Amazon Queen by Lori Devoti

Nothing ever stays the same and that is something Amazon queen Zery is slowly coming to understand. For the past ten years, Zery has staunchly enforced the strict Amazon way of life in her small tribe but it seems that within a matter of days everything she holds near and dear is coming apart at the seams. Until recently, Zery considered her tribe's only enemy to be a group of sons - men who had been born to Amazons, but who had been abandoned at birth in order to preserve the all-female Amazon way of life. But it seems now a new enemy is stepping forward, one who would threaten to destroy every Amazon tradition and belief. With her leadership under question and help coming from the unlikeliest of groups: the Amazon sons, Zery must try to discover the source of betrayal. Before it destroys the entire tribe.

Although intriguing in premise, Amazon Queen failed to deliver on a variety of fronts. I for one was extremely intrigued to learn more about such a fierce group of women who distance themselves from society in order to protect and maintain their ancient abilities. Unfortunately, Lori Devoti never manages to make me fond of any of her characters. Time after time, I found myself exasperated with Zery's lack of foresight - I mean, the woman supposedly had been chosen as queen for her leadership and brains, but all I saw was indecision and someone who was unable to connect the dots until every piece of the puzzle was laid out plainly for her to see. No foresight, no ingenuity. Maybe warrior Zery needed to spend a little less time at the gym and a little more time reading or studying. And that leads me to another issue: supposedly, the Amazons eschewed all types of technology in order to keep their distance from mainstream society, but I would think as an ancient civilization, they would have had to adapt and change their ways over the years in order to not obviously stand out anytime they were around normal humans. I mean, Zery had never even used a computer? Seems a little far fetched. And that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to my issues with this book. Very disappointing. And although Amazon Queen could have been a real page-turner, I was put off by the clumsy writing and my utter lack of emotional attachment to any of the characters. Definitely not one I'm going to be recommending.

series reading order:
~ Amazon Ink
~ Amazon Queen

Because Everyone Likes a Second Opinion:
A Journey of Books review
Bitten by Books review
BookHounds review
Gnostalgia review
The Avid Reader review

book source: provided by the publisher