Review: Player's Ruse - Hilari Bell

Synopsis: Sir Michael Sevenson and his squire, Fisk, were just beginning to enjoy the quiet life. They really should have known better. When Lady Rosamund runs away from home to marry a traveling player, former knight errant Michael makes a noble promise to help the object of his unrequited love. The quest takes our would-be heroes to the coastal town of Huckerston, where savage sea pirates called wreckers terrorize the coast. With the help of a reluctant Fisk, Michael plans on catching the wreckers and winning back his lady; but when mysterious murders and dangerous accidents threaten the town and its players, love might be the least of his problems.

Review: These stories just grow better and better with each new installment. The humor is ramped up even further than the last two, though some of them are bawdier than Rogue's Home (however, they aren't excessive), and the mystery all the more intriguing. I thought I had it all figured out, but I quickly turned out to be incorrect about a major part of my theory, much to my delight. I always love it when authors can make one solution seem obvious while planting clues to the true answer that are obvious if the Reader looks hard enough. Hilari Bell also manages to keep a good balance of humor and danger. One moment things are pretty light-hearted, then something happens that sends a chill right down the Reader's spine. Few authors can pull that off without making events seem schizophrenic, but she does it.

I dearly hope that Player's Ruse is not the last Knight & Rogue Novel. I absolutely love this series, and I would hate to see it end only after three books.

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Others in the Knight & Rogue Series:
1)The Last Knight
2)Rogue's Home
3)Player's Ruse

Review: Rogue's Home - Hilari Bell

Synopsis: Sir Michael Sevenson and his squire, Fisk, can't seem to keep out of hot water. After five long years, Fisk has been called home to Ruesport to investigate who framed his sister Anna's husband, Max, as a blackmailer. Anna figures that Fisk, with his criminal past, is uniquely qualified to find out who set Max up. Of course Michael feels he has to come along to help his friend; but now he wears the tattoos of the unredeemed and fears he might be more hindrance than help.

Review: Like The Last Knight, Rogue's Home is hilarious - more so, in my opinion, than the first. There's fewer tongue-in-cheek type of jokes and the storyline is just more exciting. It picks up right where The Last Knight leaves off, so you definitely have to read them in order, even though this particular mystery isn't really connected to the one in the first book.

I think what I liked most about this one was the Reader gets to see more into Fisk's character and past. But at the same time, it doesn't just focus on him; the Reader also learns a lot about Michael as well.

I don't have anything negative to say about Rogue's Home. It's funny, it has great character and plot development, it's a wonderful mystery, and you definitely cannot put it down. I always doubt books that have little sayings on the back saying "I couldn't put it down!" because that seems to be the coined phrase for bad stories. And I hate to pin such a label on Rogue's Home, but I do mean it quite literally when I say that I could not put Rogue's Home down. I would not go to bed last night until I finished it, it was that good.

Can't wait until Player's Ruse comes in at the library!

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Others in the Rogue & Knight Series:
1)The Last Knight
2)Rogue's Home
3)Player's Ruse

Review: The Last Knight - Hilari Bell

Synopsis: Knight errants don't exist anymore; such an occupation became obsolete a long, long time ago. So what is a rogue - a good-for-nothing, a real dastardly little con artist - like Fisk doing serving the world's last and only knight errant - Sir Michael Seven Oaks - in existence? That's what happens when helpful jerks like him rescue you from the noose.

For all of his complaining, though, Fisk certainly cannot disagree about one thing: with Sir Michael, he sees more than enough adventure. And their latest "gallant" escapade has seen the escape of a nefarious murderess, the Lady Ceceil, from a tall tower that only a damsel in distress should occupy, and of course Fisk and Sir Michael are the ones who must recapture her. Personally, Fisk would rather conveniently forget about the whole mess.

But something's very fishy about the circumstances surrounding Lady Ceceil's supposed poisoning of her husband, and Fisk and Michael soon find themselves acting as detectives to discover the truth. And there's lots of people who don't want them to find anything out.

Review: One word: hilarious. I usually hate characters like Fisk - no honor, "dashing" rogue, womanizer, irritating sarcasm (I love sarcasm, but not the type that's usually employed by adolescent males). Fisk is certainly a womanizer (more on that later), but he's hilarious in every other respect. Few books cause me to laugh out loud; this one did.

Michael, too, was not without his sarcasm. Hilari Bell used a very interesting method of first person narration that works very well when done properly: she switches narrators every other chapter, rotating between Fisk and Michael. She does it very well, giving an opportunity to represent both of their opinions, which livens the story up even more.

Unfortunately, sometimes the humor leans towards the immature college type of humor (this is mostly Fisk's doing), involving certain body parts and such things as those. There isn't so much that it makes it unreadable, but the times that it does appear, it's very annoying.

For the most part, though, The Last Knight was good. I look forward the next one.

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Others in the Rogue & Knight Series:

1)The Last Knight
2)Rogue's Home

3)Player's Ruse