Currently reading a book with an action heroine?

[Werner]

As I've noted before on this thread, my wife Barb and I are reading Suzanne Arruda's Jade del Cameron series together; Jade's become a favorite character with both of us. We've just started on the fourth installment, .

[Jon]

Bestselling author Mike Shepherd has added Rebel, to the Kris Longknife offshoot series about Vicky Peterwald. She is considerably less of a direct action character than Kris. Vicky relies on the commanders of the ships she is in to do the actual shooting, although she makes the decisions that lead to the fighting.

Shepherd's plotting was getting worn out in the Longknife books; the three Peterwald books have the advantage of starting at the beginning of her career as a leader, which allows Shepherd to move the pace along.

[Jon]

Ok, Elliott Kay's Good Intentions, has a delightful plot, with gnarly twists, and MCs to care about and root for. The heroines, including a guardian angel who does no harm to mortals (paranormals watch out), are indeed action heroines.

However, the author's warning is needed: WARNING: Good Intentions contains explicit sexuality, violence, nudity, inappropriate use of church property, portrayals of beings divine and demonic bearing little or no resemblance to established religion or mythology, trespassing, bad language, sacrilege, blasphemy, attempted murder, arguable murder, divinely mandated murder, justifiable murder, sexual promiscuity, kidnapping, attempted rape, arson, dead animals, desecrated graves, gang activity, theft, assault and battery, panties, misuse of the 911 system, questionable interrogation tactics, cell phone abuse, reckless driving, consistent abuse of vampires (because they deserve it), even more explicit sexuality, illegal use of firearms, polyamory, abuse of authority, hit and run driving, destruction of private property, underage drinking, disturbances of the peace, disorderly conduct, Internet harassment, bearers of false witness, mayhem, dismemberment, falsification of records, tax evasion, an uncomfortably sexy mother, bad study habits, and a very silly white guy inappropriately calling another white guy "nigga" (for which he will surely suffer).

I skipped through or over many sex scenes. If you find that warning fun, you'll more likely than not be able to read (with skipping) Good Intentions with enjoyment and without danger to your soul.

It is currently available for free on KU

[E.G.]

Jon wrote: "Ok, Elliott Kay's Good Intentions, has a delightful plot, with gnarly twists, and MCs to care about and root for. The heroines,..."

If the writing in the novel is as good as the disclaimer, it should be brilliant. ;D

[Jon]

I think it is excellent, marred by too much sex. The book is a celebration to the power of people doing the right moral thing in the face of adversity, and the power of love transcending lust, both of which are themes that resonate with me.

It is also the first fiction book I've read that explores the idea that each of us has a guardian angel and how that would work in practice, much less in a world with many types of paranormals, witches and demons.

If only I could be given a pair of clippers, a hacksaw and the editor's hat.

[E.G.]

Thanks Jon. It's kindle only, so I won't be grabbing it anytime soon (no kindle app), but I'll add it to my tbr.

[Danielle The Book Huntress]

I read Salvation's Dawn, with a demon-hunting female paladin warrior who happens to be a humanoid dragon.

Currently reading Wait Until Dark, with a heroine who is a special forces pilot and mechanic.

[Jon]

The first book in the series mention by Danielle above [Wait Until Dark] is: The Night Is Mine, currently free on KU. (I'll post there, too.) Thanks for the recommendation, Danielle.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...

[Jon]

This book has an action heroine, for sure. Ex-Marine, ex-special ops in the field, ex-CIA. However, it does need an explicit caution: m/f and ménage, shifter, explicit sex. Hour of the Lion, .

Jean Johnson has a thread of her own. She has a more recent series, The First Salik War. I've downloaded a sample of the first book to see if it is worth $8: The Terrans,

[Nicole]

First in a completed series and one of my favorites . Available on Amazon and B&N for $2.99.
Cat is a strong, and stubborn, heroine and novice vampire hunter half-breed. This book has action, humor, and sexy hot love scenes.

[Jon]

Thanks, Nicole. I've downloaded a sample to test taste. Who doesn't want to know what a "half-vampire" is? What is the condition of being half-dead. [No, don't spoil it.]

[Nicole]

Jon wrote: "Thanks, Nicole. I've downloaded a sample to test taste. Who doesn't want to know what a "half-vampire" is? What is the condition of being half-dead. [No, don't spoil it.]"

Well see there's...jk. Not gonna say anything. Hope you enjoy it though. ;)

[E.G.]

Jon wrote: "This book has an action heroine, for sure. Ex-Marine, ex-special ops in the field, ex-CIA. However, it does need an explicit caution: m/f and ménage, shifter, explicit sex. [book:Hour of the Lion|1..."

