Rating: 
Summary: Garbage
Review: This book is a thinly disguised excuse for S&M, but that isn't the reason I have called it garbage....there is also blatant references to pedophilia in this story line...at that point, the book was thrown into the garbage. As a writer myself, I have no problem with sex scenes if they are pertinent to the story line...not so with this book and especially the intimate thoughts of a grown man straining to control his erection when a young girl brushes past him...Anne Bishop....get therapy. This world is filled with sick people sexually preying on children as it is...don't add to it. The scene was absolutely irrelevant to the plot.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Your Ordinary Mumbo-Jumbo
Review: I was looking for something --anything-- that would conter-balance the boring, everyday junk that seems to be on the market these days. Well, I most certainly found it. I must admit, it took me a while to seperate the good from the bad characters. If your contemplating reading this book I warn you, it will force you to expand your horizons more, and it will give you a new perspective of good and bad. But, the characters themselves really bring this book to life. It brings you into their devious, yet interesting lives. They are so very intelligent, but their surroundings make them, at times, seem rather stupid. This book is something quite out of the ordinary, believe me, it gets you thinking.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful! More, more please!!!!
Review: I bought the whole trilogy after reading the Amazon reviews, never having heard of Bishop before. My plan was to take them on vacation next month. But it occurred to me to make sure they were good. So I started reading the first one, planning on just doing a few pages. Well, it's one day later and the whole thing is finished and I don't know how I'll make myself wait another month to read the next two! I has been a really long time since a book grabbed me from the very first page. When I find something like that, I know it will be good. But good is not even the word here. This book is very original - I've never seen anything like the world protrayed here. It's intelligent and very well written, dark and serious in parts. And the author doesn't make a point to explain everything more than once and spoon-feed it to you like many lesser books do, usually under the assumption that their readers haven't the brains to figure it out. The characters all have their own opinions and views of themselves and each other. Sometimes you get many different viewpoints of the same person. No one is bad without a good reason and everyone is multi-dimensional. The book is very sensual. The storngest point of this book is the author's ability to keep you in suspense. The entire time you can wait for the next page, paragraph, the next line. And in some places your heart races like you're on a roller-coaster or watching a really good movie where you know something major is about to happen. I don't know about you, but many of the books i've read lately have fallen short of my expectations. This one flew way above. Be like me and buy the whole trilogy at once, you won't regret it! The only minus I can think of is that some aspects of the book are confusing or take a while to figure out, especially who's who. I'd also recommend Anne Rice's vampire novels, expecially the first 2.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific Storytelling
Review: I picked this up after reading reviews here and am very glad I did. After reading Daughter of the Blood, I couldn't wait to get my hands on the second one and am about to start the third. The storytelling is great - not one boring chapter. It's a story of emerging hope and goodness in a land too long ruled by evil and fear. If you like your stories on the dark side, this is the one for you. Happy Reading!
Rating: 
Summary: A departure from the norm...
Review: This book is wonderful! This was Ms. Bishop's first novel, and I must say that it took my breath away. I was entranced at the depth of the characters, and at the characters themselves. Jaenelle is so fragile, it just breaks your heart to see what she has gone through in her life. Sadi has this hard exterior, but underneath is caring. I guess I can't say enough good things about this book. But be warned, you can't be faint of heart to read this--somethings are handled very brutally. Off to read book 2!
Rating:
Summary: Finally, a book to serve my dark desires....
Review: In the world we live in, I believed that every book I picked up was full of fluff. People were afraid of sin and they weren't as open minded as I was (thanks Angel sanctuary which i'm sure no one who is reading this knows about because its a manga..::sigh::) anyways, this book changes that. The characters are seductive, murderous, lustful, insightful, dangerous, and above all: incestic! ahh-- it made me so excited when I started reading it because I had always thought everyone was too afraid to discuss such people, much less look up to people with such traits as protagonists. Especially with incest, too many people are afraid of such a thing-- homosexuality too, which both fail to bother me. Moving on and concluding my review-- reading Anne Bishop's book opened my mind to the other people out there with open minds as well. Perhaps there is a whole underground world of us-- or I just haven't looked hard enough. Please enjoy this book for its munificent writing style, addictive characters, and complex plot that actually makes you think!! ::bows::
Rating:
Summary: 121st review
Review: There once was a girl they called Witch. She was everything the Blood had ever dreamed of, and had powers beyond your imaginings. She had parents that misunderstood her, friends that everyone claimed weren't real, and was sent away to Briarwood, the place of the pretty poison. And there was also a man they called Sadist, a man that had been a pleasure slave for thousands of years. And he was special, this sadistic man, for he was the only living male Black Widow, and a powerful Black Jeweled Blood. And he had a father, a man he couldn't recall, a man he didn't even know about . . . yet. The High Priest of the Hourglass was one of his father's names, the High Lord of Hell and Prince of Darkness others. He ruled the Shadow Realm and was greatly feared. He was strong and he was a demon, just passing his prime. And one day he happened to be introduced to a young girl called Witch, a girl with amethyst eyes that made the butterflies for the cildru dyathe, the demon-dead children. The daughter of his soul . . . She was destined to be great, and she was destined to be Queen. But first comes adolesence, living Hell for her in more ways than one. There is great fear and pain, abuse and sadness for her. True, she is Witch, dreams made flesh, but first she is a child, helpless with the struggles of self esteem and the problems of the political world she lives in, blinded by a child's stubborn love for her family and want of acceptance. One part of her life is a nightmare, the other Hell. But in Witch's world, Hell is the best thing in her life . . . especially when a man who loves her rules over the Realm, a man who made himself a Guardian to wait for his daughter, to teach and help her. The most powerful man in existance, and he still doesn't even possess a twelfth of the power Witch does. This man's son comes to the Court of Witch's mother. Fear twists the Dark Prince's mind, and love holds his heart. His mirror image can do much damage. Perhaps the years as a pleasure slave had warped the Sadist's mind and twisted it out of control. For, after all, he is the Sadist, a dangerous and terrifying man. But the Sadist is also entranced by Witch, loves Witch in more ways than he should love a seven-year-old . . . The High Priestess of the Terreille WANTS this child. With Witch's powers at her fingertips, she can do anything. She can finally rule all and watch as the High Lord of Hell begs for mercy. But first she must damage the child, ruin her beyond repair. First, she must defeat Witch. Before Witch grows up to defeat her.
