Calixta

“And this was the first time I died!”

“But if you are a mage and you received your power the second time you died, doesn’t that mean you are now obliged to work for the king?”

(Vanquishers of Alhambra 1) Calixta by Omayra Vélez

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My Rating:

I reluctantly recommended this 3.5 star fantasy romance novel.

Calixta is a whore house madam. Not just any old slut with good management skills. Sold into slavery at 8, she's been trained to be far beyond the best. She speaks, reads, & writes in several languages, talks intelligently about any topic. Her brothel is the best in the Alhambra. And Calixita herself wears the tattoo of an "exotic". Among the most beautiful and most extensively trained in her profession. Few of the royals can afford an hour with her. That was before the first time she died.

Arriving at death's processing center, Calixta did not have the proper items to be processed and was hauled into an emergency meeting with the Virtues. Among these were Wisdom, Justice, Hope, Love, Peace, to name a few. Their job is management on behalf of "Father" (aka "Boss of the Virtues") and these "Virtues" had unusual news for Calixta. She's special; and the dark, painful life she lived wasn't suppose to happen that way, and worse... her mission is not complete. She'll being going back to that body that was just shot in the chest while protecting one of her pregnant girls.

Generally:            ----- Possible Spoiler Line -----
Jadro is high level management of evil incarnate and his boss has high expectations of him conquering the entire world. He's been highly successful. He's already murdered the mentors of Alhambra's Vanquishers who are now almost entirely untrained. Most are unaware of who they are. He's just received information that the third Vanquisher has been identified.

The reason Jadro was never able to find this third Vanquisher was because she has always belonged to the dark. Now that she's been discovered, he even remembers having enjoyed her exotic sexual services. While that had been pleasant, he is glad to hear she has just been murdered. One less Vanquisher. The fourth Vanquisher is in a coma along with all the Elves. If the second Vanquisher survived the attack that murdered his mentor, then he is severely crippled in addition to being untrained.

Jadro is very close to owning Alhambra's royalty. They are virtually inept, and are doing nothing to prevent the obvious war Jadro has broiling in all the lands. With all but one Vanquisher dead, disabled, or soon to be dead, there's nothing to stop evil from overrunning the world.

Then Jadro learns the dead third Vanquisher has miraculously come back to life. No matter, she should be easy to find and kill. She was never noticed before because she's always belonged to the darkness or has always been in and surrounded by darkness. If she turns away from the darkness, Jadro will notice and will quickly find her.

My Notable Notes:
This has been one of those novels that I wrote a novella of notes about. Let's start with, "Why reluctantly recommend?"

Omy is an indie author, and Calixta is like most books today, more like part one of a three to fifteen part series with each ending on a cliffhanger with at least two major unresolved threads. Worse, I sometimes research what I'm about to read. Ms. Vélez has some part of two more novels complete and a spin off novella, but no money for necessary work like an editor. (I nearly consider offering, but retirement is actually hard work enough.)

I listened to the audiobook, primarily, and haven't decided if I really like Corina Ollett's performance... More like, I'm not sure her performance fits. Undecided still.

In any case, while I'm confident Ms. Vélez is anxious to get more Calixta out to her fans, life happens. If her unfinished manuscripts were published soon, and there were signs of a conclusion, I'd be happy to recommend it without hesitation.

I do take issue with at least one "DNF" one-star review I ran across. I'll address that with an entire article on sagelyfox.com. I was pleased to see Ms. Vélez replied to that review.

The rest of my notes are a rather detailed summary of the book. Almost Cliff Notes on the book. If I published that, little need to read the book.

Likes and Dislikes:
My daughter, is another avid reader. She goes through over 100 books a year. She raves about book covers... or not so much.

I rarely think about book covers, but I do buy books based on their cover (unconsciously). The Calixta cover caught my attention> The spoiler "sales blurb" and Chirpbooks deep discount sale "sold me" the book. It didn't hurt that I learned Omy is a veteran, and dedicated the book to an Army Major.

I was engaged in the book. I had issues, but none discouraged me from "turning pages".

I liked the spiritual concepts in the book. I recently read The Poppy War Series. Ms. Kuang's series had a different culture, a different pantheon of gods, but was similar in concepts.

In Calixta, her heroic journey, at least in part, is a gradual redemption from the cold hardness crushed into her since a child. It's interesting to me that, despite the appearance of being on the wrong side of life spiritually, her behavior to her friends, employees, and even the downtrodden, are the definition of "goodness". Like all good fiction, truth is loud and clear. As is routine in life, good folks rarely think there's much good in themselves, despite their heroic efforts.

The Technical: About the writing critique?
Omy worked hard on this book. I suspect she has a streak of perfectionism in her. The cover art is excellent. She's taken her work to an editor, and had beta readers. (In my day, I was an early member of Critters). She even managed to keep her thumb on the pulse of the production of the audiobook. While I admire this in anyone doing any task or job, in writing it can cripple your productivity. Having been both a writer, artist, and musician, I know creative people are rarely entirely satisfied with their work, and getting it to market "flawed" in any way is painful, but commercially necessary.

If I were to critique Calixta seriously, I could give Omy pages of constructive criticism. I think I'd be disappointed if she took even half of the critique's seriously. In her case, and the case of most indie authors, Harper-Collins perfection isn't expected. Getting a book into professionally published shape takes a pride of professionals with a multitude of skills to get a book on bookshelves. It is rare when an indie author can afford a day or two of that much professional assistance, specially in their early first novels.

Conclusion
Calixta is a good beginning of a series. It may be some time before it is all available. Almost certainly quicker that George R.R. Martin or Diana Gabaldon would manage. I would love to see more of this story.

Calixta is a competitor in this genre that blends magic, mystical, good verses bad, and action in with a good dose of romance.

Read on: Apr 8, 9, 10, & 13, 2021
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Author: Omayra Vélez
Narrator: Corina Ollett
Audiobook Production: e-Audio Productions.
Ebook Retailer(s): Book 2 Read
Audiobook Retailer: Chirpbooks
Read & Runtime: Chapters: 35, Paperback, 467 pages, Runtime: 12h 3min