Samhain Publishing, $4.50, ISBN 1-59998-544-6
Fantasy Romance, 2007
The Wolverine and the Flame is the third and last book in Rebecca Goings’s The Legends of Mynos series. After all the excitement in the previous book, it is time for the Wolverines to pick up the pieces of the aftermath. In this one, Sir Ethan of Krey has to deliver the news of her twin brother Duncan’s death to Meghan of Marynville. As she wails and weeps and announces that she is now as dead as her brother because her brother is dead, Ethan’s protective instinct is moved into wishing that “he could take all her despair into his own heart”. What a lovely gentleman.
As they left the cemetery, Meghan sighed and looked up at the bright blue sky. It was a beautiful day. She savored the feeling of the warm sunshine on her face as she walked. Her heart still ached for her brother, but being with Ethan seemed to dull the pain.
The above excerpt represents the story very well. Ms Goings’s prose is on the simplistic yet sweet side, which is fine except for those moments when I wish she has found a better word to substitute “sad” and “happy” in this story. Ethan wants to get married and have children while Meghan is such a child-like empty canvas of a character that she will go along with anything Ethan wants of her because she’s a bland character in that manner. Therefore, this story needs a conflict of the story will be at most twenty pages long.
So Meghan suddenly remembers a prophetic poem about evil jewels that counter the more benevolent gems created Mynos so just as suddenly we have dire news to tell the King. So, suddenly, we have this new gem, the Dragon’s Flame, that corrupts poor Mynos and has him going on a mean and sad Care Bear-gone-bad rampage. Personally I find it suspicious that all these problems arise when Meghan “suddenly” opens her big mouth. At any rate, Meghan turns out to be that Special One who will save the day due to her being such a Mary Sue that way.
But all these Care Bears-triumphant drama takes place in the last eighty or so pages, mind you. For the most part, The Wolverine and the Flame is all about secondary characters from previous books gushing over how happy they are now that they have found love and how perfect life in Lyndaria is now that everyone is wedded and delirious with bliss. Of course, Ethan is so sad when Meghan is having her vulnerable episodes and they are both so happy when they think they are in love. The whole thing is like a Hallmark story for kids who have outgrown those Care Bears but banned by their parents from watching TV and hence the Hallmark channel.
