Koan by Carole Cummings

Title: Koan

Series: Wolf’s-own 03

Author: Carole Cummings

Genre: High Fantasy

Length: Novel Plus (290pgs)

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (21st May 2012)

Heat Level: Low

Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥4 ½Hearts

Reviewer: Pixie

Blurb: After saving his people, killing the man he once loved, and losing his little sister, Fen Jacin-rei has made his way to Tambalon with his surviving brothers and Kamen Malick. But shortly after arriving, old ghosts resurface, new dangers arise, and Malick tells Fen the gods aren’t done with him yet.

Fen now knows he’s a catalyst for Fate and a magnet for Fate’s players, and he’s dangerously close to falling over the edge into insanity. But tracking down the vicious creatures that have been abducting and murdering citizens of Tambalon is just as critical as dealing with past lives and legendary beings.

With a threat all too close and a secret he needs to explain, Malick is at odds with those who should be his allies, and no matter how much he wants to protect Fen, it may be more than he can manage when he’s trying to keep them alive.

Purchase Link: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=2948

Review: Oh Fen, poor, poor Fen. Your creator has it in for you. But, god damn, she does it in such a way that we all love you and want you to have a perfect life. Fen thought it was over, the voices of the Ancients are gone, the Jin are on their way to freedom and he has his brother’s back, but the gods haven’t finished with him yet… far from it.

Carole Cummings, I don’t know whether to love you or hate you, because freaking hell, you write one hell of a book, but your ending deserves severe punishment. Fen-Jacin is still floating on the brink of insanity. Oh okay *sigh*, on the brink of complete insanity. He’s holding on by his finger nails and he isn’t being helped by the ghosts that are following him. Malick is trying to protect him as much from outside influences as possible, but even he can’t smother the ghosts completely. Outsiders from all angles want him and then Malick is gone, his touchstone has disappeared and now with no tether, Fen is adrift, haunted and hunted with no one to help him.

This story is a great continuation of Wolf’s-own and the constant mental torture that Fen is under. Malick does know what he is doing, even when it seems like he doesn’t and putting Fen into danger before he is ready is not a mistake that Malick wants to make, but it is soon taken out of Malick’s hands. This book is filled with an awry of clues and hints as to what we are heading towards, but Fen is so not the person who would ever put it together. In fact, all the characters seem to focused on what their own god wants to recognize the danger that is heading towards them, and in their own selfish need to prevail they make matters worse.

Fen and the characters of this book are in for a ride, who or what is haunting Fen? Is it really Asai? Can any of the Maijin or Temshiel find the truth of what is happening in Tambalon? And will any of the readers’ ereaders survive the ending of the book 😉 lol. This story is fantastically written it’s a well woven story that will make you pull your hair out, have you screaming into your fist and make you wish for some happiness for Fen. These are characters that you will love, hate, or sneer at and wish someone would stab them; we have old characters and new, some making up for past mistakes and some making new ones and through it all we have Fen trying to hold on to what little sanity he has left and being expected to save them all.

So, I recommend this to those who love high fantasy, fights, blood and gore, manipulation, mistaken betrayal and a cliff hanger ending that will frustrate the hell out of you, unless you have the next book ready to read.