I love Stobie Piel’s books. I won’t say she’s never let me down but I will say that when she does it’s never in ways that other authors do. Okay, wow, that’s definitely the kind of statement one needs to explain and usually have no idea how to do so but I shall try anyway.Let me put it this way, her stories, characters and approaches are usually so different from most other romances that I guess I’m willing to forgive more “problems” simply for the sheer enjoyment of the storytelling. She also has a certain non-linear approach to choosing her spin-off plots that I can never quite predict, so that also keeps my interest strong. It’s usually quite obvious who is going to be in the spin-offs but never what they’ll be up to.
Take the characters in Prince of Ice. It was obvious in the first book, Strange Brews, that the young Norsk chieftain, Aren, was being set up as a future hero and that Cahira, the mage-child daughter of the old king of Amrodel, was also being groomed to be a future heroine. But who in the world would’ve expected that their story would start off with such a bang and have the entire kingdom of Amrodel, including the previous hero and heroine and their children, placed under a “sleeping beauty” spell?
Definitely got my attention in a hurry.
I also liked the unexpected ways Piel used the Dragonfly Sword throughout the book. Definitely exciting twists and turns that weren’t always expected. Like the last one. Whoa.
I suddenly feel the need to reread some of her other books.