Guest Review: The Impetuous Amazon by Sandy James

Wow!!  you can say that again!  This second book in the Alliance of the Amazons series is chock full of action, emotion, good, evil, rogue personalities, sexual frustration, and more.  And once again Sandy James has hit the literary ball out of the park.  Saying there are twists and turns is to put it mildly.  As a stand alone novel it is a fascinating read.  As a second novel in a series that rests firmly on information and action in Book 1 it is beyond fascinating.  Reading the first novel is almost a must do.

Perhaps the energetic nature of this novel is will in keeping with the firey nature of the Fire Amazon who is the central character.  She is beautiful and charismatic, extremely intelligent, with a finely honed sense of justice and a deeply ingrained desire to see people treated fairly, especially the weak and helpless.  In fact, her sense of outrage is so close to the surface that her Sentinel is sent to “re-train” her in order to give her greater control over her flaming powers that are becoming embarrassingly obvious as she runs to the rescue of victims in public settings.  It’s a big problem for those who are sent to “scrub” the memories of humans who observe her extraordinary actions.   What Megan doesn’t know is that Johann actually comes to her with secondary orders to send her back to her human world if she can’t get a handle on her penchant for public displays of her powers.

The is sooooooo much going on in this book.  I have to say that I was really caught unawares a number of times when the actions, relationships, and situations zigged when I expected them to zag and I found myself thinking, “How does she come up with all this?”  It is a constant source of admiration that authors construct the stories that they do.  And to do it with this mix of contemporary life together with Ancient goddesses and extraordinary female and legendary warriors gives me a sense of wishing I could do that.  I have a fairly active imagination but I really don’t think I could figure out some of these situations or resolve some of these conflicts as do authors who manage to do it so well.  Ms James is one of those authors and she has packed a ton of surprises in this story.  And the action . . . lots and lots of it, some of which involve personalities and conflicts that figured prominently in Book 1.

Like the heroine in Book 1, Megan faces her own personal challenges.  She is a woman who has been formed by loss and past hurt, a woman who has had to develop her inner sense of power and independence and while that personal power makes her who she is, she needs to learn to be — not dependent, but inter-dependent — a person who can enhance her own abilities by coupling them with the powers of others instead of always thinking of “going it alone.”  Perhaps this her greatest challenge.  We have all read stories about people who go through life fearing abandonment because of past experiences.  We all feel that from time to time, I am convinced.  It is that sense of connection between the “sister” Amazons that gives Megan a foundation for the lessons she must learn as she develops into a powerful warrior, far beyond what she could have ever expected.  And the love story between Megan and Johann has some surprises attached to it, the kind that make the reader really wonder if these two are ever going to be able to “get their groove” going.

All in all, it is a truly fine piece of writing and a novel that is a joy to read.  Amazons and Atlantis and that kind of stuff has never really interested me for some reason.  But having read the first book in this series, I was compelled to move to Book 2 and I am so glad I did.  I don’t think anyone who really enjoys superior fiction writing will want to miss this book.

You can read more from Judith at Dr J’s Book Place.

This book is available from Carina Press. You can buy it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher for an honest review.