What do you think?
Rate this book
Renegades Rule This Land
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 23, 2026
Sad to report that the ending sucked :[
I really enjoyed most of the book, and liked the writing style, but unfortunately towards the last couple of chapters I started to notice some character personality/motive changes that I wasn't a fan of. For example, Carissa started out as this headstrong, very independent female character who we are reminded frequently has a strong distain for 'the entire male species', but by the end had transformed into a soft, wife-type, clinging to the back of the male hero as they ride off into the sunset together. Very disappointing character death. Also, the exposition of Blake realising he'd come to terms with the death of his wife was really blunt and unannounced. The phrasing of "finally farewelled the woman he'd loved and lost" felt like a really dismissive way of describing acceptance, like it was more of a burden or annoyance to him to be thinking of his dead wife still, rather than something that is deeply sad for him. If that's what Dempsey Clay wants us to believe, I guess?
Going to see if the library has anymore Dempsey Clay books tomorrow. I like his writing enough to continue with another story. His descriptions of dire climate conditions and fight scenes are very good. Not too sure about the way he names his characters, they're all a little comically stereotypical, especially the Native ones ("Judy Red Girl, daughter of Chief Blue Elk"), but that's honestly such a common occurrence across western genre fiction that its almost not worth complaining about :/
I really enjoyed most of the book, and liked the writing style, but unfortunately towards the last couple of chapters I started to notice some character personality/motive changes that I wasn't a fan of. For example, Carissa started out as this headstrong, very independent female character who we are reminded frequently has a strong distain for 'the entire male species', but by the end had transformed into a soft, wife-type, clinging to the back of the male hero as they ride off into the sunset together. Very disappointing character death. Also, the exposition of Blake realising he'd come to terms with the death of his wife was really blunt and unannounced. The phrasing of "finally farewelled the woman he'd loved and lost" felt like a really dismissive way of describing acceptance, like it was more of a burden or annoyance to him to be thinking of his dead wife still, rather than something that is deeply sad for him. If that's what Dempsey Clay wants us to believe, I guess?
Going to see if the library has anymore Dempsey Clay books tomorrow. I like his writing enough to continue with another story. His descriptions of dire climate conditions and fight scenes are very good. Not too sure about the way he names his characters, they're all a little comically stereotypical, especially the Native ones ("Judy Red Girl, daughter of Chief Blue Elk"), but that's honestly such a common occurrence across western genre fiction that its almost not worth complaining about :/
Displaying 1 of 1 review