Revisit: Weather Warden Series

The Weather Warden series follows the story of Joanne, a member of an organization that devotes itself to protecting humanity against mother nature. The idea is that nature is more terrible than man realizes and without the Wardens, the Earth would tear itself apart. The Wardens themselves, have the power to control the elements. It's been a while since I've read these books, so we're going to look at them all at once.

I enjoyed this book a lot. The elemental magic was fascinating, and I liked having the mythology of genies thrown in. Joanne, herself, is on the run. And as she races across country in her car, the power of the wind pushing her faster - it's an exciting adventure and highly enjoyable. If I'd know what the future would bring, I wouldn't have continued the series right here.

Joanne is a genie, that much I remember from this book... but plot, story line ...? Apparently, it wasn't that memorable? You'd think that fact would be enough to give it a "meh" rating, but I continued on to the next book in the series, so I feel it must have been interesting enough to make me want to keep going. Regardless, I don't think giving this book a rating would be fair since I can't remember anything about it on which to evaluate it.

This book, I remember with a passion, and that's a bad thing. This book managed to completely piss me off and make me drop the series all together.

I was warned, through reading reviews of the later books in the series that Joanne starts to make illogical or out-of-character choices for the sake of the plot and that the character stupidity and plot holes get worse as the series goes on. I had prepared myself for that. Still, the issues were painful.

Joanne faked her death in the previous book, and at the beginning of this one she's adamant about attending her funeral so she can watch everyone weeping over her body and then shock the hell out of them by revealing herself. Never mind that would completely undo the point of faking her death. Never mind how bad of an idea it is. Nope, she just wants to do it. (Wha-huh?)

And David, who is a freaking genie and could have magicked her to the bed or something to stop her from going decides "Well, I can't stop you." (Excuse me?!?!) And then, while they are at the funeral, they get approached by someone who says it's very important they all talk. The chapter ends about there, so you'd think the next chapter would be them going into some room and talking with this person, right? Nope, the next chapter is a few days later and the guy is like, "Well, I did want to talk to you, but you forgot all about me, and now it's too late and all hell has broken lose." (What?!?!)

But I digress, the plot holes and character stupidity I might have been able to overlook for another book or two (depending on how ridiculous they got). What really put the nails in the coffin for this series for me is the way the men in Joanne's life treat her.

There's a magical barrier that Joanne needs to get through but nothing alive can do so. Lewis comes up with the idea to kill her, which would let her pass through, and have her revived on the other side of line. Sounds like a perfectly logical plan ... except that Lewis doesn't tell her about it. He simply walks up to her and guns her down. And the reader get's to listen to Joanne's confused and terrified thoughts as she looks up in the eyes of her best friend and wonders why he's murdering her. And David, who she's romantically involved with, impregnates her through some genie ritual to "protect" her, again without explaining his plan or asking for her consent.

You'd expect Joanne to be pissed. She isn't. In fact she barely spends any thought on these actions once they are revealed, except to marvel at the idea of her and David's future child. Her body has been violated by both of these men. They have demonstrated the complete lack of faith they have in her mental reasoning and their complete disregard for her right to make her own decisions. Constantly, through the novel the men are asking her to trust them, but never once do they actually trust her. Constantly it is pointed out how rash and impulsive Joanne is perceived to be. These men profess to love her, and yet they couldn't have demonstrated more clearly how little respect they have for her. She is not treated as a grown woman with the right of making her own choices or the capability of even talking through the situation with the men. She's treated as a child that needs constant supervision and protection and for whom they have to make decisions for. And Joanne and the reader are supposed to be okay with this?

No. This is wrong and disgusting and abhorrent. These are not how people who love you and respect you act. These are not healthy relationships. And to put them out there with no consequence, as though these are not serious acts of betrayal and violation, is unacceptable. I quit.

I would still recommend the first book in the series, but I wouldn't go any further than that.

Lady Knight

Wow. I've been gone for a while, haven't I? I apologize. I've been having medical issues. Let's pick things back up with a familiar series.

Total shocker, right? What the heck happened? Well, part of it might be due to the fact that I was battling daily migraines at the time I was attempting to read this. But the other part of it, quite honestly, is that the plot of this book just kind of sits there.

Kel is knighted and given her first assignment at a refugee camp, an assignment she isn't happy about. She's been having visions about the mastermind behind the killing machines that have been roaming the country, and she'd much rather be battling them and bringing the man responsible in. Though, the camp itself has it's own issues that she has to navigate.

We begin the book on this premise. Over half way through the book, we are still on this premise. Kel is still at the camp, she is still having visions, she is still wishing there was more she could do. The plot has not moved forward in the slightest. I skimmed the majority of this book, and then finally gave up.

I was faced with the prospect that the plot might not pick up until the final chapters of the book, and that just wasn't worth waiting for. I'd read enough about Kel and her issues at the camp. I was ready to move forward into the "real" struggle and had no indication of when that would happen or if it could even turn my opinion of the book around when it did.

Perhaps it's an unfair rating given the personal struggles I was facing at the time. But I just got to the point where I need to call quits.