Customer Reviews

Protector of the Flight (The Summoning, Book 3)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Calli Torcher has a life on Earth that truly sucks. She has been badly hurt, heart, mind and body, and is determined to pick herself up and fight for a life for herself. Her goals are simple and fairly common; love, family, a home, work that's satisfying. When the offer comes to stay on Lladrana, to be an important part of the community, she jumps in with both feet, a choice pretty much all of us would make under the same circumstances. She also agrees to willingly participate in a pairing and bonding ritual to find a man who will truly love her, making her choice close to unbreakable.

We have all known someone in our lives that have a natural affinity with animals, who seems to communicate on a level that is nearly magical. This is Calli's power, and being on Lladrana, it is predictably enhanced. The author wrote beautiful scenes of Calli bonding with the Volarans, and you could almost feel the wind beneath your own wings when she was flying with them. Wonderfully done, perfectly written, until it all felt exquisitely real. Ms. Owens skillfully turned the magic into an everyday experience. If you are an equestrian, you have had this feeling of flight yourself, the author simply puts your own joyous thoughts into the perfect words.

The man the pairing chooses for her, is good husband material, solid, honest, dependable, committed. You are comfortable with him from the very beginning. The love he feels for Calli is deep, strong and protective. He worries about her, their home, family, bills. When Calli puts her job obligations ahead of family, it causes strife, and they struggle to make their relationship work. Because they care so deeply for each other and are both mature, intelligent, responsible adults, you know they will face every challenge head-on and fight to make it work.

I don't know. The story is wonderful, but I'm torn. I will recommend this novel to my friends, its one of those books you read in one sitting, want to share with a group, and argue to death. The problem is, I don't know how to start the argument. I don't even know if there is an argument. The leading characters were people I liked, the plot was interesting and moved the saga along well. I was completely satisfied with the ending, it's better than most of the books out on the market today. It's just... everything felt so normal and contemporary.

I'm probably wrong, I very often am, but I missed the fantasy, the otherworldliness.

The newest Summoning adventure is just as good as the first one. Robin Owens has a wonderful imagination and her worlds are so full of life that they breathe. Her writing is some of the most readable I have found and the flow of her adventures is smooth and enchanting.

The third Exotic has been summoned, Calli Torcher, is a wounded horse whisperer. She was hurt while Barrel RAcing causing physical hurts, and her father is a cold-hearted man who has mentally abused her. At 24 she is washed up as a racer due to her injuries. Her father coldly sells her horse and pretty much tells her she has no place there. Retreating to her special place in the mountains, she cries until she is caught by bells and ringing leading her to Llandrana.

When she arrives she is welcomed not only by the other exotics but by the Volarans, the flying horses. The volarans had all left the marshalls and returned home so they were forced to summon a new exotic for the volarans. Calli is able to talk to the flying horses and they give her all the love she has never had from her family. Alexa and Marian tell her about the snap and about the choosing. The cavaliers want her bonded as quickly as possible so she will stay in Lladrana.

Merrec Gardpont is a Cavalier, very low in status. He and his volaran serve in the company of Lady Hallard's. Like every unattached person in the castle he leaves a token on a table. Calli has agreed to find a mate through a love potion. She studies over four offerings and finally accepts Merrec's.

Togather Merrec and Calli both want the same thing a home and family, but Calli was damaged by an infection and cant have children. So they decide they will adopt. Calli has no thought of returning to Terra. It is here she will fight and serve to have a love, a home, a family.

The action is fast and intense, unexpected twists and turns are around every corner. There are others with their own plans for the new exotic. Calli and Merrec have destinies to be fulfilled.

I love it, every journey to this land is filled with love, adventure, and surprises. Do not miss it.

I recently discovered this author (actually I read the books out of sequence!!) and each book has pulled me in from page one. Cannot wait to see what she comes up with next! Though I'm not a big fan of the romance genre, I'm thinking about reading the "Heart" series by this author as well just to tide me over until the next comes out in this series.

I am so enjoying this series of stories. It is fascinating. Robin does a wonderful job of creating another world and linking it to ours. I highly recommend the Exotic series.

I have been waiting for this sequel for a year and it was worth the wait. Robin D Owens is a wonderful writer, who creates worlds and characters that pull you in. I couldn't read fast enough and know I will reread this book again and again, as well as her others. I hope the next book of the series doesn't take as long to get published, as I am already impatient to read it. If you like fantasy, humor, magic and a world that is different from ours, just enough to be interesting not confusing, then this series is for you. All of her books, including her heart series, are terrific and different. If you enjoy Jayne Castle (Jayne Ann Krentz), P.C. Cast, Catherine Spangler, or Donna Fletcher, you will enjoy Robin D Owens.

