Warrior Women: Bowdancer Book 3 by Janie Franz

Title: Warrior Women: Bowdancer Book 3
Author: Janie Franz

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Publisher: Breathless Press

Genre: GLBT/Romance/F-F

Length: 146 pgs.
Reviewed by: Kim Clune

RATINGS FOR:

Cover: 3

Presentation: 5

Editing: 4

Story: 5

Writing Ability: 5

Overall Card Rating: 

About The Book:

Jan-nell the bowdancer, now pregnant with her second child, and her daughter, Mira-nell, trek up a mountain where bards’ tales have said a village of warrior women exists. Jan-nell makes this trip in winter—and in her condition—in order to find a place for Mira-nell where the child’s precocious abilities will be accepted. The women on the mountain, though, are not fighters or even man-haters. They have chosen to live apart from the world in a village of only women, led by a sisterhood of hunters. Chandro, a beautiful trackfinder, rescues Jan-nell and her daughter, offering them a home and the promise of love.

The Review:

But for the company of her young daughter, Mira-nell, Jan-nell has always been the lone and stoic outsider in search of belonging. Even still, she is consistently grounded in a deep sense of self, a self that she often – if cautiously – opens to exploration.

Jan-nell had once believed that she and her daughter might find their place with Khrin, a handsome and kind traveling bard returning to his family’s village. She and Khrin traded passion for familial love but, without that flame, the home fires cooled. Jan-nell becomes weary of Khrin’s lust for men while she is carrying his child and Mira-nell is often ridiculed by peers who cannot grasp the depth of her sharp wit. Together, Jan-nell and Mira-nell make off silently, embarking on a difficult journey to seek solace within a secluded mountain village of warrior women.

The strong, beautiful Chandro, a tracker, discovers a troubled Jan-nell on the mountain path. When they reach safety, the curious village women, with their fractured history and lack of a knowledgeable healer, must combine their individual talents to help Jan-nell prepare for the delivery of her babe. Intrigued by Jan-nell, they share their sexual flirtations as well, taking Jan-nell to places she never dreamed existed.

What I love about this series is that the characters are not simply beautiful in physically intriguing ways. They also have a great deal of substance. When a pair is drawn together, it is often to solve or relieve a deep personal struggle, if only for a few fleeting moments, and the effects ripple through the community in such beautiful ways. Jan-nell teaches the village much about themselves and the healing they can perform while Chandro teaches Jan-nell to accept the help she so often offers others. The two also discover pleasure in each other simply for the sake of it. Still, they cannot deny that pleasure sparks emotional connection.

Has Jan-nell finally found a place where she is needed, cared for, can care for others, and where her daughter is respected for her varied skills? For a time, perhaps. Once again, a twist of fate allows culture to trump individual relationships, even when those beautiful relationships breathe life into an entire village. Jan-nell must make the most difficult decision of her life as a mother, sister-kin, lover, and as wife to Khrin with another life beckoning in his village below. Will she stay? Will she go? And at what cost?

I bid you great enjoyment as you read to find out.

Pagan Elements:

Franz incorporates extensive use of herbal remedies for healing as well as village dance and lore. Careful attention is paid to their beautiful descriptions, where these herbs are available, and which can be used in substitute. The Warrior Women are as closely connected with the earth as Jan-nell is, albeit in different ways.

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