Elaine Reads . . . constantly!

The third and final book of this trilogy hits close to home.  That is, if your home is Earth.

Dalden, the twin brother of Shanelle from Keeper of the Heart, and the son of Tedra and Challon from Warrior’s Woman has always tried to deny his non-warrior half.

That denial is put to the test when he meets his lifemate Brittany.  Brittany is a carpenter in a small town in California.  Not only has she always supported herself, she has done so in a traditionally male profession.  She is certainly not willing to turn into a submissive female, no matter how deeply she falls in love.

This book ties up the Ly-San-Ter family story very nicely.  All family members are accounted for.  We get to meet Martha again (like she would have allowed herself to be left out of the story.)  We even get to see some old villains return.

Although the loose ends are all tied up, there is still enough of a story that further sequels are possible.  It has been a number of years since Heart of a Warrior’s publication, but Johanna Lindsey waited a long time between books two and three.

Warrior’s Woman- 1990
Keeper of the Heart – 1993
Heart of a Warrior – 2001

So, we may not have seen the last of Martha yet!

I finished a re-read of this book yesterday.  I did not remember it as being nearly as good as the first in the series, Warrior’s Woman, but I was pleasantly surprised.

This book starts up approximately twenty years after the ending of book one.  Tedra and Challon had twins – a son and a daughter.  This is the daughter, Shanelle’s book.

Unlike her mother, Shanelle is afraid of pain and hates confrontations.  She knows that she will never be happy with a warrior for a mate, so she is looking for one amongst the visitors.

What she finds is Falon.  He is obviously not one of her people.  His coloring and emotional responses prove that.  However, he is nearly as big as her father and that definitely appeals to her.

Of course, she discovers too late that he is a warrior after all, only from another region on her planet.

All of my favorite characters from the first book show up in this one:  Tedra and Challon, of course, Corth, the entertainment android, and my very favorite, Martha the self-aware computer with an attitude.

We also meet Shanelle’s brother Dalden who is all warrior despite his mother’s influence.

I did not like Shanelle as much as I did her mother Tedra, but her upbringing was totally different.  Even with her mother’s influence she was raised on a planet where women are submissive to the men.  She also had an incident in her childhood that gave her an unnatural fear of pain.

Even so, I thought she could be a wimp.  She does develop more confidence by the end of the book though.

A good bit of this book takes place in other regions besides her home.  I think that is what gives her the opportunity to grow.

If you enjoyed Warrior’s Woman, you definitely need to read this.  If you plan on reading the third book, Heart of a Warrior, you have to read this one.  You will have no clue what is going on otherwise.

These books are a mixture of romance, science fiction, and humor.  How can they miss?

Ly-san-ter Family, #1

This is the first book in the Ly-san-ter family trilogy.  I did not discover until recently on Goodreads that there was a third book in the series.  I originally read the first two when they were published back in the 1980s.  Anyway, since I have not read them in YEARS, I felt that I definitely needed a refresher.

Warrior’s Woman is one of the first science fiction/romance novels I can remember reading.  I have always loved scifi and this was a melding of two of my favorite genres.  To add icing to the cake, it is funny . . . very, very funny.

Tedra is a security agent from a technologically advanced world.  She has been trained in weapons and hand-to-hand combat.  Because she is so dangerous, she has had a hard time finding a man on her world she can respect.

In order to escape an invasion of her world, she is forced to flee her planet.  She ends up on a planet of warriors who although not nearly as technologically advanced, are perfectly capable of physically defeating her.  At least one of them is . . . Challon.

On Challon’s world, all woman are completely submissive.  He has no idea how to react to one who thinks she is his equal.

Tedra has finally found someone she cannot beat in combat, but he refuses to take her seriously.

So, of course, they fall in love.

Throw in an artificially intelligent computer with an attitude named Martha and the fun really begins.

I was a little afraid to re-read this book because I remembered it as being one of my favorites from long ago.  Many times, I am disappointed when I read them again years later.  That was definitely not the case with this book.

The relationship between Challon and Tedra is touching, but funny.  They are each having to deal with a personality they have never encountered before, all while falling in love.

And again, let’s not forget Martha!  In her opinion, she knows what is best for Tedra . . . whether it is what Tedra wants or not!

I cannot wait to get to the next two books.