I love that book - Pain is weakness leaving the body. I checked with my DH and that is part of the Marine Corps training.

[Werner]

Although the producers of the 1965 movie Cat Ballou starring Jane Fonda (which I haven't seen, but have heard about) treated their material as a comedy, the 1956 novel by Roy Chanslor that it's loosely based on, The Ballad Of Cat Ballou, is a serious Western with a female protagonist. Over the weekend, I started reading it when my original reading plans fell through (long story!). The cover art of the edition my wife owns, which I'm reading, suggests that Cat (short for Catherine) is an action heroine type, but so far her fighting potential has remained just potential. (That may be about to change, however!)

[Werner]

In keeping with my program of more seriously following up on the many series I've started and left hanging, I've finally started on the second installment of the adventures of my favorite urban fantasy heroine, Jane Yellowrock: by Faith Hunter. (It will also count towards my goal of reading 10 books with action heroines this year, for our group's current challenge.) I read the first book, , a bit over three years ago (my review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ), but was able to re-immerse myself in Jane's world very quickly!

[Jon]

In addition to reading new member Jessica Majzner's Beyond the Veil, , I've started prequel series to by Jean Johnson, The First Salik War, which begins with: .

Werner, the Jane Yellowrock books are enjoyable. You have your work cut out for you, guy. In addition to quite a few now in the series, there are some novellas and shorts if I remember correctly.

[Werner]

Yes, the Jane Yellowrock series (https://www.goodreads.com/series/1614... ) has 11 novels in it now, and will probably have more, plus at least 22 short e-stories or novellas. Realistically, I'll probably never read all of them, especially the short works. But I intend to read as many as I can! :-)

[E.G.]

Started for a Group Read in another group. Totally an action heroine. She starts the book by joining the spacefaring Marines to save the galaxy.

[Werner]

E.G. wrote: "Started for a Group Read in another group. Totally an action heroine. She starts the book by joining the spacefaring Marines to save the galaxy."

E.G., our group did a common read of that one last year (https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... ). It was something of a fizzle; not many people in the group read it or had read it, and only a couple of those who did commented. (I started it, but didn't finish it; but that's just me!)

[E.G.]

Werner wrote: "E.G., our group did a common read of that one last year ."
..."

I knew I liked this group. ;D

In Girls, Guns, Grimoires this book has some strong proponents and detractors. Jon gave it 5-stars (which carries a lot of weight with me), but others challenged it for being too heroine-centric (among other issues). I read the preview chapters and decided it was good enough to give it a shot.

*it helped that Apple just kicked me a $50 credit as part of some price-fixing settlement.

I'm not that far into it. I love a warrior woman, but I'm finding the writing uneven - awkward phrasing and painfully abrupt shifts in narrative. One minute Ia is practicing martial arts, the next para I'm assaulted by nearly incomprehensible dialog around her military induction.

We will see. :D

[Mike (the Paladin)]

I read the book and it was sort of an, "okay" book I thought. The thing for me was that the "sub-plot" (view spoiler)[about her psychic gift (hide spoiler)] just seemed to get in the way of the main plot a lot of time. I think the writer had an idea of where she wanted to go but didn't pull it together that well.

It's another one of those I wanted to like a lot more than I did (I'm a huge military science fiction/space opera fan).

[Jon]

E.G., I can easily see why others do not like A Soldier's Duty. The writing is a bit choppy. What I liked so much about it, and now like about The Terrans, is the odd combination of psi powers (many different types) + warrior woman + space opera.

If I rated it today, I might give it 4 GR stars.


Even if you or anyone else likes volume 1, I'm not sure I'd recommend the rest of the series.

[Jon]

If you get audible, Jane Jensen's Kingdom Come, is on sale today (7/5/16) only at $2.95.

Big city detective (F) returns home to Amish country and finds murder. I read the sample awhile ago and decided to wait until the price came down. Now it has.

I've just bought and downloaded it.

[E.G.]

I picked up on a promo because several of my friends like the author. I was expecting Scifi Romance (which it is), and was pleasantly surprised to find an action heroine. One with no paranormal or super heroine powers. A former US Jet pilot, she goes spacefaring in her early 40s and helps defeat an evil galactic terrorist. How fun is that?

[Angela]

I added that to my Want To Read list. Sounds exactly like what I love reading, space operas and stellar female main characters.

[E.G.]

Angela wrote: "I added that to my Want To Read list. Sounds exactly like what I love reading, space operas and stellar female main characters."

It's still free on amazon, b&n, etc. I don't know if it is permanently free or short-term promo price.

[Jon]

Well, I've downloaded Star King, mentioned in the comments above. I recently finished and reviewed group member Cari Silverwood's Needle Rain, and I'm reading her erotic novel Cyberella now. It is part of a series called Preyfinders, and which should probably be read in order.

