Tempted Champions

by Yvonne Navarro

Book Overview

They called it "the slaughter of the innocents." The barely trained and poorly equipped men of the Labour Divisions were never meant to fight?but when the German blitzkrieg sliced through the Allied... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743400364
• ISBN13: 9780743400367
• Release Date: February 2001
• Publisher: Pocket Books
• Length: 243 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 4.2" x 6.7"

Customer Reviews

Another Winner! A Vamped Slayer? Interesting....

Someone is itching for a fight with the slayer. Who may you ask? Well, a long forgotten slayer whom the journals of the Watchers record as being dead way back in Greece, 1527. Or so as they thought.Cassia the vampire slayer has become a victim of the very thing she was sworn to kill...a bloodthirsty vampire. Angry and hateful since that fateful day on the coast of Greece so long ago, Cassia has changed her name and look dozens of times, but not her mission...killing. Everyone and anything that gets in her way.The goal right now? Kill the present slayer who is reputed to be the best and strongest...Buffy....Twice as strong as a slayer and extremely skilled, Cassia, or shall we call her by her new name, Celina the vampire slayer vampire, has met up with some of the slayer's friends in the past...namely Angel and Spike.The key to Buffy's survival is the knowledge they both have of her, but is it too late? But, is Celina too good for Buffy? Narrowly escaping her wrath once back in 1960, Angel is fearful for Buffy and Spike doesn't tell a better tale of the vamped slayer. Adding to the pressure of the ultimate fight, tension is all around the trio, Angel's unability to be with his one and only love, Buffy's realization that they cannot be together and Spike struggling to come to terms with being in love with the slayer and knowing her heart belongs to Angel.Not only is there the vamped slayer causing havock and the love triangle pulsing around them, but now Anaya has been revisited by her old boss...D'Hoffryn. He wants her back...Will Anaya return to vengeance or remain on this mortal plane to die eventually, but with love? Will Buffy let the lure of eternal life and of its rewards of being with Angel once again sway her to turn to her dark side as did Celina?Extremely charged and exciting, this book should've been an episode. Fitted somewhere in the beginning of the 5th Season after Joyce's death and before most of the trouble with the Hellgod Glory and the Key Dawn. This writer really captures the true essence of the characters and the problems that they faced that season.Tracy Talley~@

This is a champion!

As a big fan of Spike, I bought "Tempted Champions" because I knew my favorite vampire was in it, but honestly, I wasn't expecting much gratification. What a pleasant surprise, though - not only did Spike's portrayal is correct, interesting and amusing, but also the plot is excellent.Set in BtVS season 5 (after "Forever" and before "Intervention"), two storylines run in parallel - the new Big Bad in town, Celina, is after Buffy, and wants the Slayer dead; and D'Hoffryn pays a visit to Anya, offering her an indecent proposal.The Spike's bits are very enjoyable; he is in love with Buffy - which the author beautifully acknowledges:"...he had a chip in his head that kept him behaving like a good little monster, and a chunk out of his cold, dead heart that he'd given to buffy... whether she wanted it or not."Spike helps the Scoobies willingly, without losing his snarky-ness, of course. He even is given some happiness, when he has the opportunity of being with a lady; the consequences of his date are very... let's say, entertaining - not exactly for him, but for us, readers!"He felt like it'd been years since Drusilla or anyone else had truly paid attention to his stories, and now he had this exquisitely lovely creature on his arm, and she seemed so, well... normal. "No spuffiness, at all, and some ancient Buffy and Angel love, but so well written that I don't have any complaint - even being a die hard Spike/Buffy fan.The characters created for the book - Celina as well as the disgusting Dunphy, or the former Iroquoi warriors turned demons - are great, I liked to read about each one of them, I didn't have the thought "they're just taking time from the main characters" for a second. The storyline was really appalling - the "temptation" theme is an element of the hero's journey, after all.In "Tempted Champions", Buffy is the hero who doesn't want anybody else fighting her fights, and feeling all alone, has to face a huge temptation. Plus, we have Angel (who came from Los Angeles to help), Xander, Giles, Willow, Tara and Dawn to complete the picture. The three girls have a very nice time together, when performing a blessing at the Magic Box; the guys (Giles and Xander), along with Spike, form a good team; the humans don't exactly love the vampire (and vice versa), but they manage to accomplish their task without much problem.And Anya. In light of all we know now (after May 2003), her story is totally heartbreaking. We see the ex-demon trying hard to adapt herself in this world of mortals, and fighting the temptation of returning to be an immortal Vengeance Demon again. Anya's dilemma is such a poignant moment - while D'Hoffryn tells her that as a human she will end up dying "like a bug", she thinks that as a demon, she won't manage to live without love, without Xander. And then you feel like crying, remembering "Hell's Bells" and "Chosen", and knowing Anya's tragic fate.

When Is A Slayer Not Quite a Slayer?

