The Volatile Amazon

Alliance of the Amazons #4

by Sandy James

Sarita Neeraj has never felt like a real Amazon. Compared to the obvious strengths of her sisters, her Water powers seem small as her stature. She’s determined to prove herself—unfortunately, all that gets her is captured by an enemy.

Ian serves a twisted goddess, preferring this to an empty afterlife. He’s taken Sarita hostage to coax the other Amazons from their safe haven. But in his ancient Scottish castle, the passion and love Ian finds for Sarita resurrect his honor, until he chafes at the dark will of his mistress.

Sarita has finally found happiness—but before she can enjoy it, she’s “rescued” by her furious sisters. To save Ian from destruction at the hands of the Amazons, Sarita must risk wielding magick that could change her very nature. Only then can she prove the Water Amazon is the strongest of the four—and save them all from destruction.

Meet Earth, Fire, and Air in The Reluctant Amazon, The Impetuous Amazon, and The Brazen Amazon.

Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, Romance, Paranormal

362 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 30, 2013

About the author

Sandy lives in a quiet suburb of Indianapolis and is a high school psychology teacher. She is published through Grand Central Forever Yours and Carina Press as well as indie-published. An Amazon #1 Bestseller many times, she has won numerous awards, including two HOLT Medallions.

Please visit her website at http://sandyjames.com for more information or find her on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/sandyjamesbooks)

Reviews

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heart pounding action, exciting twist and turns and an incredible love story, The Volatile Amazon is a must read. Sandy James out did herself with this new and exhilarating addition to the Alliance of the Amazon.

The Volatile Amazon brilliantly and surprisingly ties old storylines in to Sarita and Ian's story. Not only giving us a good dose of the characters we've come to love but astonishing us by pulling in the ghosts from the past.

As you can tell, I loved this book. I reveled in the characters. I was enthralled by the passionate romance. I was shocked by unexpected revelations. Sandy James has a special gift in writing characters you want as your friends, including a few shifters...

Don't miss The Volatile Amazon.

I received this ARC copy of The Volatile Amazon from Carina Press in exchange for an honest review. This book is set for publication September 30, 2013.

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once more into the breach with Sandy James, as I have reached the last book in her Alliance of the sermons series. I’ve read the books in relatively rapid succession, which has been a lot for fun. No need for a refresher when you last visited this world a few weeks ago!

That being said, THE VOLATILE AMAZON is probably my least favourite book in the series. It’s still a good book and it delivers a strong conclusion to the overarching series story with Helen but I wasn’t terrible interested in Sarita and Ian’s romance. I liked Sarita throughout the series and I actually like her even more after reading THE VOLATILE AMAZON but I wasn’t intrigued by Ian. In fact, I think I would have been perfectly happy with this as an urban fantasy because Sarita has such an incredible personal journey in this book. She’s forced to grow in ways the other Amazons were not, and it really made this aspect of the book work. The other Amazons had obstacles to overcome but Sarita had to confront personal demons, actual demons, and all sorts of magical and ethical dilemmas. I felt like the stakes were higher and more authentic than in any of the previous books, which made it a real roller coaster of a read.

But Ian didn’t do it for me. I’m probably in the minority on this one but I just wasn’t feeling the romance. James has given Ian an interesting backstory and ties to the Amazons but I didn’t care about him as much as I was supposed to. I’m curious to see what other people think, but I haven’t read any reviews yet because I like to get my thoughts down before I read other folks’ takes.

On the whole, I did really enjoy reading the Alliance of the Amazons series. James is a good writer who has created a very interesting world and I hope she will continue to create stories in this setting. (It certainly seems possible based on the ending of THE VOLATILE AMAZON, if she wants to do a spinoff.) Even if she doesn’t, I’ll definitely be picking up whatever she puts out next because I think she’s a talent to watch.

http://ireadgood.wordpress.com

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the the fourth and final book in the Alliance of the Amazons series by Sandy James. I was given an ARC of the book by the author for an honest review. This is the story of the Water Amazon, Sarita and takes place about a year after the closing of The Brazen Amazon. Sarita has been labeled as the weaker Amazon, mainly due to her small stature and forgiving nature. Add in all the problems she had early on with killing zombies and it's easy to see why the other three do what they can to protect her.

This story starts out a little different than the others. The first person we meet is Ian, though we don't know that at the time. He is stuck in Limbo, and though his heart burns with revenge, all he can do is put one foot in front of the other, walking back and forth, trapped forever in a bland monotony. Until a woman comes and promises him his revenge if she will worship and follow her.

Next we see all four of the Amazon patronesses consulting a seer. There they find out that the impending doom of mankind and the only person who may find a way to stop it is Sarita. This task she must do alone, without the aid of her trainers, sisters, or even their patronesses. Sarita must meet her destiny and find a way to save the world.

