I will start with the things I enjoyed. I loved the cover. He’s hot and badass looking.Absolutely love the spots. I love the names – Kymora, Rystin, Rissa.Now onto what I didn’t enjoy. Okay, so Kymora is blind. It’s an important thing to note. Twenty two times in a novel is a little much. Especially because she’s get repetitive about at random. On one page near the beginning, ‘blind’ ‘disability’ etc was mentioned six times. SIX. On ONE page. That’s ridiculous. Yet in the last 200 pages, not a word about it.Alliance Forged is part of a series. I have not read the previous one and this book was capable of standing on it’s own. However, when you at random on page 62 write “don’t you want our friendship to evolve into something more?” seems a little rushed, even taking into consideration that more probably happened between them in the previous book. And the first probably ten chapters took place within two days. Then later on page 260 something she writes that Kymora doesn’t want to rush with Varian. Yeah… No idea either.Random thing that has nothing to do with plot but bothers me is that Varian is capable of growing stubble. Okay, that’s cool. I like stubble. It adds to his appeal. But the Na’Chi don’t grow pubic hair (yes, that was actually written). There are a few nationalities in our world that can’t grow facial hair, but ever race gets it below the belt. I mean I personally find the stubble but nothing lower to be attractive but it seems so out of place.The back of the book states Kymora gets kidnapped and such. SPOILER ALERT! It happens literally in the last five chapters. Two thirds of the book is filler. A few chapters in the beginning, and the bit at the end advance the plot. Very few things in between there advance the story.Kymora’s brother gets hurt really at one point. In fact, Varian notes that there are probably a few broken ribs. Less than a week later, Kymora is elbowing her brother in the ribs…?This book was terrible. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. The only reason I even kept reading was because I was keeping a tally of how often Ms. Griffin called attention to Kymora’s blindness. I get having characters with disabilities and I understand the need to want them to achieve great things despite that. But stop dwelling on that detail! I find it very disrespectful to the character. She could’ve been so much more than a blind priestess.Those two qualities MADE her. I found the book to be very preachy. Yes, her goddess is important because she’s a priestess, but you don’t need to preach every chapter. And when this goddess does make an “appearance” don’t use all capitals during the discussion.“Forgive my audacity, Lady. I didn’t mean for my question to upset you-”“BE AT EASE. YOUR QUESTION DID NOT OFFEND ME.”That was a couple lines in the book that I typed out exactly as I saw it. I couldn’t help but laugh because of how ridiculous it sounded. Capitals like that are a way to show yelling. Italics would’ve worked much better and have been taken much more seriously.All in all, I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone and it wasn’t really worth the two bucks I spent on it. Just as I enjoyed Vengeance Born, I found I couldn't put this one down either. Kylie, I love how you can get your readers to identify, empathise and sympathise with your characters. You even brought me to tears at one point - the mark of a good writer! I love how the relationship between Kymora and Varian develops before finally blossoming into something special. The action sequences make the reader want to sit on the edge of their seat, eyes scanning the pages madly to see what will happen next.I can't wait to see what happens with Arek in your next book!!
What do You think about Alliance Forged (2012)?
2nd book for the Demon Series, a little repetitive at times, but entertaining.
—fito
