{"id":581,"date":"2012-05-22T00:41:19","date_gmt":"2012-05-22T00:41:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/index.php\/2012\/05\/22\/ddreview\/"},"modified":"2012-05-22T00:41:19","modified_gmt":"2012-05-22T00:41:19","slug":"ddreview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/ddreview\/","title":{"rendered":"Dark Dealings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"FINAL_VERSION_DD\"DARK DEALINGS<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

by Karen Victoria Smith<\/span><\/p>\n

Four Stars<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Dark Dealings<\/em> is the beginning.  Be fore-warned as you’ll fall for these characters.  Hard.<\/span><\/p>\n

Smith introduces us to the world of Macaela O’Brien, a druid who has turned her back on her legacy.  From the opening chapter, we are thrown into a search and rescue, and from there the reader travels around the globe from New York to Brussels, Boston to Ireland.  Murder, mayhem and plot twists abound as challenges force Macaela to choose between her old life and new, friends and foes and make sacrifices along the way.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is an engaging story, well thought-out and plotted.  Rich in detail with characters who will resonant with the fans of fantasy, this is good old-fashioned storytelling.<\/span><\/p>\n

One nit (and there is always one, isn\u2019t there?) is that the beginning was a bit confusing and unfocused. All became clearer shortly thereafter, but I found myself initially confused by all the names thrown at me. Your experience may vary.<\/span><\/p>\n

All in all, on small critique aside, a marvelous weekend read.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Karen Victoria Smith<\/strong> grew up with an Irish grandmother who tried to teach her the old ways and watched horror movies with her in the dark. KV lives in New Jersey with her family who patiently allow her to believe that in a 24-hour world the monsters are real. <\/span><\/p>\n

Visit her at Storyteller’s Grove<\/a>, where you can read excerpts of Dark Dealings.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Karen Victoria Smith grew up with an Irish grandmother who tried to teach her the old ways and watched horror movies with her in the dark. KV lives in New Jersey with her family who patiently allow her to believe that in a 24-hour world the monsters are real. <\/span><\/p>\n

Follow her on Facebook at K. Victoria Smith<\/a> and on Twitter at @kvictoriasmith<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DARK DEALINGS by Karen Victoria Smith Four Stars Dark Dealings is the beginning.  Be fore-warned as you’ll fall for these characters.  Hard. Smith introduces us to the world of Macaela […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":580,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c40-myblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}