I just need to say, AMAZING!! I was hooked from the beginning and managed to devour this book in one sitting. There were so many twists and turns and OMG! moments. I went from laughing out loud to crying at emotional scenes in this book. You absolutely have to read the other books in the series to really get the most emotional impact, because after 3 books you know and are invested in the characters. This was a 5 star Goodreads rating for me and I can only hope that Ms. James will pick up the story with the Sons of Gaia. This is a universe too rich and unique to end after only 4 books.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sarita Neeraj is the Water Amazon. She's viewed as the weakest of the bunch since she's more of a lover than a fighter. Don't get me wrong though, she can kick some serious booty if necessary. Her main power that I've seen in the previous books in the series was her ability to heal her "sisters", the other Amazons. This time around, Sarita is feeling left out of her group, due to the fact that the other Amazons have found their mates and are all married.

After Sarita completes a mission, she is abducted and whisked off to a castle. Her captor is a sexy Scottish man named Ian. I could tell from the first second Ian was introduced that he and Sarita would have a complicated relationship. There were quite a few things they had to work through before anything could really happen. Even though there was a lot going on in the book, the story flowed quite nicely. A few of the things that happened were Ian's kidnapping Sarita, a case of mistaken identity, a secret past and even an epic battle.

The Volatile Amazon is the last book in the Alliance of the Amazons series. I didn't think it was possible, but I think this is my favorite book in this series. I loved each book, but this one wrapped up the story quite nicely without feeling rushed. I'm really sad that the series is over, I've enjoyed reading the Amazon's stories and will be checking out Sandy's other books in the very near future. I spoke with Sandy, and she mentioned that a spin off book is in the works, she is thinking of self publishing it *happy dance* If you're a fan of Urban Fantasy with a bit of romance, I strongly recommend you read this series.

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again, I couldn't put it town. Sandy weaves a great tale.

Serita and Ian made for a great story. The angst Ian has over his brother, the love he harbored for Serita, and his debt to Helen.

When Serita comes into her full powers, she saves Ian from servitude to Helen, the psycho-pseudo Ancient.

The Amazons must save the world from her diabolical schemes. Sarita harnesses the power of her sisters, saves Ian's life, and curses Helen.

Helen discovers the secret to getting in to Avalon, and brings the fight to the Amazons. The Sons of Gaia help with the final fight.

Sandy hopefully left the door open to a spin-off series starring the SOGs.

[Tracy's Place · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25/4.5 out of 5

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good series - part romance novel, part fantasy. Fairly predictable but still enjoyable. Loved all the gods and goddesses showing up!

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

a really good series

[Jana Delli-Gatti]

HOW ARE THERE 5 STARS BEFORE I REVIEW?

Never has this happened before. This is a 4.5 star series. Very original story. But, who gets to rate it before I finish the book?

[Fangs for the Fantasy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sarita, the Water Amazon, is often considered the weakest of the four and certainly the least likely to be sent out on a mission alone. So she’s surprised when Ganga insists she goes on a mission that would normally be Becca’s field of expertise.

That’s not the first surprise – from falling into the hands of Ian who has been plaguing her dreams for weeks, but has his own plans to her – to then actually falling in love in the most unlikely circumstances, things change very quickly for her.

But they need to change – including her powers – as Helen advances her plots and becomes ever closer to destroying the Amazons – and the world with them.



Putting the romance to one side, there’s a lot to say about story and character development in this book.

This feels like the last book in the series and would be appropriate as such since each Amazon has had a book of her own. The book was perfectly written to close their ongoing story arc, deal with the big bad and end in a grand epic conflict. All the Amazons have their HEA, and the future is decided. It’s closed neatly and nicely with no unresolved threads. At the same time we have a careful nudging of that door ajar should future stories in the same world happen – along with cameo or even full appearances of the Amazons and their families. There’s a couple of storylines that could be pursued but don’t need to be –it’s a nice way to wrap up a series while still leaving the option of picking it up again.

The story also had a wonderful sense of epic. The consequences of failure were grand, emotional and extremely clear, the menace was well maintained and the fight scenes were action packed, excellently written and great fun

I also liked a lot of the character development. The goddesses have frequently been presented as vain, fickle, egotistical, petty, selfish and generally unpleasant and incapable of getting anything done. All of this is true. But this book also underscores that they do care – in their self-absorbed way – they care about humanity or they wouldn’t have created the Amazons at all. We have this displayed wonderfully and it adds some great depth to the four goddesses – and even Frejyr.

Sarita also grew well, going from a woman plagued by her insecurities about her scar and being the weakest Amazon to growing in her power and confidence, determined to be treated as an equal and be firmly respected by everyone, resisting any attempts to infantilise her. It was good to see – but unfortunately the whole “Volatile” element meant Sarita had a lot of temper tantrums storming out of the room. Even when they were justified, they were childish and not the way I would have expected her to resolve her issues, especially since we’ve seen no sign of it to date. But often her sisters had a point and their input should have been respected. It was annoying.

