While the summary sound fairly straight forward, it is actually only the tip of the iceberg. There are at least a dozen different threads in the book, some of which only show up for a page or paragraph at a time. During the trip down the river, we have flashes of the noble botanist, dedicating his life to the cure of disease, a splash of mysticism, and a relationship between the protagonists that flickers on and off. There is a ruthless overlord complete with gunslingers. The kidnapping plot is mentioned only at the beginning and end of the book. There is also an odd fascination with river caymans and the random insertion of odd sayings. These are just a few of the themes present.

I think I could like the protagonists if just they would stay in one personality. Unfortunately they don't. In one paragraph the female finds the botanist to be a wonderful, noble person, in the next an unfeeling jerk followed by a dependence on the male then a switch to warrior woman. This wouldn't normaly be a problem - we all do this, but most of us don't change back and forth in such very short times, in this case from one paragragh to the next. The bad guys are actually kind of wimpy at the end of the book, and there is another plot introduced then that might be interesting. Although the female protagonist has arrived on the island on her way somewhere else, she does not seem to have any desire to leave the island after the first few pages.

Overall, still an interesting book.

Overall rating:
Sensuality rating: Explicit

Reviewer: B. McBride
April 28, 2011