I enjoyed this book very much, read it in two sittings, and I have enjoyed Ms. Owens's Celta series even more. Other reviewers have sketched out the plot, so I won't bother. I just want to point out that this novel pushes all the buttons found on teenage girls. I mean...c'mon. Telepathic, sentient, noble flying horses who Fight For Good??? And on top of that, your telepathic soul mate. I don't think she left anything out...what else could there be to make a world perfect?

I enjoyed reading the first two books in this series, but I found this one to be lacking. The characters just didn't have the depth the characters in the previous books had. Owens didn't even bother to dig deeper in the relationship between Merric and Calli. Merric was so stand-offish and Calli was so needy. There was nothing to show why they even loved each other. Not to mention, they didn't even bother to tell each other. Things kept coming up, problems were solved with little to no resistance, and the characters didn't seem to even bat an eyelash. It was almost too much all bunched together and condensed to fit. I still gave it three stars, because I like the world Owens created, but I sure hope the plot line flows better and the characters are more rounded in the next one.

I must have read a different book than the other reviewers. I found this book absolutely painful to get through.

I loved the first book. I couldn't put it down. I really liked the second book (I thought it lacking in some of the magic that the first one had but I still liked it). But I think I HATE this book.

I found there was too much emphasis on Calli and her Daddy issues and what she wanted/needed from those around her. It was 90% her "issues" (which were unoriginal and uninspired) and 10% the actual Lladrana story. I was unclear about all the tasks she had to perform and I found that when the story focused on the fantasy aspect it was rushed and disjointed. I had no sympathy for Calli because she was crying on EVERY BLOODY PAGE!!!!! I wanted to shake her and tell her to suck it up!

When I can't like the main character the story suffers. Alexa and Marian were strong, independent women. Calli was wishy-washy and weak and needy. I couldn't understand why the Volarans would want her as their "Exotique".

I thought this book was a waste of time and money (I had to force myself to get through it). I'm not sure I'll rush out and buy the 4th book. It's a shame, I was really getting into the story with the first two and it's too bad that the third book is so rocky.

I hate to be harsh, but this book is easily the worst I've read this year, if not the worst I've ready in many, many years.

Reading the back cover and the first two pages or so you can pretty much map out exactly what's going to happen.

There's very little real conflict in the book, and what conflict exists is quickly explained away by one or another easy magical fix. Nothing's worked for or earned in this book by any of the characters. It's set against a back drop of war with the nameless, motive-less "Dark". All we really know is that scary monsters keep showing up and people go to fight them. They always win, but occasionally a few die. How they die is entirely beyond me in this world where magic fixes everything. Can't speak the language? That's all right, drink this potion or have a sex with a native and you're good. A child is abused and has injuries, but a touch from on of their more powerful people and the injuries are all healed. They're magically able to heal Calli's damaged pelvis in a single night. And in theory they have "Shields" who can create a magical shield around themselves and their partner that allows them to fight another being but doesn't allow the other being to hit them. I mean how do you lose with that kind of effortless power?

And to top it off, anytime there's any real confusion or question about whether the main characters are doing the right thing, there are the magical, shape-changing feycoocou's to come along and answer the question.

This book is what I imagine you'd get if you asked a young girl to build a world and told her she could have anything she wanted. And so what you get is regular horses, flying horses (plus the ability to communicate telepathically with these horses), shapechangers (who often appear as cats), lead characters who are showered with wealth such that nothing they want is out of their reach, and true love within days (literally days) of arrival through a magical ceremony. I guess the only thing the young girl (hopefully) wouldn't have picked out is the ridiculous focus on sex. Sex is a great part of life, and I'm not at all opposed to having it be a part of what I read. But the idea that the three most powerful women in a kingdom are going around making crass jokes, talking about the sex games they're going to play with their partners later, and that sex seems to overwhelm the thinking of characters even in very serious (and public) settings is juvenile.

The characters are two-dimensional at best, and these so-called powerful women come off as foolish teenagers. But the worst is just that Calli never has to work to earn anything in this entire book. It's just too easy, and shows an extreme lack of depth in this story.

I'll admit that I didn't read the first book (or books?) in this series - so it might be more compelling to someone who's been following this series from the beginning. But realistically, I think you would have to have been utterly blown away previously to consider picking this up.

First, I would like to say that I absolutely love this series. I love the setting and the characters. I have nothing but good things to say about the story. My only complaint is that the writing itself isn't as good as it could be. This was apparent in all three of the books. A good editor would certainly help. With all this being said, however, I will buy the next book as soon as it comes out because I'm hooked on Lladrana.