Ginger Stephens's Reviews > Females of Valor

** spoiler alert ** Females of Valor is the second book in The Viking's Kurdish Love trilogy. I had hoped that it would be a little better than the first book, but I think it is very similar to The Viking's Kurdish Love: A True Story of Zoroastrians' Fight for Survival. The narrative is good, but the language is uneven and doesn't fit the characters. This book follows the healing of Dr. Vesta and her quest for justice following her rape and the murder of her children. Vesta's husband Ivar descends into alcoholism as Vesta follows Zoroastrian practices to cleanse her spirit, removing the darkness from her body and spirit.

The book starts when Vesta is found after being left for dead in her home with the dead bodies of her children, which is where the first book ended. The last part of that book was difficult to read and there are flashbacks to that part of the first book throughout Females of Valor. I had to skip those because they are so disturbing. At the end of Females of Valor, Adol and her female art students are kidnapped, raped, and murdered. But, their bodies are hidden, until the jihadists causing all the violence leave Adol's body in a stream on a Zoroastrian festival day blessing the stream. It is not clear what happens to Adol's unborn son. The book ends with Adol's last thought to her son, but she has two other sons. I think it was meant for the oldest son and she asked him to find the son that died with her. But, it really isn't clear which son is supposed to find his brother.

I am going to read the third book: Roots of To-Be Templars to find out how the story ends. The way that the books are written seem to indicate that the story is based on Kurdish history, but it isn't clear how many of the characters are based on real people and how much of the story actually happened. Hopefully, that will be more clear at the end of the book.