The second story in the Sarah Beauhall blacksmith series. In the first she was thrown into an urban fantasy world that she barely knew (since the books she'd read were so wrong about so many things) because she had reforged a powerful sword.

Well, in this book she's still fighting all comers and there seem to be more of them, elves, dwarves, and dragons oh my. There isn't the same sort of ramp up of plot to the climax of the novel and so the entire thing is a bit off balance. A lot of it is also confusing, there is a whole lotta world building, which while interesting, made the story very, very dense as well as having exposition in some places that didn't always flow well.

A lot of the plot, despite the excessive exposition, is interesting in a bridge book sort of way. And the main character, Sarah, was well fleshed out and a multi-layered, interesting, character. The rest of them sort of blended together unfortunately, although I really liked the character of Bub. Very unique and at times he cracked me up. ( )

This is the second book in the Sarah Beauhall series. Sarah is a blacksmith and props manager for B-horror and fantasy movies. When she repairs an ancient sword, a mythical sword she discovers a whole new and frightening world in which dragons exist and still try to rule the world.

Sarah tries to come to grips with the events that happened in Black Blade Blues and with this new world. Unfortunately, a whole lot of new problems find their way to her doorstep.

For a while I doubted if I really wanted to read the rest of this serie. Although I liked the first book, I was not that excited. Now I am glad that I did read this story. Multiple point of view and more "round" characters (Sarah's girlfriend Katie, or Katies brother Jimmy) make the story more complete. Downside: Do not read this book without reading part one. The story is fast paced and it is definitely a lot harder to understand everything that is happening without knowledge of the events in Black blade blues. ( )

The Black Blade Blues series continues, but not without some problems, both for Sarah, the warrior dragon-fighting blacksmith of Seattle, and the book itself. It suffers a bit of middle-book syndrome, combined with some editing problems. It wasn't the fun read the first had been, and I sort of slogged through because I've been promised that the next book is really good. It is because I still want to read the next book in the series that I bumped this one up to the 3 star level. Otherwise it would have been a solid 2.5

The good vs evil saga continues, with new characters and creatures thrown into the mix (and some old ones, too.) Sarah, though still not receiving help to get her head on right or to get comfortable in her own skin, is less angst driven about her relationship with Katie, and seems to be actually learning to love. There are a lot of loose ends (had these appeared in the final book, I'd say "holes", but they still have time to tie together) and odd references that make me try to guess what other fantasy worlds the author has been reading in his spare time. (Some of his phraseology/word choice is so like another author that at first javaczuk and I speculated if J. A. Pitts was a pseudonym for the other author, writing outside his comfort zone. But battle scenes are too clear, and I did some internet sleuthing. Not the same, unless he's created a really good alter-ego.)

So as for this book: Sarah battles; Sarah protects;Sarah seeks work. Sarah meets elves. Sarah loves Katie. Sarah gets a hot ride. Sarah learns about friendship and loyalty.

On to Forged in Fire. I hope it's as good as I've been promised. It's why I picked up the series.

A couple of favorite lines:
"Get up, already. Somebody's murdered a dwarf."

"It (the motorcycle) looked like I remembered -- long and sleek, with unexpected power and raw energy. Kinda like sex, only in red, black and chrome."

(And Katie shows both strength of character and humor:)

"It's just not that simple" he said. "It's all muddled together -- dragons and witches and all the rest." He looked up, peering into her face. "And Sarah, dear god. She's off the charts, Katie. I've talked it through with the twins; we can't figure out why she's here or who she represents."

"Who she represents?" Katie let her voice grow louder. "She's not one of your projects, Jim. Not something for you to catalog and hide from the world. She's a caring person, broken and beautiful. And whether you approve or not, someone I happen to love. How dare you try and categorixe her?"
"I didn't mean... she's not... I know she's special."
"Special? Like short-bus special, Jim? One of those flawed heroines who can't get past her own baggage to save herself at the end of the movie?" ( )

Less angst than the first book and plenty of action. Apprentice blacksmith and wielder of a legendary sword, Sarah Beauhall, is back and trying to deal with the aftermath of last year's battle with the dragon. The action begins when Sarah witnesses a singer's kidnapping. Things just keep getting weirder and weirder with elves, kobolds and other mythical creatures popping up and plenty of them want to kill Sarah and her friends. The characters are developing nicely in this series, and there are plenty of loose ends left hanging for the next book which I am looking forward to. I would, however, recommend that the author finds a better editor to tighten up the grammatical and factual errors. Maybe I'm just nitpicking, but when I'm into a story and I come across an obvious error it tears me right out of the fantasy world and right back into the real world. ( )

Reviewed by http://urbanfantasyinvestigations.blogspot.com/

Sarah is learning to deal with her self a little better in HONEYED WORDS, she is finally accepting who and what she is which makes a lot of things run a little smoother. She still seems to have a lot to learn about herself and her new life but she is trucking along the best she can. There are some interesting characters and situations added to her story as she fights some new bad guys. People she cares about are once again in danger but also have her back. We learn a little bit more about Sarah's family and I'm hoping that book 3 will include some more of her past. The world that J.A Pitts has made continues to grow and develop and I have enjoyed learning about all the different creatures in it. The ending makes it clear that Sarahs journey is far from over and I will keep on reading the series. ( )