Rating: 
Summary: Very, very talented writer
Review: This is the story of a girl who is born as the hope of a whole world. If she dies - the world dies. But we never once hear the story seen from her point of view. Not that this is a bad thing, because she is still a very vivid and strong character. I will say this, the storyline is great, the language is captivating (I would rather have stayed up longer to read more, but, alas, I need my sleep), and when I say captivating this is a very flattering compliment, because very few books manage to enhance me like that. Anne Bishop is a very talented writer indeed. I think the book is wonderful and definitely worth reading. Then why did I only give it 3 stars? Several reasons. One thing is that, in the beginning, we meet a lot of new characters (naturally), and Anne Bishop tells us their entire lifestory. I find this rather annoying. It seems forced to me and breaks up the story. Yes, the lifestories are very important indeed and interesting to read, but it still doesn't appear to fit. In the beginning I even thought it irrelevant, because first you heard the entire lifestory, and then the character did something for perhaps half a page. Why waste this much time on a character you only hear about for half a page?
But, of course, as it turns out, Bishop only introduces us to characters that are important, so if there is a lifestory, it's an important character. I still find it annoying though, regardless of how important these sections are. The next problem I find is that there are so many names, and sometimes (at least in the beginning) it's difficult to keep track. Next is the fact that Anne Bishop knows this world very well (since she created it and all) and because of this I think that she sometimes forgets that the rest of us don't know this place as well as she does. There is a short explanation to some of the words on the first pages of the books, but others aren't so thoroughly explained, which makes some of the things difficult to understand. The last thing I have against this book is purely taste. There is just a bit too much sadomasochistic, abusive, and forced sexuality for my taste. This IS a very twisted world, and Jaenelle is there to make it straight, but it seems that every single person in this world has undergone some kind of torture, let it be physical, psychological, or
whatever else there is. Most of the time it's everything at once. Not saying that this is so evident in the book (with that I mean descriptive) and that it's constantly full of gory details, because it isn't. Some of it *is* gruesome, but you can live through it (at least the readers can), and most of the time you're just told about it by the characters, you're not really there to see it. I wouldn't consider this a big drawback. If you're not easily offended it shouldn't be a problem (I just went lightly over most of the things, but beware of the first chapters, it's rather yucky @@;;). The book also contains some language, including the S- and the B-word. Now, some people might be put off by the fact that the book includes names such as Saetan SaDiablo and Daemon, but don't let that scare you away (though if you're scared away by names like that you've probably already been scared away by the storyline). Saetan is an absolute darling. Seriously. And I don't use that word very often (actually never). He is sweet and kind and he loves Jaenelle dearly. Daemon is
also called the Sadist, and he can be oh so brutal, but he is also immensely sweet.
They are all very nice people, they have just been twisted by the way their world works. The way Jaenelle was treated by her family was so sad. The horrors she went through were terrible. All of the things she had to endure! In my personal opinion this is a very well written and thought out book and I recommend it. It is very dark and sad, and don't expect a completely happy ending (especially not since this is only book 1 in a trilogy). If you like this kind of genre I doubt you will regret reading it.
Rating:
Summary: not fluffy
Review: An acquaintence lent me this book to read, and before I knew it, I was buying the sequel and borrowed the last book in this series from the library. Most fantasy authors like to fluff up the story of a teenager's coming of age, but definately not Anne Bishop. This is a world where women in power who are as cruel and twisted as any man, and are willing to do anything to stay in power. They enslave men by putting a magical ring around men's penises, (gee, guess what happens to the guy when he misbehaves?) and break other women through rape when the are perceived to be a threat to their power. It's a dark and horrifying world, but utterly addicting. There's nothing else I can say other than go read it for yourself!
Rating:
Summary: awsome!
Review: I loved this book. Their world is truley magnificent. Women rule and the guys make your blood race! Jaenelle is witch. The savior among the blood. No one recognizes her true self except for three men and some other interesting characters. if you like fantacy with a little romance try this one. I gguarantee you'll love it!
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