Rating: 
Summary: Excellent book
Review: "Anvil of the Sun" is an exceptional book that stayed in my thoughts for weeks afterwards- enough so that I searched everywhere to see if there was a sequel out yet. With a gripping plot and interesting characters, this is a must-read. I couldn't put it down.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book
Review: "Anvil of the Sun" is an exceptional book that stayed in my thoughts for weeks afterwards- enough so that I searched everywhere to see if there was a sequel out yet. With a gripping plot and interesting characters, this is a must-read. I couldn't put it down.
Rating:
Summary: A great find
Review: I love this book! It's so good I planned to read the next one. I'll be searching for it. Jen and Thib are great characters and the story line twists and turns with the best.
Rating: 
Summary: WOW - Riveting Read
Review: I love this book! It's so good I planned to read the next one. I'll be searching for it. Jen and Thib are great characters and the story line twists and turns with the best.
Rating:
Summary: A great find
Review: I loved this book. It was refreshing, original and interesting. You feel like you can reach out and touch the characters, they are so realistic. You also want to get to know them and find out what happens to them. It is quite thought-provoking and poses some new and very good ideas, enough to keep me thinking about them after I put it down. For a first book, it's unbelievably good, even if it has a couple of slight flaws (which didn't detract from my enjoyment). And there are more books in the series, and they are even better. Definitely grab this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Irritatingly bad!
Review: I wanted to like this book. I'm a big fantasy fan. I could have forgiven Ms. Groell her generic, underdeveloped "D & D" type of setting. I could even have forgiven her slangy characters who don't seem especially magical or medieval. But I have a problem with this world's sketchy magic that uses "mage globes" to provide the characters with a weird equivalent of cell phones, television, radio, long-distance calls, and electricity. I tried to keep an open mind, but then developed a serious problem with the female assassin's prison break: she cuts her hair and colors it with shoe polish, dresses in a guard's uniform, mingles with the guards while they're being instructed by the villain on how to find her, and even holds an extended conversation with said villain (after he's ordered her to doff her helmet so he can get a good look at said hair), and he's still too stupid to recognize her. Come on, Ms. Groell! An author simply has to try harder than that, or she runs the risk of ripping off her readers and completely turning them off the sequel. Save your money, folks.
Rating:
Summary: Irritatingly bad!
Review: I wanted to like this book. I'm a big fantasy fan. I could have forgiven Ms. Groell her generic, underdeveloped "D & D" type of setting. I could even have forgiven her slangy characters who don't seem especially magical or medieval. But I have a problem with this world's sketchy magic that uses "mage globes" to provide the characters with a weird equivalent of cell phones, television, radio, long-distance calls, and electricity. I tried to keep an open mind, but then developed a serious problem with the female assassin's prison break: she cuts her hair and colors it with shoe polish, dresses in a guard's uniform, mingles with the guards while they're being instructed by the villain on how to find her, and even holds an extended conversation with said villain (after he's ordered her to doff her helmet so he can get a good look at said hair), and he's still too stupid to recognize her. Come on, Ms. Groell! An author simply has to try harder than that, or she runs the risk of ripping off her readers and completely turning them off the sequel. Save your money, folks.
Rating: 
Summary: Very disappointing, buy it used if at all
Review: I would give this book a pass had I to do it over again. The characters are more annoying than anything and so inconsistent its pathetic. Come on, the GREATEST assassin in the world (we are told over and over) is trapped that easily? Give me a break!! Also, the 20th century technology imported into the setting via "the mages": electricity, alarm systems, etc. as well as oil discovered in the desert is a very lame plot device and rather unoriginal if you ask me. All in all I was very disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Irritatingly bad!
Review: This novel starts out somewhat slow, but the pace picks up as the plot develops. It is a tale of political intrigue and assassins on an alternate world in a medieval setting, with some amount of magic added in. The story skips back and forth between a large cast of characters including the main assassin, the double-dealing government minister who hires her, the leader of the rebels, a mage in the desert, other assassins and government ministers, the main assassin's niece and her friend, etc. The novel periodically skips back in time to bring one character or another up to date.The assassin is hired to eliminate a decadent First Minister, but the job turns out to have complications. Double crosses are the rule of the day, and bodies start to accumulate. There are agents betraying agents, a bugged office, stolen secret papers, dungeons and torture, truth spells, etc., as the Assassins Guild tries to even accounts with the main villain. Sometimes people seem to trip over each other's feet. Don't assume that the assassin is unarmed because she is naked (big mistake), and if she is running loose it can be your worst nightmare.
Rating: 
Summary: An alternate world adventure novel
Review: This novel starts out somewhat slow, but the pace picks up as the plot develops. It is a tale of political intrigue and assassins on an alternate world in a medieval setting, with some amount of magic added in. The story skips back and forth between a large cast of characters including the main assassin, the double-dealing government minister who hires her, the leader of the rebels, a mage in the desert, other assassins and government ministers, the main assassin's niece and her friend, etc. The novel periodically skips back in time to bring one character or another up to date. The assassin is hired to eliminate a decadent First Minister, but the job turns out to have complications. Double crosses are the rule of the day, and bodies start to accumulate. There are agents betraying agents, a bugged office, stolen secret papers, dungeons and torture, truth spells, etc., as the Assassins Guild tries to even accounts with the main villain. Sometimes people seem to trip over each other's feet. Don't assume that the assassin is unarmed because she is naked (big mistake), and if she is running loose it can be your worst nightmare.
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