Dun Ladys Jess

I enjoy shape shifter stories. This one took a different tack than most, but was very enjoyable. I felt it was a good mix of action and technical details about horses.

I found Dun Ladys Jess (The Changespell Saga) by Doranna Durgin an unforgettable story. It is so unusual, it really gets the imagination going and I could not put it down. I had to get the second book in this series and found it just as good as this book.

I love animals, period. This story felt very believable and lovable. I look forward to more. I too, believe that animals are psychic, and read your thoughts and intentions very clearly. I think trust is in order.

Interesting premise, and the author really knows horses.

Doranna Durgin is a very good fantasy writer, and her Changespell Saga is very re-readable. Shes the only author I know who has based a story on a horse becoming human, and handles this very tricky and difficult situation deftly without oversimplifying it. Her characters are engaging and her plots intriguing and exciting. I need to reread the rest (its been years) so I can find out what happens next!

Hmmm, well it is no spoiler to say that this horse turns into a lady and then stuff happens. That is what this story is about. However, this author manages to write a very good story based on this premise. The reader can see the trials and tribulations of the horse, the people around her who have to believe this has happened versus having found a person who should be committed as she thinks she is a horse, and then to unfold an interesting story given the situation. If you cant get past the premise, you will miss a very interesting and well written book. I will admit that I will wait to read a few reviews before reading the next one, but I found this one entertaining.

I loved this book! Horse to human, magic, people who really understand horses! Really like this story, cant wait to see where this story goes in the next books. I have never read a horse book that has in-depth horse thoughts!

Good read

I thought the idea of a horse consciousness in a human body was a fascinating concept. It is well written, there were some good words that I had never read before and had to look up, and the dialogue between characters is well done. It is an adventure while overcoming language/psychological barriers.

This was a gorgeous book. So good. The characters were really great, especially Jess and Jamie. Dun Lady’s Jess is a horse who works for Carey, a courier for a wizard in a world where magic is real. The wizard has just discovered a spell that allows for travel between worlds and sends Carey and Lady with the spell to another wizard to get a checkspell created for it. Unfortunately, they are attacked by agents of yet another wizard who wants to steal the spell for herself. In the attack, they all fall off a cliff and wind up in the modern world we know. And in the process, Lady turns into a human and is separated from Carey. She has a difficult time understanding what has happened to her. Learning to move like a human is difficult, never mind trying to figure out how to talk. Fortunately, they apparently speak English, or some language as near to it as makes no difference, in the world she is from. But still, trying to understand the people who find her, and to make them understand that she is really a horse and that she wants to find Carey, who is nowhere to be found in this new world, is next to impossible. Dayna, the woman who first finds her, has issues of her own, is convinced that Jess (as they call her when she has finally made them understand her name) is mental and needs to be in an institution. But Eric, Dayna’s boyfriend, convinces her that they should at least take Jess to see Jamie, a woman who trains and understands horses before they take such a drastic step. Jamie is more sympathetic and offers Jess at least temporary shelter and a job doing something she can understand. They eventually become friends. And then the man who wounded Carey shows up, looking for his equipment, and they start to get a clue where Carey might be. And things begin to get really strange. And dangerous. Eventually, the spell returns them – all of them – to Jess and Carey’s world. Jess is once more a horse. And they must still get the spell to Sherra for the checkspell.