Mike (the Paladin)'s Reviews > She Returns From War

I really liked the first book in this...series. Sadly I can't say that here. Also sadly I bought this one. There will be spoilers for the first book in this review. I'll try to put them under spoiler tags along with the spoilers for this book but forgive me if one slips by. I will be assuming that if you plan to read this one you have read the first.

Here our main character...isn't the main character we got to know in the first book. Cora is not only not the main character she's almost a foil to introduce Mr. Collins' new "main character" Cora is also not the same person she was in the first book. Where she was a (view spoiler)[ troubled woman who'd learned to survive in a harsh world, one who's had a sort of breakdown/break with reality she's now far more course. Cora is not as likeable as she was. She's gone from a woman who occasionally had a drinking problem (liked to drink and got bombed a bit too often) here she's surrendered her life to the drink. Instead of opening Ben's print shop she has a bar named Ben's Print Shop (saloon) where she drinks away her life as an old, drunken gambler. (hide spoiler)] I assume the idea here is that's it's been a lot longer than it seems to have been and Cora has gotten "old" and very bitter. She's harder to like and I must say that as I had the audio version the reader does a very poor job with her character.

Now as to the "new main character". The original book set up a fantasy series set in the American West. I liked it. It's not been done often and the first book plowed that ground well telling a good story. I can only assume that the writer must have read Philippa (Pip) Ballantine's Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences novels or possibly The Parasol Protectorate Series and decided to give us his own Victorian Lady protagonist. Maybe I'm being picky...but those series mentioned and others already have Victorian female protagonists and this series was introed to us with different protagonists in a totally different setting. If I want to read Victorian heroines their out there.

So, I'll mention a couple of things under a spoiler tag below but on the whole a dissatisfying book that's made a hard left onto roads that have already been well trod by others.

Why 2 instead of 1. There are parts of the story that are readable and just because a story is a been there done that it isn't always a bad story. I'm sure some people will like this one better than I and if you're looking for another Victorian Lady in a paranormal situation here you go.

(view spoiler)[ I'm not sure why but Collins opens the book with Victoria our new protagonist in her problematic situation and then leads her tp Cora. As I said Cora isn't the Cora we got to know, she refuses to help till she must, trains Victoria and then gets killed. The Book ends with Victoria headed back to England to use what she's learned to go after the creatures there that sent her on her quest. Don't know if I'll get the next book or not...I'll certainly go slower, as I snapped this one right up. (hide spoiler)]