Addison Fox: SONS OF THE ZODIAC

Author: Addison Fox
Series: S0NS OF THE ZODIAC
Plot Type: SMR
Ratings: V-4; S-5; H-1
Publisher and Titles: Signet Eclipse
      Warrior Ascended (3/2010)
      Warrior Avenged (9/2010)
      Warrior Betrayed (5/2011)
      "Wave of Memories" (e-novella, 4/2012)
      Warrior Enchanted (5/2012)

     This blog entry was revised and updated on 6/11/12 to include a review of the fourth book in the series: Warrior Enchanted. That review comes first, followed by an overview of the world-building and brief summaries of the first three books:

       BOOK 4: Warrior Enchanted       

     In this book, the romantic stars are Drake Campbell (the Pices Warrior) and Emerson Carano, a powerful white witch who lives next door to the Warrior's command center. Once again, a goddess—this time Eris—causes trouble for the Warriors and their women. When Drake steals Eris' golden apple, Eris goes after Emerson to get revenge. Unbeknownst to the Warriors and to Emerson, Eris has also taken control of Emerson's brother and has damaged him so much that he is probably beyond salvation. The book contains the same type and quantity of sex scenes found in the preceding books, as well as the same levels of angst, as Emerson, for murky reasons, refuses to accept the fact that Drake actually loves her. She keeps anguishing over the fact that they can never be together, but it's kind of hard to figure out just what her problem is with the relationship. Eventually, she blames her attitude on the fact that he is immortal and she isn't, and that her brother is evil, but her reasoning is not really clear until almost the end of the book.

     There is one big illogical concept involving Drake and Annabelle's siblings. The Warriors have lived next door to Annabelle's family for decades. In fact, Emerson reminisces about being crazy about Drake since she first saw him when she was just 14 years old, and Drake speaks fondly of Annabelle's mother and grandmother. So why don't Emerson's brother and sister recognize Drake when they see him with Emerson? She has to introduce them as if they have never met one another before. This makes absolutely no sense at all.

     This book is on a par with the earlier ones—an unexceptional paranormal love story with a minimal amount of world-building (although you wouldn't guess that from the length of the glossary).

       WARNING       
     For whatever reason, the author has made a glaring faux pas in the first two books of this series by including the identical love scene in both books. Check out pages 262-264 in Warrior Ascended and pages 102-104 in Warrior Avenged, and you will find that the scenes are exactly the same—word-for-word, sentence-by-sentence, and paragraph-by-paragraph. Only the names of the lovers are changed. Evidently, the author must keep a sex-scene file on her computer that is filled with generic (and graphic) scenes that she just mindlessly cuts and pastes into her stories, and...oops! What happened to the editor who should have caught this flagrant error? Shame on you Addison Fox and Signet Eclipse. This type of sloppy and dishonest writing should not be tolerated by readers.

         WORLD-BUILDING       

     This is yet another SMR immortal Warriors series. This time the Warriors belong to the goddess of justice, Themis. On each of Themis' teams, the Warriors represent the signs of the zodiac, with each Warrior having all of the character traits usually attributed to that sign. For example, in Warrior Ascended, Brody, the Leo warrior for his team, is arrogant, proud, loyal, brave, impulsive, and (of course) incredibly sexy.

     The villainesses for the series are Enyo, Goddess of War, whose troops fight with electrical current and fiery blasts against the good guys, and her sister, Eris, Goddess of Discord. The theme for the series is balance: balance between good and evil, balance between war and peace, etc. In each book, one of Themis' Warriors finds his soul mate, and the balance theme extends to this as well.

     The high sensuality rating comes from the huge amount of graphic detail included in every sex scene, to the point of redundancy even when it's not repeated verbatim. Sex is not just for the hero and heroine in this series; the villains and other Warriors have their own share of lust-filled encounters. Each book contains a glossary of mythological and astrological terms. Each book also includes a star chart that shows how each Warrior's character traits balance his soul mate's traits.

     If you love to read about immortal warriors, you might enjoy Vicki Pettersson's UF series SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC, in which two zodiac teams (one good and one bad) battle for power in modern-day Las Vegas. Other SMR series featuring immortal warriors are Alyssa Day's WARRIORS OF POSEIDON, Sherrilyn Kenyon's DARK-HUNTERS and DREAM-HUNTERS, Deidre Knight's GODS OF MIDNIGHT, Cheyenne McCray's MAGIC, Alexis Morgan's PALADINS OF DARKNESS and TALIONS, and Juliana Stone's JAGUAR WARRIORS. 

         BOOKS 1, 2, 3, AND THE NOVELLA       

     In Warrior Ascended, Brody Talbot (the Leo Warrior) finds a soul mate in Ava Harrison, a Gemini museum curator specializing in the treasures of ancient Egypt. The couple must retrieve five mysterious Summoning Stones that have the power to annihilate the mortal world.

     In Warrior Avenged, Kane Montague (the Scorpio Warrior) and Nemesis  (Goddess of Retribution) (aka Ilsa), eventually get their HEA even though she has been trying for centuries to kill him with poison.

     Warrior Betrayed tells the love story of Quinn Tanner (the Taurus Warrior) and Montana Grant, a security specialist and daughter of Eirene, Goddess of Peace.

     The e-novella, "Wave of Memories" follows the romance of Aiden Cage (the Aquarius Warrior) and his long-ago love, Meg, Goddess of Retribution, whom he turned his back on eons ago when he aspired to be the greatest Warrior in the Pantheon.