This Conqueror story begins with Xena surrendering herself to an Amazon outpost. Gabrielle, who by then lives with the Amazons after being forced by Xena to watch her husband and sister burn to death, demands vengence. She travels with Ephiny and a contingent of sisters to bring Xena back from the outpost for her trial. She plans to murder Xena before she reaches the main Amazon camp to be judged.
I’ll be honest, I didn’t finish this one. I got about a third of the way through and just couldn’t go any further. The mechanics of the writing were fine, good even. But I found the story and the execution of the plot just unbelievable. I wanted to feel it but I just couldn’t. Gabrielle, in less than five minutes of actually meeting with Xena, begins to have conflicting feelings toward the Conqueror. Ephiny asks her if she’s in love with her, explaining how close the emotional strength of love and hate is. The supposed connection between Xena and Gabrielle felt very forced to me and, with that and the storyline, I just had to stop.
This is the first fic I’ve tried to read by this author but I did grab another one so I’ll see if I have the same issues with that one or if this was a fluke. And, it may just be me. I found this on someone else’s recommendations page so I know at least one person liked it enough to list.