Rhapsody by Elizabeth Haydon

Rhapsody is, in a nutshell, not your typical, standard book. Sure it has the usual heroic battles and has the normal love story. The hero, however, is female. Now you are probably, shaking your head saying, "That's not special." but I feel that having a female lead is a thing that brings something special to Elizabeth Haydons book. I see a lot of opinions in Rhapsody that wouldn't ordinarily be present in a novel with a guy lead.
On a more depressing note I found that the two other lead characters, Achmed and Grunthor, were way more interesting than Rhapsody. Having read nthe whole series I can say that I wouldn't mind at all if Elizabeth Haydon wrote some sequels pertainind to Achmed and Grunthor.

I have been reading fantasy for close to twenty-five years now and I am often asked why this genre of book. Is it the epic struggle between good and evil? (The F'dor vs. humanity) Is it the transformation of an unwilling hero into a mighty champion or even sovereign? (Rhapsody to a demigod) Maybe it's the new faces in newly formed worlds and all of the politics and beauty that are parts of them. Maybe it's a combination of all of that, and on the bright side, this book has all of that, and some very interesting twists on some pat ideas i.e. lost races, lost islands, dragons, magic etc.

What "Rhapsody" also has is a protagonist that, due to her history as a harlot and forsaken lover, is NEVER wrong and mostly annoying. It also has more sex (call it romance if you will) than any other fantasy book that I have read. The author seems to be more stuck on sex than a teenage boy and, at times, turns a great format into a Harlequin novel. That is definitely NOT why I read fantasy books!

Unfortunately, like so many others, I vest my self a great deal into the books that I read and will continue to read these. I can usually read a book this size in three to four days but these are so annoying it takes me up to two weeks of force feeding myself.

If the following books change I will GLADLY write a retraction.

This was one of those books with alot of spoilt potential.
It has an intriguing theme of a few diverse characters- Rhapsody: a spunky and beautiful musician with an air for magic/ Grunthor: A typical architypal friendly giant/ Achmed: a fearful talented assasin- meeting up and becomming allies through adventure. It does not sound bad, and that is what made me buy the book in the first place. Unfortunately the only thing I got out of this series is that I would never in my life spend my money on another Elisabeth Haydon novel. The writing style ruined the chance for a good story line... it became disjointed, and there was no real nemisis to hate and attatch yourself to. I came to hate and attatch myself to who was supposed to be the main heroine, Rhapsody as she was the most abnoxious protagonist that a person could concieve of. Half the book was about her beauty, and her annoyingly constant "I must be ugly thats why they are looking at me" and "modesty" which I got a sense was what how the author wanted herself to be viewed. She constantly adopted grandchildren and it seemed as if the author wanted her to be viewed as this all perfect kind modest being, instead of following an intense story line. This is one of the first times I forced myself to finish a book