Customer Reviews

Zephyr Unfolding

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4 star:		(1)
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Picture the future of the United States, and the governing power is the United World Council (UWC) established to protect the citizens of the world. This very same group has released the deadly NATO virus that is killing the majority of the earth's population. The UWC also finds a cure for which they in turn sell to any country willing to hand over control to the leader of UWC, Laurel Andersen. All of this is part of a plot to take over the world. This is where Nicole Given Kurtz's science fiction novel, ZEPHYR UNFOLDING begins.

The Resistance fighters are a small group of individuals who have exposed the evil plans of the UWC. They are dedicated to restoring world peace. A surprise attack and kidnapping of one of their own troubles the second-in-command, Ren. Someone has betrayed the Resistance and the deception is within the organization. Given the orders to protect the city of Zephyr, Ren arrives to find himself in the middle of a conspiracy to destroy him and everything the Resistance stands for. Struggles ensue over the coveted top position within both the Resistance and UWC organizations.

Filled with murder, intrigue and romance, ZEPHYR UNFOLDING is the action-packed sequel to Browne Candidate. The author does an excellent job of providing enough background information that it is not necessary to read the Brown Candidate before embarking on ZEPHYR UNFOLDING. What I like about the book is the characters are humans with emotions. There were no aliens to fight or none of the other fantasy type characters. A very real picture is painted of what can actually happen with corrupt world leaders. The love stories within the novel portray the emotional issues of infidelity and moving on from past relationships. The book is very well written and the author uses easy to understand terminology when she refers to the technology of the future. I would highly recommend this book.

Reviewed by Paula
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers

We're back in the bleak world of BROWNE CANDIDATE, revisiting the interesting characters created by Nicole Givens Kurtz.

she introduces us to yet another tough,strong and courageous (but all too human) woman, Maria, a leader of the resistance.

In spite of her not being the major focus of this book, I found myself cheering Aurora's growth and strength. She's one tough cookie with a great heart. Bain on the other hand, is an immature jerk who thinks with his gonads. In Maria, he finds another woman to 'love'. He's always been a boy toy and unless something happens to shake his world he won't change.

Aurora treats his defection with dignity and grace even though she's in great pain because of it.

Kurtz does a really good job of letting the reader in on the separate torturing of Angel and Ren without wallowing the cruelty of it.

Watching the plot against Ren unfold and watching Maria, who has never stopped loving Ren, search out the information necessary to save him was fun and exciting. Angel grows up a lot,too and that's good; otherwise she'd wind up just being a plaything for Ren and he needs more. Ren discovers that being top dog isn't necessarily everyone's cup of tea.

With each novel Kurtz grows and improves. This is certainly the strongest. I'm waiting for the sequel to find out what becomes of these people and their world.

Zephyr Unfolding is an outstanding sequel to Givens Kurtz's Browne Candidate. With the focus of this novel being more on the Resistance, Ren and Angel, I felt that Givens Kurtz had rounded the picture of the future to which all these characters inhabit. I enjoyed learning about Resistance headquarters, the notorious General McGoodman, which was only hinted to in the previous book in this series.

I also found that with this novel, Givens Kurtz's writing has not only matured, but also expanded. Several times I caught myself admiring how she has put words, metaphors, and just the sheer use of language together on the page.

Not unlike her other works, THE SOUL CAGES, and BROWNE CANDIDATE, the characters are complex. Sure, I knew who the good guys and gals were and the naughty boys too. Yet they weren't some cookie-cutter copies of what you expect a good or very naughty characters to be. They had motivation, issues, drama and of course, major conflict!

All in all, I found this novel to be a very good fix for my sometimes quirky cravings for science fiction thrillers. I am, after all a romance and erotica novelist. However, I did find the love that finally blossoms between Ren and Angel to be very romantic in a "distressed" way. Angel must endure serious torture at the hands of her ex-husband, and when she and Ren do come together, it is in a "let's do this because we might die" sorta frenzied chaos. It is in keeping with the overall plot of the novel. Nevertheless, it was very entertaining to see Ren, a hardcore commander, melt into Angel's waiting, outstretched hands.

Science fiction, romance, betrayal, drama, suspense galore...this book is the one that satifies. So, if you're looking for a good author, with mad skills to read, Givens Kurtz's Zephyr Unfolding is it!

Though fictional, the future Nicole Givens Kurtz envisions in ZEPHYR UNFOLDING will haunt you with its very real possibilities. It gave me pause. ~ Sheri L. McGathy, author of Season of Gold