One of the pleasures of the latest efforts in the Buffy novel series is that she has been allowed to grow up a bit and start to deal with the range of issues that confronted her before the fifth season's spectacular ending. This is a different Buffy, one who has had to make some tough choices and live with them. No longer so lighthearted and flip she is finding that strength and reflexes are not enough by themselves to meet her responsibilities. She must look inside to find the sources of her own wisdom. As such I find her developing into an even more interesting character then she has been in the past.The occasion for conflict is the appearance of a new vampire in Sunnydale. Celina, who apparently dislikes both humans and vampires, is intent cutting a swath through the ranks of both. But her real target is obvious from the start, Celina wants to take a slayer as a trophy, and may very well have the stuff to do it. After nearly doing away with Xander and Anya trying to track down Buffy, Celina tries for a less subtle approach and takes on Buffy directly. This ends in a near disaster - for Buffy, and the chase is on. But who exactly is the hunter and who is the prey?Buffy, Giles, Willow, and even Spike start to search for the key to Celina. Even Angel becomes involved when he recognizes Celina as the vampire that very nearly killed him before he came to Sunnydale. Buffy, who still loves him, only reluctantly accepts both his warnings and his offer of help. Spike too, realizes he has met Celina before and his new found loyalty to Buffy will be sorely tested before the book is over. When the truth about Celina is finally revealed, Buffy faces the fact that the price of this confrontation may be far worse than death.One of the surprises of this story is an extended focus on Anya, who finds that she must decide again whether it is better to be human or a demon, and Xander who must face the reality of his own feelings for his quirky lover. Anya, who up until now has been a bit of a cipher with a unique ability to say the wrong thing, really does come alive in the dilemma between love and immortality. 'Tempted Champions' tests her relationship just as it adds new dimension to the relationship between Buffy and Angel. Nor is Dawn left out of the picture. Everyone pitches in to help in a struggle which, in the end, must be Buffy's alone.Yvonne Navarro has already demonstrated strong writing skills in 'Paleo' and the two volume 'Willow Files.' 'Tempted Champions' continues to demonstrate her power in the more serious side of Buffy fiction. Dialogue, plot, and characters flow naturally in this new effort. Navarro is beginning to look beyond media novels, and the wise reader will keep an eye on her.

This is the book!

Okay to start, not the best written novel, nor the best historical one(Ex-No Glory, Gunn or Angels dealings with Darla or the b/a meeting of forever) but other than that, the plot was interesting, and had very good character anaylis, but reading this right after seeing "Hells Bells" made me cry cause Anya is not with Xander and we have no idea what her answer to D'Hoffryn is as of this moment. If you want to now how Buffy and Angel deprived a girl can get... I got this late Thursday night, read it every spare moment in high school classes on Friday took my 4 hour week re-engerizing nap, and finshed it that night. While the B/A scenes are scarce they're there, I recommend this to you even if you hate the buffy/angel relationship. Had some good scooby/intereaction, and some Buffy introspect, taking a interesting turn on what a vampire slayer vampire might be like, I had after all alaways wondered.

A new vampire show up in Sunnydale looking for Buffy

WARNING! WARNING! DO NOT READ THE BOOK DESCRIPTION ABOVE OR THE BACK COVER OF THIS BOOK! YOU WILL REGRET IT. HEED MY WARNING MORTALS OR KNOW A HANDY WICCA WITH A SPELL OF FORGETFULLNESS! Talk about having a book spoiled. I should have known better, but I looked at the back cover of "Tempted Champions" before I read it and it ended up spoiling my enjoyment of Yvonne Navarro's latest "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" novel. Usually I am smart enough to just pick up a book and start reading, but unfortunately this time that was not the case. This is important because not only does Navarro have a first rate twist for the vampire that shows up in town hoping to put the bit on Buffy, but also she saves the revelation for the climax of the novel. If the author has a surprise for the reader when they are more than halfway through the novel, then the people assigned the job of writing the tantalizing description on the back of the book should not give the game away, including the heroine's big dramatic choice at the end. Sheesh.Ironically, "Tempted Champions," which is set during the LAST part of the show's fifth season (not the beginning as the historical note claims), hit the shelves the same week that we saw the "Hell's Bells" episode from season six. This is ironic because in both D'Hoffryn shows up in Sunnydale and offers Anya a chance to go back to work as a vengeance demon. We might be wondering what sixth season Anya will say but obviously we know what fifth season Anya told her former demon overlord. However, Navarro does an excellent job of having Anya work out her feelings. Anya has been the most problematic character on BtVS; when she first turned human she still had an edge to her, but then she was flunking math and was going with Xander to the prom, and by the time she showed up in that bunny outfit she had become the show's comic relief. Often I find the character overwritten, especially in terms of her preoccupation with sex (I am talking strictly the writing her, I find nothing to fault in Emma Caulfield's captivating performance). However, in "Tempted Champions" Navarro presents a more fully developed characterization of Anya that is a strength of the book, albeit the major subplot.The main plot involves the mysterious Celina who has arrived in Sunnydale to take down Buffy. Celina has crossed paths with both Angel and Spike in the past, although under different names, but with nearly fatal results for the guys in both instances. What is Celina's secret? Well, hopefully you will discover it when you read the book (and avoid the spoilers), because it makes their final confrontation quite dramatic. As she did with Anya, Navarro manages to crystallize Buffy's thoughts at a critical juncture on some rather heavy subjects. Angel shows up in Sunnydale to help Buffy weather this particular storm and at first I thought it was an unnecessary crossover. But Navarro surprised me by making it integral to the story's climax. She also deals explicitly with on