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Title: Kei's Gift (Book 1 of the Darshian Tales series)
Author: Ann Somerville
Length: Total
Format: Series
Status: Complete
Rating: R I think
Warnings: Violence.
Link: http://www.logophilos.net/darshian_
Summary: When the worlds of a young, idealistic healer and an embittered, duty-bound general collide, their lives are changed forever.
Review: Well-paced and satisfying, and the characters are absolutely sympathetic. Although the story is about the relationship of the two main characters, it also deals with war and what it does to people. Both sides of the war - invader and ... invadee? - are explored, without interfering in the action of the story. But the characters (all of them) are what makes it great (imho). Darshian Tales is the series but I've yet to move on from Kei's Gift, so I can only recommend this one.
Ann Somerville's a published writer, but Kei's Gift is free. Awesome.
June 4 2009, 13:23:51 UTC 2 years ago
My favorite freebie of hers is The Surrogate and its sequel, Re-incarnate. Links are on this page (scroll down): http://logophilos.net/index.php?opt
But Kei's gift is quite impressive. It's loaded with vivid detail and the characters are memorable. I second this rec! ;D
June 4 2009, 23:34:32 UTC 2 years ago
The individual story descriptions don't say who each book is about, but they continue to cover the same group of characters. The 2nd book Falling From the Tree focuses on Karik but spends a lot of time with all your favorite characters from the first book. The 3rd book continues the saga with the addition of new characters. If you like long well developed stories with robust characters then the Darshian Tales are a must read.
June 13 2009, 15:43:48 UTC 2 years ago
Anonymous
April 3 2011, 08:55:24 UTC 1 year ago
I find Kei so close to my heart because he knows his own. He has his moment of kind of stubbornness, though, when he can be finally happily forever joined with Arman (who is general mentioned in the summary), but his former lover, adored big brother (not blood-related) and best friend Reji helps him (both: Arman too, actually) with the problems in their heads. You know; sometimes a situation is crystal clear to everybody but to the persons in the middle of it. ;)
So I recommend this book with all my heart to everybody who likes romance, a bit of angst, characters who are in touch with their sexuality, supporting characters who can easily stand on their own and whom you grow to love just because they are real, even if you don't like them.
-negani