Gail Dayton, The Barbed Rose

The Barbed Rose

Gail Dayton

Luna, March 2006, $13.95, 464 pp.

ISBN 0373802250

Kallista is the focus of her temple bound mates (a group marriage of husbands and wives known as an ilian) able to draw the magic from them to use in the defense of Adara. After defeating the foreign enemies of her country last year, Kallista and her iIlian retire to the countryside, and she gives birth to twins, and Aisse is pregnant. When Reinine Serysta recalls Kallista she has the twins, accompanied by, Stone, Fox, and Aisse and the nanny, to a place of safety fearing danger has come to Adara.

She learns that a civil war is taking place and the rebels might possess gunpowder. Kallista and her ilian are sent to the rebel stronghold to ferret out information that can be used in the defense of the capital city. To save the children, Fox lets himself be captured, and Kallista's main goal now is to free him. Kallista, the first godstruck in a millennium with the unheard of magical powers of the West is the only one who can fight and destroy the demons, if they don't kill her first. After rejoining Fox and reuniting with the rest of her Ilian, she has enough power to fight the demons, if she can find out who they are possessing.

More husbands and wives are added to Kallista's ilian, including the children's nanny, and a former enemy making the group more powerful than any other in the country. The world building in THE BARBED ROSE is fantastic; making readers feel the place really exists. The characters are real, totally likable and complex, and readers enjoy getting to know the members of the ilian. In a world where everyday magic is taken for granted, the heroine stands alone because she has great magic and an ever growing magical ability. Gail Dayton's tale has many surprises in store for the reader, especially the dramatic ending.