Review of Annie Bellet’s “Justice Calling: The Twenty-Sided Sorceress: Book One”
This was one of the first “books” I got for my Kindle. I was looking for a story that was easy to get into. On Amazon this story got an average of 4 out of 5 stars from 219 reviews. The Twenty-Sided Sorceress is an episodic collection of Urban Fantasy short stories about Jade Crow and her adventures.
Centered in the fictional modern-day town of Wylde, Idaho, the story focuses on a shapeshifter working with Jade and her friends to solve a murder. The murder was seen in a vision by the shapeshifter with Jade was the murderer. The town of Wylde is populated with many types of magical people and is considered a refuge. But when shifters mysteriously disappear Jade must solve the mystery of the vision and save her friends and herself.
The story itself is enjoyable since Ms. Bellet does a good job with pacing and characterization. We learn early in the story about the central character and her powers. Bellet strings out the details of what it means to be a sorceress. This helped move the story forward. Having a twenty-sided die as her power focus initially gave me the feeling of amateurish writing but I think I was being biased in that view. We learn of Jade’s past and Bellet does well slowly weaving it into the story. To save her friends Jade must make a difficult choice that may bring her past roaring back into her present day life, but the alternative is the death of those close to her. The shapeshifter Justice is an immediate attraction to Jade and her mental lusting comes off a bit like a soft-core porn story in thought,or perhaps a reflection of how men may view an attractive woman. I felt it was a bit of a distraction that early in their first meeting. As the storyline matures the reader finds what a reader of urban fantasy expects but with a decently fresh spin on it. Bellet does enough to keep us attached to the mythology but doesn’t venture far from the main backbone. A reader looking for a fresh take on this mythology will be disappointed. Those looking to stay inside those boundaries won’t have any issues staying connected to the story.
On Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Justice-Calling-Twenty-Sided-Sorceress-Book-ebook/dp/B00M9WCUOQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1422308934&sr=1-1&keywords=Justice+Calling
Jim in the Matrix 