I did actually begin to enjoy this book as an epic and can only guess why so many other readers disliked this book is because I am geting old. The book is light reading and reminiscent of a TV drama the way it bounces between settings. The map blows and the characters are shallow yet I looked forward to picking it up to see what would happen next...
Rating: 
Summary: yuck
Review: I really wanted to like this book. The storyline had promise, but the characters are about 1 inch shallow. Every scene with the archbishop has him indulging in some exotically decadent food. The female character is is moved tiresomely from one predicament to the next and never manages to DO anything. I won't be buying the rest of the books in this series.
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Summary: DISGUSTING
Review: Well, here's another female who can't write fantasy. One point that I'd like to point out to all of you is this: this story is NOT ORIGINAL. This is just a CLONE of Tad William's DRAGONBONE CHAIR (part of the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series). And I might add that Dragonbone was written in the early 90's, whereas this was written in the mid-90's. Both storylines are essentially the same--young orphan in a castle has connections with someone higher up, gets involved in adventure, becomes hero, etc, etc, etc. But that was not what really turned me off about this book. J.V. Jones is so DISGUSTING. And I read stuff by the oh-so-controversial Harlan Ellison, too. Why, this book starts off disgusting and doesn't get much better. I've tackled all sorts of fantasy writers--look at my reviews if you don't believe me--and J.V. Jones is absolutely one of the worst. I stopped reading this book before page 100. If you're smart, you'll do the same.
Rating:
Summary: Hated it
Review: I couldn't finish this book, I disliked it so much. Her writing is reasonable, but the book was just unpleasant. I got tired of reading about rape, pedophilia, and the other charming things she thinks about.
Rating:
Summary: Some areas of her writing were good; others were not so good
Review: Looks like plenty of other people have covered the basics. Hmmm, looking over the highlights, this is how I feel about the story: SHORT WORD FEELING: Gritty, excellent characterization, lacking in concept and structure at times CONCEPT: Two fates collide at the castle of the King, a noble girl and a baker's boy. Both desire to escape from their particular lives and do so amid all the political intrigue. (Nothing really big actually happens in this story. Lots of intrigue and great characters but no spectacular spine to the story). MARKETING APPEAL: This story was a best seller or so the cover said; I'm not sure for how long but it was well loved on Amazon, too. Very strong and gritty characters; the plot needed work; I think that, based on the story, this novel became more popular through marketing and word of mouth than just straight out concept (since it wasn't terribly interesting compared to many other fantasy novels). SCORING: Superb (A), Excellent (A-), Very good (B+), Good (B) Fairly Good (B-) Above Average (C+), Mediocre (C ), Barely Passable (C-) Pretty Bad (D+), Dismal (D), Waste of Time (D-), Into the Trash (F) DIALOGUE: A- STRUCTURE: C+ HISTORY SETTING: B CHARACTERS: B EVIL SETUP/ANTAGONISTS: B EMOTIONAL IMPACT: B- SURPRISES: C LITTLE THINGS: B+ MONSTERS: not applicable PACING: C+ OVERALL STYLE: C+ FLOW OF WORDS: C+ CHOICE OF FOCUS: C+ TRANSITIONS/FLASHBACKS/POV: B COMPLEXITY OF WORDS/SYMBOLISM/THEMES: C+ OVERALL GRADE: B- HISTORY SETTING: Overall, this was good. The map sucked but that isn't the author's fault. During the novel, we learned about the Four Kingdoms, the adjoining cities and the seaport cities. And, we also learned about the knighthood, which seemed very commerce oriented. A pretty good job was done on the understanding the political structure of the king's court, as well as how the commoners acted towards the lords. The whole tumbling thing with bedmaids, who used the sex to rise in station made logical sense. A good job was done on explaining the seers of Larne, the prophecy of the coming boy of power, the swamplands to the south, the mannerisms of how people acted in the lands, the politics of Rorne and the adjoining Duke with his power interests. DIALOGUE: Pretty good, actually. I could tell just by reading the dialogue that several of the characters had very distinctive voices. Just about everyone had different sentence structure and used different phrases to describe things. I really liked how she used her dialogue in also setting out the personalities of various characters. PACING: I would say the story flowed pretty well the first 150 pages. Four confusing parts: (1) when years passed, it made no mention of it except in a sentence later in the chapter. Might have been good to have a date in the title or mentioned it in the beginning; (2) usage of he did this and he did that was a bit much. The author should have looked for a way to use different phrases but apparently she got lazy at times. Anyway, it slowed the story down because it happened so much that I began to get irritated; and (3) the author revealed way too much of what the characters were thinkings and then showed their thoughts. In other words, everything was spoon fed to us. This got irritating at times; and (4) the author went over things she had already