Genre: Dark Romantasy
Format: Kindle, Paperback, Audio
Kindle Unlimited: Yes
Series: Court of Ravens
Synopsis: {via Goodreads}
Format: Kindle, Paperback, Audio
Kindle Unlimited: Yes
Series: Court of Ravens
Synopsis: {via Goodreads}
More painful than love… are the secrets that bind and divide us.Shadows so Cruel is a full-length dark fantasy romance novel, and book two in the Court of Ravens duet. The two-part story features two morally gray raven shifters, a young woman at the mercy of their shadows, and a HEA. This world contains dark elements, violence, and themes some may find disturbing. Readers can find more detailed information on the author's website. What this book doesn't contain is a hero - because villains do it better. And two do it better than one…
Review:
⚠️May contain Spoilers⚠️Um, I am at a loss for words after finishing this one. There were tears, lots of them, and this book broke my heart. You get an HEA, but it's not the HEA you're expecting, which I should have seen coming after reading the first book in the series, Feathers so Vicious. Liv Zander doesn't always give you what you want, but she does give the characters what they need which is just as good. Just like the first one, this book is dark so check out the author's Trigger Warning page for information before you pick this one up.
Tropes:💫 Fantasy
💔 Enemies to Lovers
💋 Reverse Harem
❤ Shadow Daddy
🏰 War
🐦⬛ Shapeshifters
💖 HEA
The Characters:
After the first book, I didn't think the characters could get any more broken, but I was wrong. They're still pretty broken in this book and Galantia goes through something in this book that should break her, would probably break anyone else, but she weathers it and doesn't let it break her. She's probably the strongest character in the series and she is able to find something in this book that she's been looking for her whole life.The characters also being put back together in this book. The reverse harem is in full effect and their little threesome is actually happy together for much of this book, once they overcome the betrayals from Feathers so Vicious. Unfortunately, they also suffer a profound loss in this book that had me in tears for about the last 5% of the book. I won't spoil it, but by the time you've read two full books, this loss is heavy.
The Plot:
Unlike the first book, this one has war. Not just talk of war or war as a backdrop, this one has actual battle scenes. If you enjoy that sort of thing (I don't particularly), the books got it. The raven army, led by Malyr, spend the beginning of the book taking Tidestone, the stronghold where Galantia grew up. After which they spend a lot of time trying to teach Galantia how to be a raven. This consumes a lot of this book as she tries to learn to use her powers. And, finally, they reclaim their ancestral home with Galantia's help. Overall, the plot in this book was a little less fulfilling for me than the first book and it read a little bit slower, which is crazy because this book has more action than the first one did. The pace of this book is fast, like the first one was.
The way the war plays out in this book felt a little rushed to me, but that may just be that I don't particularly enjoy war situations. They spend two full books talking about taking the Human capital city, then something happens that forces them to rush their plans and the whole war situation between the ravens and the humans plays out in one battle scene. It's a little faster than you would expect for a war, but she doesn't have much space to work with and since this is a duology, she couldn't have played out a prolonged war situation. Still, it felt like it should have taken more than one battle to end the war.
Overall, I really enjoyed not only this book, but the whole duology. It's got a beautiful, if decidedly dark, love story which is something I look for in books. I need romance, this series has that, even though it's not a sweet, fun romance. And, lots of people seem pretty taken aback by how dark this book series was, but they're probably not the target audience. If you like dark romantasy and don't mind dubcon, this book series may be for you.
Rating:
❤❤❤❤❤ - I loved it. Highly recommended for dark romantasy readers. I'll be looking for other books by Liv Zander.
