Chalion (Chalion #1)

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Title: Chalion
Series: Chalion
Author: Lois Bujold
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 512
Format: Kindle








Synopsis:
A betrayed, broken soldier comes begging for a job at the old castle where he used to be a page.
He becomes the tutor to the eldest daughter and her handmaid and when said daughter and her younger brother are called to the capital to begin their grooming of being royal heirs, Soldier Man follows along.
Right into the middle of a curse on the whole nation. Now it is up to him and a small group to try to break this curse before it devours the entire country with civil war.

My Thoughts:
This should have been a 4 or 4 1/2 star read. It had everything I wanted, in spades. A good hero with some great friends. A couple of young lassies who have and actually use their brains. Bad guys who were B-AAAAHHHHH-D. Magic. Demons and gods.
The perfect amount of romance.

But about half way through I just couldn't wait for it to be over. I don't know why and I can't pin ANYTHING down as to why this didn't do it for me. The writing was top notch as well. It isn't like I hated it [giving it 3 stars means it was enjoyable] or anything, but I simply have no desire to read any more in this series or anything by Bujold at all.

And there is one thing I can nail down, even though it makes no sense. Lois whateverhermiddlenameis Bujold. I hate it when authors use middle names. I can understand when they use a middle initial if their name is common, like John Smith. But Lois Bujold? I JUST realized, perhaps that was her maiden name? Doesn't matter. Among the hundreds of Lois Bujold's that I know, thank goodness this one distinguishes herself with another name. I am thinking of contacting Patricia McKillip and telling her that all the cool authors are using 3 names now, so she should get on the band wagon. Since this is literally the only thing I can complain about this book, it remains a mystery to me why this just didn't rise above the so-so for me.

Ah well, maybe Sherlock can solve this case someday.