Lori Devoti

Amazons — (2009-2010) Publisher: Meet Mel: Business owner. Dedicated mom. Natural-born Amazon. It's been ten years since Melanippe Saka left the Amazon tribe in order to create a normal life for her daughter, Harmony. True, running a tattoo parlor in Madison, Wisconsin, while living with your Amazon warrior mother and priestess grandmother is not everyone's idea of normal, but Mel thinks she's succeeded at blending in as human. Turns out she's wrong. Someone knows all about her, someone who's targeting young Amazon girls, and no way is Mel going to let Harmony become tangled in this deadly web. With her mother love in overdrive, Ms. Melanippe Saka is quite a force...even when she's facing a barrage of distractions — including a persistent detective whose interest in Mel goes beyond professional, a sexy tattoo artist with secrets of his own, and a seriously angry Amazon queen who views Mel as a prime suspect. To find answers, Mel will have to do the one thing she swore she'd never do: embrace her powers and admit that you can take the girl out of the tribe...but you can't take the tribe out of the girl.

Amazon Ink

Mel has a lot on her mind. She’s raising a teenage daughter, living in a renovated High School, has her mother and her grandmother living with her, and just got two dead Amazon girls left on her doorstep. Determined to find the murderer of her tribeswomen, and answer her own questions about her past, Mel has to summon the courage to face the tribe she left behind.

People seem to keep getting in her way however, particularly men. One is a very talented, secretive, and sexy tattoo artist she just hired to work in her shop. And then there's Detective Reynolds who makes it difficult for her to concentrate when he’s constantly poking his nose where it doesn’t belong … and it’s getting harder and harder to explain why so many odd things happen in her house.

Madison, Wisconsin is not the most exciting setting for a fantasy novel (no offense to the Badgers — I love Bucky!), but still Amazon Ink really held my attention. I wasn’t on the edge of my seat or anything, and I was pretty sure I knew who the culprit was the instant (s)he was introduced, but I wanted to read on to see if my hunch was right.

Amazon Ink is a quick read — great for a public transit commuter like me. Lori Devoti’s style reminds me a lot of Gena Showalter only … better. Showalter writes good stuff, but it’s more romance chicklit stuff with some adventure thrown in. Devoti's urban fantasy is more adventure with a touch of romance thrown in. That saved me a lot of eye rolling.

Best of all, Amazon Ink had likable characters which, for me, is necessary in any fantasy. I cared about these characters and I wanted them to succeed. However, Devoti's writing style is not the most riveting. There were places where my eyes skipped over big sections of backstory or exposition, sometimes even whole pages so I could get back to the action. These sections would have been better sprinkled throughout the novel rather than presented in large chunks.

I don't think Amazon Ink will be winning any awards, but it's a good debut — I liked it. It was fun, different, off the beaten path, and I will definitely be reading Amazon Queen. —Julie Waineo