Customer Reviews

Unforgiven (Silhouette Nocturne)

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

 

 

Sniper Reno Manchahi lives each day for revenge. His wife and little girl were murdered. When he threatens the General responsible, he's put in jail with a twenty year sentence. Coming from Apache heritage, Reno is in touch with nature. When he hears a hawk cry out with a message of freedom he's not sure he can believe it.

That day he's made an offer. If he's willing to use his skills as a sniper for a special assignment, he will gain his freedom. He's asked to travel to Ecuador to dispose of El Espanto, a mysterious figure scaring the guards away from an emerald mine. The catch is that he can never return to the United States.

Calen Hernandez leads a double life. By day she's a billionaire in charge of an oil empire. By night she's El Espanto protecting the poor esmeraldos from the cruelty of the guards at the emerald mine. When Reno comes to town, she knows that he's the sniper brought in to kill her, but despite that she finds herself drawn to him.

Soon Reno and Calen find they have a common destiny. They are Warriors for the Light and they are called to a higher duty. They will fight with others like themselves to save the world.

Not only is UNFORGIVEN the first book in Silhouette's new Nocturne series, but it's the first in Lindsay McKenna's new Warriors for the Light trilogy. This book is a wonderful start to both series. Reno and Calen are both vulnerable and real. Right from the start you care about what happens to them. The tension between them keeps you going until they come together in a wonderfully emotional scene. I can't wait for the next book from Lindsay about the Warriors for the Light.

[...]

This is my second "novel" from Silhouette's new "Nocturne" division. So far, both books, written by well-known authors, have been disappointing. The plots, characters, even the number of pages (300 including advertisements), seems more than a little contrived. I can even imagine the publishers giving directions to the authors. "Give us a SF, fantasy, paranormal, less than three hundred pages. We don't care about the plot, we don't care if its good, it will sell. You've got the name, we've got the paper."

There was a void to be filled, and "Nocturne" sought to fill it. Like most readers of this genre, I wait with bated breath for another excellent Luna book to come out, and am desperate for a good fantasy read in between. The difference, and the reason we have to wait for Luna, is that they are not giving us fill, they are giving us substance. I'm all for handcuffing Robin Owens, Michelle Sagara and Sarah Zettel to their computers and forcing them to crank out more of their wonderful novels to satisfy my cravings, but good literature can't be rushed. I still want the good stuff, not this dreck.

What really hurts, is you know Lindsay McKenna can do better. The writing is professional, but you know, just by reading, this was not an honest effort. I'm not even sure if this was her storyline. It felt like an outline she filled in, after someone else gave her the plot. No heart, no soul, no life.

Nocturne, if you want to compete with Luna Books, you need to read a few, and see why readers are so captivated. As for me, I'm taking the rest of your collection off my wish list.

My fault. Fool me twice, shame on me...

Reno Manchahi is finally given his chance for freedom from a military prison. All he has to do is capture and kill El Espanto. El Espanto is a ghostly figure plaguing the wealthy emerald mine owned by the mysterious Guild. The guards of the mine are willing to kill any of the poor esmeraldos who enter their lands, searching for just one emerald to change their fortune. Reno thought the task of killing El Espanto would be an easy one, till he met the lovely Calen Hernandez. An ancient prophecy is about to unfold....

UNFORGIVEN is the first book in the Silhouette Nocturne line and the first book in Lindsay McKenna's Warriors of Light series. As such, it is an uneven start to both. The story starts off strong, with Reno forced to choose between freedom and his quest for revenge. Calen's role is also initially very well done, as both characters evoke strong emotions in the reader. The tension begins building up to what looks to be a fabulous showdown. Instead, however, the book veers off course. Instead of focusing on the story at hand, another ongoing plotline begins emerging about an ancient prophecy. The transition does not go seamlessly, and it almost feels as if two books have been fused together into one.

The ancient prophecy has a few unusual twists. The concept of the Warriors of Light offers some promise that will hopefully develop in future installments. UNFORGIVEN reaches a point where it becomes almost preachy about the entire philosophy of metaphysicians. Instead of showing the reader and using the world of the jaguar shape shifters to make her points, Lindsay McKenna instead devotes far too many pages to explaining the philosophy. Perhaps, as the series begins to coalesce around the thread of the ancient prophecy, the stories will improve.

