Review: Damian's Oracle (War of Gods Book 1) By Lizzy Ford

Title: Damian’s Oracle (War of Gods Book 1)

Author: Lizzy Ford

Release Date: January 1, 2011

Publisher: Kettlecorn Press

Category: Paranormal Romance

Type: Kindle/Paperback

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Website: http://www.guerrillawordfare.com/

 

Book Blurb:

War of Gods, Book I. Revised October 2011. Inspired by Slavic mythology, Damian’s Oracle is the entree into the ongoing battle between good and evil over the fate of humanity. The White God, Damian, and his Guardians protect the world from the Black God and his monsters while rescuing Naturals – humans with extraordinary paranormal gifts – from the Black God, who would kill or convert them.

Caught in the middle is cool-headed Sofia, a Natural whose gift will tip the scales in the war. Sofia begins her transformation from human into oracle, the first in thousands of years. Damian rescues her from the Black God in time to complete a ceremony that will bind her to him for eternity. Sofia struggles with her new world and her role as an oracle and Damian’s mate while haunted by a mysterious man from Damian’s past who’s supposed to be dead. Unbeknownst to her, her link to the dead man may be all that saves Damian, his Guardians, and the fate of humanity.

While he wants nothing more than for the petite beauty to take her place at his side like the oracles of legend did his White God forefathers, Damian can’t quite rationalize having to win her over instead of command her. Further complicating his life is the sobering realization that there are spies in his organization who are helping the Black God take out his Guardians. Damian must help Sofia reach her potential fast, especially when a threat from his past returns.

Book Excerpt:

Sofia froze as the scene straight out of her vision—the little boy, Cody, spread-eagled in the street near the storm drain—materialized before her. They boy’s mother was hysterical, screaming at once at the driver and her dead son. Coldness seeped through Sofia as she watched the familiar scene before her. In the distance, she heard her cell phone ring. It ceased and began to ring again. As if in a dream, she pulled it free and answered.

“Ms. Fast?” The deep baritone voice pierced her thoughts. “This is Damian Bylun. You left a message with my receptionist?”

Her world was beginning to spin as she realized her vision had come true. Her legs felt weak, and she sat heavily on the curb, struggling to control her breathing so she didn’t pass out.

God, what’s wrong with me? I saw him die …

“Pardon?”

Realizing she clenched the phone in her hand, she locked the screen and sat staring at the asphalt. Someone touched her, and visions flared across her mind. A pretty brunette, mugged in a back alley, raped and killed.

 “Hey, are you all right?” someone else asked. As the man took her arm to help her stand, his haggard face appeared in yet another vision. An older man with dementia left to rot and finally die in an old folks’ home.

“Get away from me!” she cried, tearing her arm away. She fled, staggering as she bumped into more people and more visions flashed. She ran until the cold air burned her lungs and the people were far behind her. She retreated to her apartment, breathing raggedly, with cold tears stiffening her cheeks.

She closed and locked the door behind her. She froze when she saw the disaster that was her apartment. Everything was overturned or shredded, from the furniture to the bookshelves to the TV lying on its face. The windows were open and the apartment cold.

Her headache was now a migraine, and she shielded her eyes against the light from the street that filtered past her honeycomb blinds. She all but staggered into her bathroom. She wrenched open the medicine cabinet for the most powerful of the drugs Dr. Mallard prescribed for her and slammed the cabinet shut.

Her eyes were fully silver, swirling and glowing in the dark bathroom. Whatever she was, she wasn’t a normal human.

“What is wrong with me?” she screamed, slamming her fists against the mirror.

Her blood spattered on the wall, and buzzing filled her ears. She sank to the floor. Her phone began to ring again as she slid into a dead faint.

Dialogue Highlights:

What would sleeping with him while drinking from him be like?

She backed away from his door, wondering how that deviant thought emerged. Han

eyed her as she hurried past him towards the library. Dressed for sparring, he waited

with Grande and Pierre for Damian.

“You ok?” he asked.

“You always ask me that. If I’m not, you’ll know,” she replied curtly.

“Very well, Ikira.”

She glared at him, sensing his amusement. Damian trotted down the stairs. She

didn’t look at him until his back was to her on their way towards the door. As if feeling

her gaze on him, he paused at the door.

“If you ever want to try it, let me know.”

“Try what? Sparring?”

Screwing and drinking.

His voice was as clear in her mind as if he spoke the words. She sucked in a sharp

breath, at once confused and thrilled. Without looking at her, he strode through the

doors into the courtyard.

*******

“I’m going for Frenchie fries,” Pierre called. “You want anything, Sofi? Perhaps an

American hamburger? Where are you from Jule, so I can get you ethnically

stereotypical food?”

Jule laughed, looking at her to see how she’d take it.

“That man has issues,” she muttered.

“Let me guess, you asked him if he wanted a croissant?”

Review:

So I successfully read my first Lizzy Ford book, and enjoyed it so much that I am currently reading book 2 in the War of Gods series, Damian’s Assassin. Review will be soon to follow. I have to admit that it took me a couple of chapters to get into the story. It wasn’t that I disliked the story. My problem was that there was so much information and so many characters introduced that it took me a bit to recognize who was who and what was going on. But I am glad that I assimilated the information because the story ended up being a truly good read.

I enjoyed Ms. Ford’s take on Gods, demigods, Naturals, vampires, and the other characters within her world. While some of her components to the supernatural world were similar to some stories, she also added quite a bit of her own creativity to her world to make it her own. I enjoyed my time spent with Damian and Sophia, as well as the characters surrounding them. Damian is entertaining because he is straight-forward with what he says and much of it comes off as snarky. As the White God for thousands of years, he has become quite cynical and often wonders why he bothers to save humanity any longer. Sophia is his polar opposite in all things; effectively completing the God and everything he never knew he was missing in his life. She initially has a hard time dealing with her new-found status as an Oracle, but eventually begins to adjust and becomes the pain-in-the ass Oracle that Damian and his men come to love and adore; despite the frustrations she ignites in them all.

My only complaint with this story are some editing errors. For example, small words are missing such as “a”, or “is”. In some places the wrong word is used such as “his” instead of “hers”, and one of the character’s names is misspelled once. The mistakes in comparison to the story in its entirety are pretty minimal. I just tend to pick up on these things and they irritate me. I end up going back and figuring out what the problem was because even reading fast, I know it didn’t make sense for some reason. Luckily, I was more intrigued with the story than I was irritated by the handful of errors.

Ironically, the lack of sexual detail did not bother me. Let’s face it. Sex sells and the large majority of the books I read have a good portion of the story dedicated to sexual encounters. Ms. Ford does a good job of explaining the attraction between the characters with just a touch of foreplay: dialogue and the absence of actual physical contact being a big component to the foreplay. And when the characters finally get down and dirty, we find them waking up the next morning, and end up filling in the blanks with our own minds. I can only imagine how a God must get it on … I do tend to want some detail when the characters engage each other sexually, but in this case, I found Ms. Ford had given just the right amount of detail without overwhelming the reader. The reader remains engaged in the story and the details focus on more important aspects of the story. Did I just say other parts of the story were more important than the sex? Oy! I can’t believe it myself. But … it all depends on the story and the author’s style For Damian’s Oracle, it works well.

I highly recommend a visit to the world of Ms. Ford and her Gods of War. You may read a few things that you have read before within paranormal romance, but I am confident that the differences and uniqueness of Ms. Ford’s style will draw you in for an entertaining read. *whispers* Plus, you can purchase the digital format for 99 cents on Kindle, Nook, and other formats. Check it out and let me know what you thought.

(Digital book purchased for personal library)