Battleship (spaceship) captain Susan Onarina, just release from prison for suspected mutiny, is off to fight a battle with the 3rd and 4th sets of aliens discovered by humans in Christopher Nuttall's Fear God and Dread Naught, , about the 8th in a series. I may not end up recommending it hightly. More interesting in the same book, which I'm currently reading, are the trials of Midshipwoman Charlie, a dark skinned young woman very close in the line of succession to the crown of England, (which is still mostly white skinned in this SciFi) with her fellow middies and the aliens.

V'Dan, I finished a couple weeks ago. This Jean Johnson series is holding up well so far.

[Angela]

, , and are crazy, action packed! You have to check these out. A mix of Bourne and Ender's Geesh as well as a lot of Nakita.

[Jon]

If power to use water as a force of nature and as tactical weapon is "action," then Zoe in Sharon Shinn's Troubled Waters, is an action heroine. If not, then she is merely a fascinating heroine in an enjoyable fantasy I just listened to.

[Jon]

I don't much enjoy dystopias. They were the coming new idea when I was a youngster reading Sci-Fi.

Nor do I enjoy magic / paranormal books where there are so many forms of magic, and/or ark loads of abnormal creatures, so that no one form or creature gets well developed. Thus, due to my own reading preferences, my first venture into a Kate Daniels novel is likely to be my last. Magic Shifts

[Jon]

, The Flaw in Logic by new to me author S.Y. Thompson, started off well. R'cey Hawke, bounty hunter, is certainly prepared for action - action which finds her being shot down over a pretty hostile planet just as the sample ends.

I cannot tell you more because I'm not paying $9.99, aka ten bucks, for a easy to read novel by an unproven (to me) novelist.

[Jon]

I'm disgusted with the action heroine credentials of Faith in The Stray, , by very popular author Rachel Vincent.

My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Other books recently read include: Hidden 12 , by group member Gail Parker; and a quite enjoyable series by excellent author Lois McMaster Bujold , , , and .

[Werner]

Recently, I bought a copy of by J. C. Antionelli, which was recommended to me by our own David Wittlinger; and since he's anxious to know how I liked it, I've started reading it earlier this week. Our protagonist here, Samantha, is a rising high school senior who, over summer vacation, discovers that she has an unusually strong natural talent for marksmanship with firearms. She also learns that this talent can be the doorway into a lucrative and exciting job prospect --but not the sort of prospect a girl necessarily wants to post about on her Facebook page.... :-)

[Pamela]

I just finished a Carpathian novel. Dark Carousel that features Charlotte. She goes from a normal woman to a warrior for those she cares for, especially fractured people and children. She was near death and when recovered still came back fighting hell dogs to save a ten ur old life. She did not start out a tough cookie. but always was protective. That turned into one determined mom when she took on responsibility for her three year old niece, and other trauma victims of vampire slaying, and torture. Great female heroine.

[Jon]

Dark Carousel, , number 30 ? in the series, is one of the Carpathian novels Pam references. (Thanks, Pam)

The author of the series is: Christine Feehan

[Jon]

I'm about a third of the way through a book, but I'm going to go ahead and mention it. M.K. Eidem appears to be the author of some mildly steamy romances with paranormal or alien characters. (I'm betting that they are all males, while the women are all human, but Eiden may have broken away from that trope.]

Cassandra's Challenge features a human female, Cassandra, and her 9 year old niece, who she becomes totally responsible for when Earth is blown up. (No spoiler; it is in the blurb.) She does a couple of heroic things to save her niece. What I like is that, for the balance of the novel, at least to the point I've reached, Cassandra has to balance any acts, be they romantic, action or just plain living, with her Mama Bear need to protect her niece. If that theme qualifies as a "tension point," then it is one that I never grow tired of.

Of note was the e-book's availability with the audio for an extra $1.99. The audio is one of the best I've heard. Four narrators, all of whom are excellent. Plus, real background noises such as a beeping heart monitor, foot steps or canons blasting. Much like old time radio dramas.

[Werner]

I've just started , the sixth novel in Don Coldsmith's multi-generational Spanish Bit saga, tracing the history of a Plains Indian tribe, "the People," from the introduction of the horse through the succeeding centuries. This installment is set in the late 1500s, and the heroine is a young Indian woman who chooses to opt for the path of a warrior. This is a re-read for me; I want to review it for another site, but to do so well, I'll need a refresher for my memory!

[Mervi]

I'm reading Fifth Quarter where the main characters are brother and sister assassins.

[E.G.]

Nice 4-star read acquired via Instafreebie



My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

There is an audio version for those who are interested. Although, I doubt it is free.

