A Change of Season by Anya Bast is my second foray into her fantasy/paranormal work. You have two really hot heroes, smoking hot love scenes and some magick. Alas, no book is perfect and this book is far, far from perfect. Is the enemy of my enemy, my friend? I just used that quote because I like saying it. It has nothing to do with the book.
Our protagonist is Moira and she has precognitive ability and can sometimes see into the future. She is also an empath. Thus, she lives alone for the sake of privacy and peace of mind. Lately, she’s been having “psychic attacks” with images of two men and she doesn’t know their connection to her or to each other. As each day passes, the attacks get worse and so she decides to seek out both me in order to stop these attacks. Alas, she only knows where one is located and so she searches for Dain.
After the war between Nordan and Sudhra has ended, Dain comes home to find things much changed to his dissatisfaction. Certain events take place that makes Dain out to be feared and rumor spreads far and wide. A recluse, Dain has no social skills when it comes to meeting pretty women who want to talk with him. Moira shows up at his gate and begs audience but Dain tries to live up to his reputation. Needless to say, Moira doesn’t believe the talk about Dain and convinces him to let her in. Once inside, Moira has another pyschic attack that pulls at the caring, nurturing, lusty side of Dain.
Eventually, Dain’s twin brother Killian comes to call and together these three can burn up some sheets, ladies. When they resurface, the plot kicks in eventually when Dain, Killian and Moira go in search of the other man in Moira’s “psychic attack” who goes by the name of Cyric. There is a history between Dain and Cyric and it costs Dain emotionally to go in search of his enemy in order to stop Moira’s violent psychic attacks.
There’s the usual contrivance between the two main protagonists. Dain finds peace with Moira but feels he can’t keep her because he feels that he may inadvertently harm her. Then there’s Killian who I probably liked more and their relationship was..hmmmmm.
The problems with A Change of Season as I saw it were these:
- The dialogue was stilted, awkward despite this being a fantasy novel
- Editing issues — it was annoying and this by far is the worst I’d read from EC
- The plot was rather thin but this is romantica and plot is usually an afterthought
- The ending: while it did end with some fighting and stuff, the revelation of why Moira had her psychic attacks was rather weak to me.
- The world building not very clear nor did I care much
Needless to say, I wasn’t as engrossed in this book as I was with Winter Pleasures where there was better chemistry (to me). The book could have fared much better with a tighter plot, better editing and better dialogue. If your looking for a differing opinion, Dear Author did a more favorable review of this book.
My grade for this effort is a C+. Note that this is book 5 in the Seasons of Pleasure series. I’ve not read all of them nor am I going to read them in order. Each book in a series should stand alone and the author does catch you up if you haven’t read the previous books in the series.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I love my editor and I think good editing is essential. That said, as a reader, I’m going to notice editing problems more (all things being equal of course) when I’m not into the book. Not that poor editing can’t boot you out of the book, too.
I still have to read Bast. Some day I’ll read a book again, sigh.
You are SO easy…sheesh…
I think its funny how wildly we divurged on our grade for this book. I liked the world building enough that it did not bother my reading. I am the least concerned person about editing.