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Monica Payton wants her own life back.

After enduring years of abuse from her husband Charlie, she divorces him and leaves town, everything she owns packed into her car. With a broken spirit, she drives not knowing where she is going. All Monica knows is that she must be free of Charlie if she is to truly live and have her own life.

She finds herself in the small picturesque town of  Pine Lake. There, she meets local police officer Ben Johnson. She immediately feels an attraction to the handsome gentleman and finds herself thinking of what it would be like to love and be loved in return. Their attraction blooms and it’s clear that what is between them is more than an attraction.

Monica wrestles with what she should tell Ben; how much of her past should she reveal? Ben knows that Monica ran from something horrible, a secret that she keeps inside herself. He wonders if she will ever trust him enough to tell him everything.

But someone is about to destroy their new found love. As a child, Charlie Payton watched his father kill his mother. That act shaped what Charlie was to become: an animal bent on getting whatever he wanted, by any means necessary.  

Charlie wants Monica for his own and nothing will stand in his way.  He will do whatever is necessary to find her and make her see that she belongs to him. Even if it means murder.

Monica will have to learn to trust Ben with all her heart and, more importantly, trust herself, if she has any hope of surviving. Otherwise, Charlie will find her. And when he does, he will kill her….

Inner Trappings is a total page turner. From the first page, you’re drawn into Monica’s world, into her struggle for survival. Into her sheer will to live. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started Inner Trappings but I was finished in two days and left wanting more.

Monica is an incredibly well defined character. You feel for her right away and you ache for her as you read about her struggle to trust and to love again. Ben is loveable as the hero and the romance that blooms between them is better than anything Nora Roberts could ever write.

The book just feels so real, so true. It’s as if Williamson-Wood has placed herself in Monica’s body to tell her story. There is such truth in her words, such beauty that you can’t help but keep reading late into the night.

This is more than a simple tale of a battered and abused wife. Inner Trappings is about the healing power of love, about survival, about redemption. Ultimately, Inner Trappings is about forgiveness and trying to find a place for yourself in the world.

I loved every blessed word and my only complaint is that I wish the book were longer. Monica’s journey ended too soon for me and I can only hope that Williamson-Wood is writing another novel starring Monica Payton.

Amazing characters like Monica rarely make appearances in literature anymore. So all I can say to you is this: read Inner Trappings. You will flat out love it.

What would you do to save something you loved? What would you do if you were threatened? Would you cower? Or would you fight with everything you had, every ounce of strength and magic you possessed? Some of us aren’t even given that choice.

When Jamieson Drake, evil sorcerer, attacks the settlement of Treown, Amanda Chariss is left with no choice. To escape Drake and his army, she teleports herself and her mentor, the wizened old wizard Hrazon to the Taiman family home. There, they may find help and Chariss may find a cure for the magic that has infected her blood.

Chariss has the geasa, magic older than time, and she must use it if she and the people of Onweald are to stay alive. For Drake hunts her, wants her dead on his blade. Why is anyone’s guess, but Chariss is has an inkling. For years, Drake has hunted her with the sole purpose of killing her. Chariss suspects that Drake is hungry for her power. But, in reality, Drake is in love with her.

He has enlisted the help of a Dragon who now walks in the human form of Julette. Older than time itself, she uses Drake like a pawn. She has her own plans, her own agenda and knows that she must help Drake to get what she wants. Of course, the fact that she is a Goddess doesn’t hurt either.

Chariss must depend on all the help she can and her unsteady magic if they are to survive this first battle. She must be careful though, for she must make choices meant for Gods and one wrong move, one mistake, could lead all of them to death…

As a general rule, I don’t read high fantasy. The whole genre bores me; it’s grown stagnant with nothing new added to it. Each author that tries to write an engaging high fantasy tale fails to write anything new, anything fresh. Thankfully, Sandy Lender has changed all that. She has changed the very face of high fantasy itself.  

Choices Meant for Gods is without a doubt the freshest most engaging high fantasy novel to come out in years and breathes new life into a tired genre. The characters leap off the page and the plot is lightning quick and deftly written with many layers that tease the mind and imagination.  

What I love most about Choices Meant for Gods are the characters and how they interact with each other. She has thrown a new spin on what is good and what is bad and her characters are flawed and imperfect. They are people you grow to care for and, indeed, I didn’t want the novel to end; I couldn’t stand knowing that it would be some time before I saw them again.  

She has reworked the standard quest into something meaningful and engaging. She has mixed magic with romance, battles, sorcerers, danger, and suspense; there is everything here that makes up a good store. My meager review doesn’t even do justice to the plot. The pages flew by as I became ensnared under Lenders spell as she weaved her story. She writes with such assurance, such poise, that it is hard to believe that Choices Meant for Gods is her first novel.  

Choices Meant for Gods is not a mere novel; it is a gorgeous piece of written art. I can hardly wait for the second book! If you read only one good novel this year, no, this decade, read Choices Meant for Gods. I’m going to be reading it for a second time. But read it yourself, won’t you?  

It will leave you breathless. Make sure to visit the authors blog at: http://www.todaythedragonwins.blogspot.com/