I do like that Sarita’s power growth was pushed by goodness. Sheer, pure hearted, goodness. I know that sounds twee, but it’s nice to see a character who is empowered through tweeness rather than being super dangerous or the child of a god or other source of immense power – Sarita is powerful because she is just such a good person. Good enough to use dark magic without being corrupted. Good enough to become the very opposite of a dark practitioner.

Those are the good. The bad is that I just didn’t get the story. Parts of it were unbelievable, parts of it didn’t make sense and parts of it were too damn vague.


Where and when did Helen get her massive world wide cult from? How? And why can she actually put a hit on the Amazons, on television and the internet, without having to explain herself to some irritated police? What did she do for this cult that was so special that they were willing to perform human sacrifices for her? And if they were that devoted, why did things like age and physical attraction completely transform how devoted they were?

Why did Helen need Ian? What purpose did he serve that one her cultists couldn’t have done just as easily?

I can understand Ian having suffered what he did – but blaming Artair seems quite quite quite bemusing.

Sarita’s new, shiny, magic power is incredibly vaguely defined, effectively turning it into a “Deus Ex”.

The same applies to Seior. What can Seior do? Anything.

Considering the other Ancient’s powers and abilities and knowing what Helen was planning, I find it ridiculous that none of them felt the need to intervene – and even actively prevented the Patron Goddesses from doing so.

Read more

[Vannessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This last book in the series was a great ending to this story. It was fun, dangerous, thrilling, funny, sad, scary and downright emotional in places.

Sarita Neeraj is the Water Amazon and sees herself as the weakest of the four of them. Her powers are not quite as strong as the other Amazons - she can freeze things and can heal her sisters, but not much else. However, all that changes in this book with the reappearance of Helen, the former earth Amazon turned evil goddess, who is a constant threat to the world.

When Sarita goes to capture an escaped demon, she wakes up to find herself in a strange castle with the man of her dreams. Literally. She has been having very hot, sexual dreams about this exact man recently, but he thinks she is someone else. Someone he needs in order to carry out his revenge. But when the heat rises between the two of them and things get a little too hot, Sarita has to reveal who she really is. When she is taken away from Ian, she cannot stop thinking about him and knows she has to get him back, but at what cost?

The four Amazons have also been outed by Helen, who will stop at nothing to kill them and they need to find a way to defeat her once and for all, but she's not an easy kill by any means. The patron goddesses actually do step up to help them in their task as does Frejr even though it's obvious there's more to his actions than he lets on as usual.

I did like Sarita as the main character in this book. She really did grow as an Amazon and fought her own personal demons as well as real ones! The only thing I didn't like was the Stockholm syndrome idea of her falling in love very quickly with her kidnapper. I know he was the lover in her dreams, but those dreams were just that, dreams and I do think it was weird falling for him in that situation. I know this is a PNR book, so it had to happen, but still...Ian was a bit of a nobody really once he met up with Artair. He didn't have any particular powers or skills, other than using a sword, but the men in these books don't really need one as the girls have them all! He did come across as a bit wet at times, but I guess that was partly due to being thrown into the 21st century so quickly.

Loved the ending and the potential for a new series based in the same world, but with new characters. Would love to read a series about the SOGs!

[Romancing the Book · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed by JoAnne
Book provided by the author
Originally posted at Romancing the Book

This is book four in the Alliance of the Amazons series and I found it to be more lighthearted than the first three books. This is Sarita, Water’s story, and it is linked with Ian’s throughout. She is considered the weakest Amazon but throughout she is set to prove to all that she is strong and has strength to do battle when needed.

Yes, there were revenants, Goddesses, the Sentinels, the changelings, demons, the Sons of Gaia and battles along with the Amazons but the storyline wasn’t as in depth as others that had to set the stage. I did enjoy the introduction of Sile and Ewan and was happy to be reunited with the Amazon sisters and their families and watch their interactions both happy and sad when they worked together or in some instances worked apart.

There was a lot of romance and sex that seemed to set the sheets on fire once again! In this book all the loose ends seemed to be wrapped up and there were several happily ever afters but I could see the series continue (hint, hint) with Jory and Richard’s stories since they were assigned new purposes by the end of the book. Conflicts were still provided by Helen and Freyjr and I didn’t like either one of them. I also felt Sarita was too trusting of Freyjr’s actions and could have gotten hurt and destroyed by him.

I have enjoyed reading a variety of James’ books and will continue to do so. Give her books a read if you haven’t already.

[Fiza · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5*

[JoAnne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read my review on Romancing-the-Book.com by clicking on the link below:

http://romancing-the-book.com/2014/03...

[Harlequin Books]

Miniseries: Alliance of the Amazons