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**Possible spoilers for the first two in the series, Daughter of the Blood and Heir to the Shadows.**
The evil queens, Dorothea and Hekatah, are trying to force a war and so gain control of Jaenelle. But they have no idea how strong she is or the lengths she is willing to go to in order to protect her people. Or of the lengths her people will go to try to protect Jaenelle.
Either these aren’t quite living up to the promise of the first book, or I’m not quite as enchanted by this new system of magic and these characters, but I’m not quite as in love with this series now. Don’t get me wrong–I still read this 400 page brick in a matter of hours, frantically turning pages, and eager to see what happens next. But somehow Daemon wasn’t the same sexy unknown that he was in the first volume, Jaenelle isn’t quite as charming as queen, and there wasn’t much of Saetan, whom I adore. But there was more of Surreal, and I loved reading about her.
Jaenelle doesn’t put in an appearance for several chapters, and once she finally did, I remembered a peeve of mine from the other books–the phrase “midnight voice.” Oh my gosh, I’m irritated just repeating it! It’s used to show when she means business as queen, but a more creative author could surely find another way to do that without beating that phrase to death. And then there’s Karla’s “kiss kiss.” Ugh. My husband stumbled onto that phrase as I was reading this and never even saw what hit him coming. What a coy, pretentious, fake, supercilious little habit!
But, really, I do love these books and the characters and look forward to reading more of them. Which reminds me of something else–Why is my omnibus edition called The Black Jewels Trilogy when it’s obvious that more are coming? Anyway, I still highly recommend the series.
Reviewed August 17, 2009
Read an excerpt.
My reviews of Daughter of the Blood and Heir to the Shadows.
Find author Anne Bishop on her website.
Buy Queen of the Shadows at
Friday Flashback Reviews are a weekly feature here on The Introverted Reader. These are old reviews I wrote on GoodReads. Thanks to Angieville and her Retro Friday Reviews for the inspiration and encouragement!
I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop’s, my local independent bookstore located in downtown Asheville, NC; and Better World Books. I will receive a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase books through links on my site.
