review 1: Red by Jennifer Anne Davis picks up where The Key left off. First of all, Rema does not die, as the cliff-hanger ending of The Key may have led one to believe. Instead, Rema is whisked off to the rebels’ camp which is hidden high in the mountains. Once she has recovered from her illness, Mako, the rebel commander, insists upon her physical training but still does not reveal the secret to her—Rema is the rightful heir to the throne. Meanwhile, Prince Darmik, Lennek, and an Empiron Assassin scour the countryside looking for her in a deadly competition. But Darmik’s motivation to win the game might not be the same as the others’. Will he reach her in time?I enjoyed Red. In fact, I enjoy just about every book I read. Red captured my attention and continued an intriguin... moreg story. The stakes are raised time and again, a possible love triangle is thrown in, and the romance deepens. I think I enjoyed the character development the most, despite the flaws.I was disappointed that Rema did not discover on her own that she was Princess Amer but had to have someone tell her. Throughout her life, Rema has had clues as to her heritage or at least the fact that her aunt and uncle were hiding something from her. For example, her family always called her Rema, which is completely different than her given name. However, I was impressed with the way Rema handled learning it. Instead of being angry that her family lied to her, Rema accepted that they meant the best for her and moved on with life. She also accepted her place as princess rather quickly, instead of moping, and took charge, as a princess is supposed to.Prince Darmik, also, took a while to decide to turn against his evil father. I suppose a lifetime’s worth of loyalty is not easy to turn one’s back on, but the way his father treated him, not to mention the rest of the kingdom, should have raised some red flags before Rema came along. However, I did enjoy seeing Darmik change from a merciless killer to someone with compassion as he fell ever more deeply in love with Rema.One thing that did not make sense to me was the fact that Rema had not lived in the secret fortress from the time her parents died. It is quite possibly the safest place in the kingdom. Why would Mako not have Rema, possibly the most important person to the rebels, live in the safest place as well as the rebel base? The only reason I can think of is that Mako wanted her to see for herself the horrible way the king was treating the kingdom. Presumably, living with the citizens would show her their need for a better ruler.I would warn the reader that there are several swear words, violence (they are trying to start a war, after all), and a bit of sensual romance. Neither the violence nor the sensuality is overly descriptive or long, but it is definitely present.Overall, I think Red could have been written better, its flaws corrected, but I still enjoyed it and could not quite see what would happen next.I received a free copy of this book from the publisher, Clean Teen Publishing, in exchange for an honest review. review 2: There's not much to say about this book other than it was a great addition to the series and I've already downloaded the third book! Truly, I enjoyed this book so much that I read it in under two days and did not hesitate to buy the next novel. It could use another round of editing as some small mistakes were found, but they weren't enough to take away from a fantastic story line and excellent writing. less
