REVIEW: Knight’s Fork

Rowena Cherry
Knight’s Fork (Djinn #3)
Love Spell
ISBN-10: 0505527405
ISBN-13: 978-0505527400
Futuristic romance
May 6, 2008

Damnable female! She’d asked him to knock her up, and she hadn’t had the decency to look at him. How insulting was that!

-Djarrhett, on Electra-Djerroldina’s request for his sperm

You may have read this before on Lurv, but I really do love Ms. Cherry’s sense of humor. Combine that with one of the most unique concepts for a romance series today and we find books like Forced Mate, Insufficient Mating Material, and now, Knight’s Fork as well. Besides being furturistic/scifi romances, they share a chess theme commonality, not only in name, but plot as well. Don’t know anything about chess? Don’t worry – neither do I. Cherry does a great job explaining the significance of the titles, as well as the chess significance to the overall plots. Beginning with Forced Mate, this is easily a series I remember when making reading suggestions.

Electra-Djerroldina, Quuen consort to the King of Volnoth, Viz-Igerd, is in one serious predicament. In order to aid her husband in keeping his throne, she must have a child with him. Being of two different alien species though, this presents a bit of a problem. As time draws closer to the possibility of his position as king being challenged, Electra takes matters into her own hand and seeks out a male whose biology matches her own well enough to overcome her powerful DNA – what she needs is a Great Djinn.

Djarrhett, or Rhett as he is usually called, is a Royal Saurian Djinn, the son of the powerful Saurian Dragon. Impeccably well mannered and scrupulous, he’s enraged by Electra’s request for his sperm, especially when she offers money and the enticement of her touch, only to withhold it from him in return for a cold, impersonal exchange. Wanting nothing to do with her, he thinks they are through. When he’s given a task by his father though, an interfering Tigron Prince somehow manages to bring Rhett back together with the erstwhile and insistent Electra. Ensconced on a star ship and headed for Earth, can Rhett maintain both their honor and resist the lady? Will he even want to before it’s all said and done?

It’s been too long it seems since I read the book prior to this, Insufficient Mating Material. In other words, I was really looking forward to another djinn story, and Rhett’s in particular, who really gained my interest in previous installments. I really love a good laugh while reading a romance and so far this series has delivered every time, Knight’s Fork being no exception. Great characters, some more developed this time than others, really round this series out.

Let’s start with Electra-Djerroldina (those D’s are silent, by the way). First of all, I really love the names Cherry has come up with. Not too hard to figure out the pronunciation, yet unique and they fit well within the world she’s created. Electra to me sounds like a captivating, electrified and determined person from her name alone and I think this carries through in some ways, although I felt she was the least developed of all the characters in the book. I think it could possibly be because all the other characters, for the most part (the important ones), I’d met in previous books and reintroducing myself to them felt like greeting old friends again.

So, Electra wants a baby, and she pursues the only male she believe capable of giving her that child with relentless determination – a fact that was almost annoying and amusing at the same time. Annoying because it seemed clear why her actions were turning Rhett off, yet it took her a bit to realize this. Too, she knows Rhett to be different from other Great Djinns, a gentleman, so assuming he’d be happy to be seen as a negligent sperm donor and possible father was somewhat unbelievable. Still, it was amusing and it sets up some great and funny scenes for them to interact in together, so I really cannot complain about her bewildered state at Rhett’s disregard too much. Trust me, the scenes where Electra and Rhett are trying to figure one another out are downright priceless at times.

Rhett I just loved and I’d had the opportunity a few years ago to tell Ms. Cherry that I wanted his story to the point of demanding it. Fortunately, it was in the works *g*. Capable of great leadership and authority, Rhett doesn’t have to be self-serving and all alpha/stalker male to get his points across. In fact, I found he had certain vulnerabilities that endeared him to me all the more. His reactions to Electra are simply laugh-out-loud uproarious at times and the predicament they find themselves in was page-turning goodness. Even though I had to, I didn’t want to put the book down, and Rhett is definitely one of the reasons why.

I’ve found the males so far in the series, the other heroes, to be a bit too much on the pompous side before (yet still enjoyable in their books), and Rhett was a breath of fresh Great Djinn air – he really is very different from other djinn males. This is very much a male-dominated world Cherry has created, but wait! With Rhett, that could possibly all change. He had some surprises by book’s end that proved even though he didn’t want the reins of intergalactic responsibility at one time, he’s more than capable of handling them. Thanks to Rhett, great changes will be coming to the outer reaches of their world, to many worlds and especially to the women within them. Now I don’t know about yall, but a man in favor of womens’ rights and who actually sets out to champion them – freakin’ score!

What I like about Cherry’s worldbuilding is it’s mostly contained within her characters. We do get some descriptions of rooms, spaceships, etc., but I think for the most part the djinn culture and ways are portrayed wonderfully through her characters. The Saurians wear these amazing sounding dragon or dinosaur themed headdresses (for ceremonial/life support/protective purposes) that set them apart from other races or cultures. In other words, there’s really not going to be a lot to distract from the story and the way these characters are shaping it since they are portraying at the same time how unique the world they are in is. Too, things aren’t just happening in one or two places; we’ve got ceremonial great halls with public matings, great space shuttles and intimate royal suites, there’s even a few scenes on Earth, England to be exact as that’s where djinns in exile are sent to. It can be a bit of a whirlwind experience, so I advise folks stick to the books as closely as they can, there’s plenty of detail to absorb.

Secondary characters, as I said before, were fun to revisit, like old friends you don’t get to see enough of. There’s Prince Tarront-Arragon, next in line to be Emperor (and hero of Forced Mate) and he plays an important role in this book, same as he did in the second one. He’s too much of an interfering “god” not too. We see the hero and heroine from the second book as well, Djetthro-Jason and Marthia-Djulia and actually we see the whole family again right down to the two spry exiled Empresses. And finally, last but never least, we get to see again Tarront-Arragon’s Earthling assistant, Grievous, who’s smart remarks never fail to vex and raise djinn brows.

The overall story kind of lags in some spots and I wanted to get past them and on to things I knew were coming, things I was more eager to read, but I still enjoyed the book for the most part. I was disappointed in Electra’s development and wished for a deeper look into her character, but those were honestly the only two reservations I had while reading.

If you really, really do want something different on the romance shelves, and you like futuristic scenarios, you might want to give this series a try. With three full length books in so far (and one previous short story found via the author’s site, Mating Net), I am happy to say the series is staying on the path of Good, Very Good in some cases. Now, what I’d like to know is when is the next one coming out. My guess is it will revolve around one of two djinn males, both mentioned and seen in this book. Either way, I look forward to and hope for more!

Rating: Four and a Half Scoops

To find out more about the author and her books, visit her site.