COURTESY OF CK2S KWIPS AND KRITIQUES

Who is paying Harriet Klausner to write these glowing reviews? Again, I have to disagree with her stellar view on Unforgiven. And I wish I didn't. I was looking forward to McKenna's work. The story is okay, but the paranormal aspect is not at the forefront. And please, this Native American Shape-shifter thing is overdone in today's paranormal market. Come on, Nocturne, you can do better than this! I do like shape-shifters, but how about something original and otherworldly maybe? This may be some of your bestselling authors writing the Nocturne stories, so what happened? I'm sorry to have to say these things. I really wanted to give positive reviews because I was so excited about this new Nocturne line. I'm disappointed but I truly still have hope that future releases will live up to the promos.

Reno Manchahi is a Native American shape-shifter sent to south America to hunt down a terrorist. In exchange the US government agrees to pardon Manchai for his crimes. In South America, Reno meets Calen a mysterious rich girl whose spirit matches his own... Will Reno discover who the terrorist is and win his freedom?

This is the first Nocturne novel I read and if this is the quality of writing one can expect I will be sorely disappointed. The hero Reno (Shape shifting Apache), was very much a cliché. I admit, I'm sick of Native characters with this particular talent. I found the hero's back-story ala Punisher quite sterotypical. The quality of writing seemed the equivalent of a young adult novel. There was really no depth. I couldn't finish...After reading half the book, I decided to punish myself no further.

1 star.

There are two parts of this book, the first, which feels uneven but is well presented and the second which is sloppy and silly.

Preachy unnatural dialogue kill the intimate moments between the characters as the story progresses, making what was a well developing relationship into a forced togetherness. Unwritten sequels are not so subtly shoved at the reader. The pace is jumpy time wise and long drawn out poor dialogue wise. There's also some wonder as to what kind of super-swimmers the hero has if the heroine is pregnant within 30 seconds of making love.

The Army general got me too. USN/USMC are part of a different chain of command than the USA. What on earth was an Army general doing stalking the family of a Marine? Enlisted USMC and Army brass don't cross paths all that often.

I always try to force myself to finish books that I pay for. This is one of the exceptions.

Okay the first part of this book started off pretty good you got this guy bustin up rocks in some prison because he went after the man who murdered his family. Sounds good and then we meet the heroine which even she sounded intresting it was just about the middle of the book started to get boring very boring! They go on and on about the Warriors of the Light and all that and they never do anything!

All they do is get back an emerald mine which again is done pretty easy with no conflict at all really. I assume that the Dark ones are murderers,rapists,ya know criminals I thought this was suppose to be a paranormal why can't they be wizards or some vamp gone bad they are just like...criminals nothing paranormal about that. The Warriors of the light are shapeshifters (finally some paranormal) but sadly that does not last long they only change into actual jaguars about two times in the entire book. Kinda dissapointing this being classified as a paranormal and all.

Oh yeah and another reason that the book just wasn't good was the general who killed this guys family gets off scot free!! yeah no revenge or nothing since considering that he raped and them murdered this guy's wife and strangles his little girl I mean come on break a leg or arm or hell even his neck! that would work. But no since he is a Warrior of the Light and he is above all that revenge, justice sh** he decides he will do nothing oh at the urging of the heroine of course. Yeah all he does is pick up some emerald and all is forgiven. Man whoever came up with the title for this book should have actually READ the book!

Sex scenes pretty tame I would rate them a one on a one to ten scale but thats just me. Should have got a prettier model for the cover that woman is just too bulit did you see those arms I had to look close just to be sure that it was in fact a woman. The guy was pretty hot though I guess I am a sucker for long hair esepcially black.

I don't think I got past the first couple of chapters, and that's really bad. With most books, I try to at least get through the first three chapters, thinking that most books start to hit their stride by then. This one never got out of the gate for me. Boring, trite, poorly written. 'Nuff said.

This book has gotten a bad rep. It is a really good book. The characters had a lot of depth and the paranormal aspects were really something special. I would like to see more stories that follow the theme of this book. The book was left open in such a way that other stories could be written and I hope Nocturne will be around long enough for those stories to be published.

The "relationship" between the main characters seemed forced. I know these books are supposed to be about "paranormal" stories but as much as I enjoy reading such stories, this one was just not believable.