[David]

I've just finished Repo Chick Blues by Tracy Sharp. My review can be seen here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

In brief, this is the first in a series about young Leah Ryan, a former juvenile delinquent car thief now on her own. She winds up getting a job as a car repo person and inadvertently finds herself at war with a local drug and prostitution gangster she had previous run-ins with.

Leah is well-written, likable and believable. This is not a book of non-stop action but it does keep moving along nicely. There are some minor fights, some knife play and a few gun battles. I think it fits the action heroine genre and may be worthwhile adding to your shelves. I gave it 4 stars, having purchased it while it was on sale for 99 cents. It is currently only available as a digital edition.

[Jon]

Author Lindsay Buroker has written several novels that fit this group. I'm currently listening to and reading: Dragon Blood Omnibus, a set of the first 3 books in the series.

The heroine Sardelle wakes from 300 years in stasis (in a mountain that has collapsed on top of her) to find that she appears to be the last of her people, a people who use magic. Also trapped, but many yards deep in solid rock, is a soulblade. These swords contain the souls of warriors, now deceased, who lend power to the person they are bound too.

I first read Balanced on the Blade's Edge, . I think the book is currently free on KU, and narration for the first free books as a set was under 5 bucks. I bought the narrated version after reading book one.

I haven't written a review yet of Balanced. Under my new thinking about stars, I will probably give it 4.

[E.G.]

Just finished about a witch of minor ability running a tea shop in London - in a slightly parallel universe where powerful witches live in the center of the city behind high walls. Emma totally cuts it as an action heroine by facing down powerful and scary fae while pursuing a serial killer. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

BONUS: It's free on Amazon, Nook, and probably other platforms.

DOUBLE BONUS: I met my 2016 Action Heroine Challenge!

EDIT: While there's a romance subplot, there's no explicit content.

[Werner]

E.G. wrote: "DOUBLE BONUS: I met my 2016 Action Heroine Challenge!"

Way to go, E.G.! Congratulations.

[Werner]

Though she's shown armed on the cover, the heroine of Heather Day Gilbert's isn't really confronted with actual physical challenges of action-heroine scale (even though I don't doubt that she could handle them). But the heroine of the sequel, , which I've just started reading today, definitely will find herself in that territory. Since we're talking about Freydis Eiriksdottir here, readers who know something about the pre-Columbian Norse voyages to Vinland will know what I mean! (The skalds who composed the Saga of the Greenlanders, of course, would classify Freydis as an action villainess rather than a heroine. But the skalds weren't always working with the straight story....)

[Werner]

Having started a new paper book yesterday morning, I also started a new e-book before going to bed last night: by Leigh Brackett. Despite her stature in the SF genre, Brackett is a writer whose work I've never yet read; so I'm badly overdue. This particular book is the second installment of her Eric John Stark series; I opted to read this one out of order because Kindle gave me the chance to try it for free before I buy a paper copy. If the title and cover art are any indication, I'm guessing that the title character here is an action heroine type. :-)

[Mervi]

I'm reading Torchship Pilot a science fiction book, the second in the series. The main character is Michigan "Mitchie" Long who is an intelligence operative. In the first book, Torchship, she was working undercover aboard a cargo space ship as the pilot. In action sequences, she often fights as part of the crew but she's fully capable of holding her own. In this second book, she's still part of the crew.

[Werner]

As our current "car book" (that is, a book Barb and I read out loud in the car when we're riding together --not a book about cars!), we started yesterday on the fifth book in Suzanne Arruda's Jade del Cameron series, . These are historical mysteries set in colonial Africa just after World War I, and featuring one of our favorite fictional characters: former wartime ambulance driver turned photojournalist Jade, who has a Winchester rifle, a pet cheetah, a green-eyed stare that can face down most people, and more than her share of both guts and heart.

[E.G.]

Finished . I like it okay, but the heroine felt like a pale copy of Rachel Morgan from Kim Harrison's Hallows series.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Jon]

I added three recently read books to our group bookshelves today:
Mage Slave, , and reviewed it here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

H.M.S. NIghtinggale, (by group author J.A. Sutherland), and reviewed it here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Whispers from the Dead, , and reviewed it here: [computer frozen; I come back and add it later.]

[Werner]

Barb and I are continuing right along with our reading of Suzanne Arruda's Jade del Cameron historical mystery series, set in Africa in the years just after World War I, and have now started the sixth installment, . (We actually started it over the past weekend, but things were hectic here at the time, and I got behind in my posting!) The Kikiyu call Jade "Simba Jike" (lioness), and in each of the books, she tends to demonstrate her lioness-like qualities; so we're confident that she will here as well.