Rebecca is a sensible woman, a teacher and she’s about to get married. Or was, anyway, until her husband got cold feet at the altar and a strange Scotsman showed up in the humiliating aftermath to whisk her away to a new life.

With barely time to adapt, Rebecca finds that she’s an Amazon, empowered by the Amazon’s patron goddesses with the power of Earth and chosen to defend the world against various supernatural threats. More urgently, she also learns she has been tapped because the last generation of Amazons has gone missing – or died.

Rebecca must struggle to learn the fighting skills that are essential to her role – but quickly finds she is not as physically adept as her sisters nor as fast a learner. But with Amazons to find and the undead to fight, she doesn’t have time to learn slowly.

And even that is complicated by her teacher, Artair the sentinel, who is compelling to her in ways that go beyond being teacher.

There was a lot of really excellent potential in this book. Yes, 4 warriors dedicated to the 4 elements has been done before, but there was a lot of unique twists to it, with each elements having powers above and beyond what you’d expect. The idea of demigods being evil beings who have the ambition to rise to become gods no matter what is intriguing as well as the various monsters and spirits that serve them and the gods who oppose them

It’s well written as well. The pacing is tight and regular, keeping the plot moving and not dwelling or getting bogged down anywhere but nor did it rush through things and leave it vague or hurried. The world building balance was also excellent. Often with a supernatural setting it is far too tempting to dump all of this wonderful world you’ve created onto the page whether the reader needs to know or not – and it really bogs down a story. This only ever gave us the knowledge we needed to understand the story, explaining what was necessary and leaving the rest as intriguing clues. But, despite that, the world building felt sparse.

The world building felt sparse because it gave us just enough to understand without giving us irrelevant information. Sound like a contradiction? Well, the amazons have these powers, the gods these roles and this presence, but we didn’t get a story about them. We got a story about Becca and Artair falling in love. About Becca worrying she wasn’t becoming a good warrior fast enough. About Artair thinking Becca was sexy but wanting to quit as Sentinel. Of Becca thinking Artair is sexy and wishing he wouldn’t go.

In other words, there’s this wonderful world and wonderful pacing and an admirable restraint against drowning us in unnecessary information, and it isn’t really used.

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Artair MacKay certainly knows how to make an entrance. As Rebecca stands at the alter facing her soon-to-be husband and is rejected by him her life takes a spin. She is angry and rightly so. Rebecca throws and connects with a much deserved punch to the loser's face. With the turmoil of feelings swirling in her she makes the earth quake but does not realize that it is of her doing. In her wedding dress, Rebecca chooses to walk out with her head held high as she is escorted out by a handsome man in a kilt- Artair.

I always enjoy the time where a character learns of who they really are. The reaction and events to follow are always a joy to read. Rebecca, Becca, has had no clue that she was anything other than a Kindergarten teacher. With only an Aunt to care for her when growing up she did not know of her ancestry. Apparently, she is more than mere human- She is Amazonian. Her job and her fellow Amazonian sisters are tasked with keeping evil in check on Earth. Demons, Demi-Gods, and other conspirators love to come out and use Earth as a playground and humans as their play-things but the Amazons are the line of defense fighting for humanity.

All in all, The Reluctant Amazon was an interesting read. The plot had it's own unique-ness among others in the genre. I've only read one other series that has Amazons headlining and I enjoyed this one far better. The most surprising element was the antagonist- I never seen that one coming. The next book in the series is titled, The Impetuous Amazon, and is expected to release in January 2013. ( )