Book Three of Merlin’s Decedents: Guardians of the Vision by Irene Radford

This is the third book in a series of novels focusing on the mythical bloodline of Merlin. This story is set about 300 years after “Guardian of the Trust,” which places the story in the 16th century. The protagonist of this novel is mainly Griffin Kirkenwood, but he shares the limelight with his twin brother Donovan Kirkenwood.  The historical facts of this installment focus on Queen Elizabeth’s reign in England and the conflict with Mary Queen of Scots.  By switching the protagonist to a male character, the story lost much of its appeal the prior two novels had held for me.  Griffin and Donovan were not strong enough characters to make me want to read about them.  In fact, this book has been dragging on for more than a month, I am unable to get into the storyline and I feel no affection for the brothers.  I just keep praying the story will end soon, which is the main theme of the story.  Griffin is on a spiritual journey to find his faith, he has become a catholic priest and has let his magic lay fallow, as a result chaos almost takes England.  The premise of the story is interesting on its own but Radford just was unable to follow through.  Overall this was a very tedious read, and I had to force myself to continue with the book to the end.