Jarad's Return
Louise CrawfordFantasy romance
Available from New Concepts Publishing
ISBN: 1-58608-132-2
August 2011
| Jarad's daughter was killed by Kahn warlords, his wife raped and murdered by them, and he himself was tortured by the Kahns. He hates them with a vengeance and opposes the treaty between them and his people, who have a treaty with the Chadyks. He wants all Kahns dead. Because of that, he's banished by Mariah and Rathyn, leaders of the Syrithian and Chadyk peoples. He wanders into the desert and eventually collapses. He awakens to being tended by Xenia and her daughter, Cheyana. They are Wanderers, and seem to have a more-than-human power. Xenia tries to tell him that his desire for revenge in wrong, and he should look toward the future rather than to the past. But he cannot forget his wife and daughter's deaths.
One night after Jarad has left the Wanderers, Xenia's group is attacked, everyone is killed but Xenia and Cheyana. Jarad arrives in time to save Xenia, but Cheyana has been taken. They were Kahns. Xenia asks for his help in tracking her daughter, but asks him not to kill those who took her. He still doesn't understand and believes her reasoning to be irrational. Despite their conflict, they become lovers. The Kahns are attacked on the way to their destination, and it is Syrithians who did it. They take Cheyana, likely to give her to a family who has a lost a child. Jarad will deliver Xenia to his people, but he can go no further than that. There is a price on his dead, and he still wants the Kahns dead. But he has no idea what awaits Xenia when she arrives at the three races' council. First I'll say that this was an extremely long story, and covered a lot more ground than all I mentioned here. When I first started Jarad's Return, I believed it was going to be a fairly straight fantasy romance. It wasn't. The romance played a part in the story, but was actually more secondary than primary to the plot. This was a very dark story, and though there was an HEA, it wasn't the Happily Ever After of fairy tales, but one of real life, with all its pains and horrors, as well as its joys. I admit that I'm cynical, but Xenia's insistence that killing the Kahns, even in self-defense, was wrong got on my nerves. It seemed like she was pushing an irrational, though certainly desirable, choice onto Jarad. It made me see the book as inferior at first. As the story progressed, I changed my opinion; it seemed much more than an insistence for peace wrapped in a fantasy romance. The ending, however, left me with a slightly bittersweet feeling, as it was too pat for all the work the author put into the rest of the story. But Jarad's Return was, overall, rather amazing. The characters went through drastic changes, and so too, did the setting and plots. The twists the author took to get to the ending were completely unexpected, and while not always happily welcomed, they were welcomed. I can't completely categorize Jarad's Return as a dark fantasy, but certain parts of the book certainly were. There was nothing particularly upsetting to the stomach, but I wouldn't suggest this book for readers of the faint-of-heart. As I mentioned, it wasn't an HEA of fairy tales, and the main characters weren't always as nice or loving as they could have been. But readers wanting a complex, twisting read will very likely want to pick this one up. Jarad's Return started out a little slow, but it was soon fast-paced and absorbed my attention completely. Don't dismiss it after just a few chapters!
Overall rating:
Reviewer: Tara Black |
