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Rebel by Zoe Archer

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Title: Rebel (Blades of the Rose #3)

Author: Zoe Archer

Publisher: Zebra 2010

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Pages: 398

Rating:    4 / 5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer Romance - Paranormal; Books Around the World - Canada

How I Got It: I own it! (from the Borders closing sale)

Nathan Lesperance is used to being different. He's the first Native attorney in Vancouver, and welcome neither with white society nor his sometime tribe. Not to mention the powerful wildness he's always felt inside him, too dangerous to set free. Then he met Astrid Bramfield and saw his like within her piercing eyes. Now, unless she helps him through the harsh terrain and the harsher unknowns of his true abilities, it could very well get him killed...Astrid has traveled this path before. Once she was a Blade of the Rose, protecting the world's magic from unscrupulous men, with her husband by her side. But she's loved and lost, and as a world-class frontierswoman, she knows all about survival. Nathan's searing gaze and long, lean muscles mean nothing but trouble. Yet something has ignited a forgotten flame inside her: a burning need for adventure, for life - and perhaps even for love...

Well I hunkered down today, grabbed my tea and sweater, went out to the back porch, and finally finally finished this book.  It took me 5 days!  That's just crazy for me.  It's finally done, over, finished.  But what are my thoughts?  I'm having a hard time coming to a consensus on this one.  Do I like it?  Do I just like it less than the previous books in the series?  Do I have an issue with the main character?  All good questions... After some pondering, I think I've finally collected my thoughts.

The Good

The series continues to entertain me.  I still enjoyed the far flung location, this one in the rugged Canadian Wilderness.  I still loved the adventure and action sequences.  The final battle was the most brutal yet.  I still like the magical aspects.  It was nice to see the Sources tied to a Native American tribe.  I liked the twist of having three connected Sources.  I am still taken with the writing style. Not too descriptive, not too conversationalist, just right amounts of action and quiet moments.  I am really digging this series.

The Bad

The decision to make Nathan an Earth Spirit.  It felt so cheap, so overused.  Maybe it's because I've read a ton of shifter/werewolf/witch/vampire books lately, but I just felt out of touch with the character.  I want to connect to the characters.  In fact, I think I have a fixation on characters lately.  I also took issue with the baddies in this book.  They just didn't seem bad enough.  I loved the nastiness of the Heirs in the first two books.  For goodness sakes, in the second book on the baddies is the female lead's father.  There's not much nastier than that.  But these ones seemed almost like caricatures, but real villans.  I was disappointed.

The Verdict

I enjoyed it, just not as much as the first two.  I am still looking forward to reading the fourth book, Stranger, and seeing Catullus' story play out. But first, maybe a graphic novel break...

Blades of the Rose

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