explained a few times; it was really getting tiresome and readers should remember it. Characters would go over plans that they had hatched for the second time. Jumping around from character to characters was generally pretty good. A few times it was a bit too quick but other than that, it was fine. Actually, it helped hide the convoluted structure to the story in the last third of the book. In the last third, when there should have been a gradual climatic rise, the story was teetering out. Too much time spent on little details when things should have been moving forward. This may have been why some people at customer reviews claimed that nothing happened at the end. SURPRISES: Not that good. Part of the problem was that the author revealed so much of what everyone was thinking that there was little room for suspense or mystery. It's weird because a lot of these characters were quite interesting. The most entertaining were the villains and the mean ones. The main characters, Melli and Jack, really didn't stand out too much. I think part of the reason for it was that they didn't have any ADMIRABLE qualities you look for in such heroes. None of them were especially brave or clever. For most of the story, they were passive and running away from the villains. They would get caught, run away and then get caught again. In fact, Jack only got active when he broke out his cell really and Melli was always sort of helpless, which is fine. So, this is something new that I just learned. Make the characters striking and give them something powerful in personality. Otherwise, they will come across as bland in a novel. CHARACTERS: Done pretty well. Jones spent a good deal of time giving us the details and making each character distinctive in appearance, mannerisms and dialogue. Even the guards who badgered over stupid things had their own dialogue and motivations. Most of the minor characters had these traits also which I appreciated. Sometimes minor characters get lost in the shuffle. Villains were done very well. The problem was with Melli and Jack for reasons listed above. They certainly were distinctive but they didn't stand out strikingly enough. Part of this reason might be because they were such passive characters for a good part of the story. WHY IT WORKED FOR ME: Loved the character details, as well as the dialogue. In the first 150 pages, the story moved along pretty fast. I was impressed with the spying and political intrigue, as well as with the multitude of characters all about. History of the area was good and I enjoyed the concentration on the local folk and their perception of events. The two guards who told stories were good, but half of the stuff they spoke about seemed redundant. The Archbishop was a pretty interesting character, too. Loved the way he tormented his aide and showed off his gluttony. Some of the details, such as dress and food, were interesting. And, the way bread was baked was kind of interesting, too. Maybor, Baralis and the Queen were all interesting in various degrees. The grittiness with the sex and violence added some flavor to the book, but got a bit crude at times, like when (CENSORED for delicate ears . . . :D Hard for me to believe that this was a fantasy bestseller since certain components of the novel seemed clumsy or half written. Apparently, it became very popular through word of mouth. COMMENTS: This book had potential to be better than it was, but I think the author got caught up in the characters and keeping the story going. Perhaps she wanted more pages in her book than she could fit, forcing it to become larger. I don't know. If the plot and style had been the equivalent of the characters, this would have gotten a solid B or even a B+. As things stand, it was a B-. GRADE REASON: Pretty much for reasons stated above. The characters were done very well in certain regards, but since I didn't connect with them, it was hard to rank her higher than a B. The dialogue was very good but the pacing, overall structure and surprises were mediocre to just above average. This is about the average grade I give to most fantasy books. Some are certainly worse and some are better or much better.
Rating:
Summary: Great Start for a Trilogy
Review: I was prepared to not like this book. Good fantasy epics are hard to come by. This one is a promising start to a new one for me. I won't rehash the plot. Since there are so many of these epics out there, they all kind of share 3 or 4 plots. What sets this book apart isn't the plot, it's the little moments in the plot that make it stand out. Some examples-Jack, the baker's boy is moonlighting as a scribe even though he can't read or write. In his first effort to copy part of a manuscript, he pours ink on a blank page and tries to write into the ink. On his odyssey through the towns and forests of the Four Kingdoms, he offers to bake bread for those who help him since that is the only means of repayment he knows. There is the ongoing feud between the evil chancellor Baralis and the conniving Lord Maybor. Each sets traps and snares for the other only to be foiled--like an endless duel of 2 Wile E. Coyotes. Baralis drives an innocent dove to starvation by using it as a magical seeing eye. The Seers of Larn are an awesome creation who I would like to see in the further episodes. All in all, this is a fine 1st offering in this trilogy.
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