Review: 4 stars for the first 75%.  2 stars for the rest.  The ending was untidy and not complete.  This is a very long book.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 17, 2012
OLIVIA by R. Lee Smith.STORY BRIEF:The gullan are cave dwelling bat creatures  They had no offspring for 30 years due to reproductive problems caused by disease.  They will die off if they don't get healthy new DNA into their offspring.  So they kidnap seventeen human women for breeding.The life style is caveman style.  Their food is strange hard bread, fruits, roots, and meat from hunts with spears and traps.  They make soap and candles from animal wax.  They make tools from metal.  Their bedding and clothes consist of items stolen from nearby human campers and towns.WHAT GENRE IS THIS BOOK?  MORE THAN ONE.This cannot be easily described with one genre label.  It starts off as paranormal fiction, with almost a bestiality feeling of bat creatures taking human females prisoner for breeding.  Some women react with horror at the forced sex.  It then has romance but not the typical one mate for life.  Olivia has one mate for part of the story and other mates later.  Warm feelings and pleasant sexual experiences occur for some humans who form bonds with their bat mates.  But these did not have the intense feelings of "I love you forever" that romance novels provide.  They are more of a caring companion feeling.  There might have been more loving bonds among secondary characters, but if so, the author didn't go into those much.  The best part is the interesting paranormal world.  Also very good is the wide variety of interesting characters.  The last segment of the book is a story set within the spirit-god world.  This felt like mythology with conflicts among a god and goddesses and how they influenced lives and events for the mortal bat creatures and humans.  Here sex is used in a strange and painful way, not for reproduction or pleasure.REVIEWER'S OPINION:I liked it.  It's different, and that's why.  But I did not like the ending.  I didn't know what happened to the male at the end.  I didn't know where Olivia was going, what she would do, or what abilities she had.  I also wanted more details about the success or resolution (if any) for the gullan reproductive problems.If you're in the mood for suspense and action, this is not for you.  Most of the story is about relationships and interesting things happening among characters and learning about their community.  There's some mystery which is wondering what will happen to various characters and the offspring problem.  The first 75% was enjoyable.  It was humans and bat creatures together.  It made me think about what is missing from many typical paranormal romances.  (They don't bring in this amount of creativity and originality.)  But the last 25% wasn't as good, and at times I wanted that part to be over.  That was the story about the god and goddesses.  It was odd.  I like the author doing odd things, but that part just didn't hold my interest.  It would have been better if I were in the heads of the gods.  I wanted to understand their feelings and motivations better.  I'd suggest changing and shortening that part.  Although I was intrigued with some of the ideas, especially the goddess who connects with mortals through water.  Water is everywhere around us and in us.  We drink it.  We are made of it.I'm used to paranormal romances having passionate sex scenes between creatures and humans.  But when it happens in this book, at first it has a bestiality feeling.  It's freaky.  The gullan males are up to 6 feet tall, with broad black horns going up another foot, covered in sleek dark fur, talons on their three toes with a declaw on each ankle.  The mouth is snoutish shaped.  Later the sex scenes turn more pleasant.  There is a lot of sex in this book.  Sex scenes include rape.  Two scenes include rear door activity and menage a trois - MWM.The first chapter is a great example for authors as to how to create drama, emotion, mystery, fear, and horror as monsters are kidnaping humans.  After that the focus is characters.  I enjoyed the variety of personalities among the women and bat creatures.  I felt the leader's anguish over decisions he had to make.  He hadn't sought the position of leader.  I found him interesting to watch.  He made hard choices showing strength, but low on compassion.  Cheyenne a human was a terror to her compassionate mate and others.  I admired the leader who was the only one who could control her through fear.  He threatened her and did something bad to her.  Normally I don't want to see a man abuse a woman, but here I saw her more as an evildoer who needed to be stopped.  In her defense she was an unwilling prisoner who would never give up.  But she was hateful and cruel to others, both humans and bat creatures.I was intrigued with how Olivia adapted and her actions.  She wasn't a typical heroine.  Some might find her bland, but I found her different.  I liked her morality.  She embodied compassion and forgiveness.  At first, I didn't like the way she avoided conflict and confrontation, but later I didn't mind so much.  Initially I didn't like that she never told on anyone when she saw wrong doings.  Later I decided I was glad she didn't tell.  I liked the scene in which someone felt Olivia had a connection with a spirit-god and asked her to pray for food.  So she did, not expecting anything, and then was shocked when it worked.This is a very long book, about the length of four to six normal books.  Don't expect to be done quickly.  I think too many publishers force authors to shorten or lengthen their work to fit 300 to 350 pages.  I like the idea of ebooks with no length requirements.  I say let the author keep going until the story is done..DATA:Kindle count story length: 21,015 (1,534 KB).  Swearing language: strong, including religious swear words.  Sexual language: strong/erotic.  Number of sex scenes: at least 41.  Setting: current day mostly northwest US and Canada.  Copyright: 2009.  Genre: erotic paranormal fiction with romance.  Ending: mostly good but incomplete and unfinished.