Shadow's Bane (Dorina Basarab)

Outstanding book and completely satisfying read. Karen Chance writes terrific action packed stories filled with characters and humor that I enjoy reading over and over again. I’ve already re-read this book multiple times and it’s only been out three days! For those of us who have been fans of the series for a while, there is a very satisfying development or progression in Dory’s life shown in this book that promises good things ahead and makes me anxious for the next book.

Dory , now a member of the Council, struggles with her personality issues/new vampire powers and her personal relationships as she hunts for the people responsible for kidnapping and enslaving trolls.

This book picks up where the last book left off. I mean, there was a novella, "Lover's Knot," that technically occurred shortly before this book, but IMO, it's not vital to read it (it IS free though).

I had to quit reading the Cassie Palmer series a while ago (around Tempt the Stars) because it became virtually unreadable to me, and after reading the novella "Lover's Knot" I admit, i didn't have much hope that this book would be worth reading. Most of it ended up being better than I thought, but there are still some issues that brought the rating down to 3 stars.

In typical Chance fashion, it felt like a lot of the character development/progress made in the previous books sort of just disappeared, so while Dory is now on the council and aware of her split personality (aka "Dorina"), it sort of feels like she's still struggling with the same old issues. Or I guess we could say her issues are similar but they've become downright unwieldy and annoying (the body switches, the split personality with the ever developing powers that she conveniently has NO CONTROL over--sort of like that other clairvoyant we know).

And of course, now Mircea's POV (from his old memories) has been added into the mix. I really dislike this "power" of Dorina's. I feel like Mircea's memories alone added like 200 extra pages to this book. It felt like a novella in its own right, and I didn't like the way it was spliced in. I understand why it was added but I wish the author had worked the info in some other way (i found Mircea's memories boring and a little hard to follow because I kept forgetting what he was up to).

I also feel like Dory's becoming a little too similar to Cassie. I really dislike how she's somehow become powerless with the development of her new "powers"--powers that aren't even hers (she's basically now human while Dorina is the supe). I get that she needs to have vulnerabilities but sometimes it feels very contrived when Dory's suddenly able to do things (or suddenly isn't). Plus, when you add in the the body switches and the changing POVs mid-fight scene, some parts of this book became too hard to follow. I mean FFS, Chance already has a tendency to make her fight scenes chaotic and now THIS!

Still, i'd say if you enjoyed the last Dory book this one's worth reading (I re-read the first 3 Dory books and I didn't feel the writing was much different compared to this). There are some interesting revelations about Dory and some interesting interactions with her split personality and the vampires in this book. There's also another novella, "Dragon's Claw," that occurs right after this book that's worth reading (i haven't finished it yet due to lack of time, but I like it so far).

Dory’s father Mircea had built a wall between her vampire half and human half to save her life. Dory had promised to help a friend and got an old Army truck to use. Dory went to Olga’s headquarters which was a combination beauty salon and what looked like the back room of Soldier of Fortune. The local community of Dark Fey seemed to like buying their ammo and and getting their nails done at the same place.Olga was a troll and Dory went to get Olga to get a couple of the trolls already in the truck out before the tires blew from too much weight but Olga said the slaves would make their way home once they were freed. But Dory told Olga she had to bring the slavers back in ordered to be questioned by the Vampire Senate and then she would also get paid. Dory told Olga if they didn’t get the slavers they would never stop selling her people. If they don’t know who is behind this. Olga just said Vampire. behind it. A vampire named Gemenus was the one who build an network to get slaves but he was now dead. Dory knew that just her and a few trolls couldn’t do much but one of the recent trolls that had been taken for a slave was Olga’s nephew. Thanks to Gemenus death and a crackdown by the Vampire Senate on smuggling the active portals were dwindling and the price of slaves had gone up. Olga knew no one cared about the Dark Fey which is why they looked out for themselves. Then Dory literally ran into Louis- Cesare who her other half was dating and he said he would come along as he loved a good fight. Normally finding her perp in Dory’s line of work is easy since she mostly goes after things that go bump in the night among a lot of humans. But here at these fights there were a lot of things that went bump in the night. But here at the fights there were a lot of things that went bump in the night. Louis-Cesare wasn’t just a vampire he was a senator from the Vampire Senate and therefore the ruling elite of the vampire world. Anthony was of the European Vampire Senate and he realized having a champion with Louis-Cesare fighting ability meant that no one in their right mind was likely to challenge Anthony ever again, giving Anthony all but absolute power. But Louis- Cesare had gotten tired of of playing bodyguard and defected to the North American counterpart where his new role was yet to be determined. The usually somewhat -turgid and uber traditional vampire society had gotten a recent shake-up the long running war in Faerie ran over into Earth The threat caused an alliance of the six Vampire Senates which had never happened before. The newest member of the illustrious North American Vampire Senate was Dorina- Dory’s other half who had the more vampire half- The wars had taken half of the old senates lives and new ones had been needed and ones preferably could fight. Dhampirs and vampires were natural enemies, most vampires hissed at Dory. While at the fights a friend of Dorys yelled to her and proceeded to tell her that they were betting on how long it would be before she was killed as her seat on the senate was wanted by others. Then the fights began for the trolls and a female vampire was trying to kill her but Louis- Cesare was helping as much as he could. She woke up really sore at Louis-Cesare. She realized she was losing the control over Dorina.
I enjoyed this book a lot. I liked that Dory and Dorina finally faced each other after a very long time. I loved the twists and turns in this book. I like the plot and fast pace a lot. I loved that we find out about a lot of the reasons Dorina is as she is. This book had trolls, vampires other paranormal beings, portals. assassination attempts, Vampire Senate, Dhampirs, slaves, vampire politics, and so much more. I didn’t really care for going back and forth between the past and the present. I loved Louis-Cesare’s character. I also loved Louis-Cesare and Dorina/Dory together and how they interacted with each other. I loved the characters and the twists and turns and I recommend.

We have gotten to know so many characters in this series, and they feel like old friends (or much-hated, old enemies). There is the expected magic (good and evil) and some new, horrifying magic. Dory is really coming into her own in so many ways.

The story itself was riveting. The overarching story progressed as well as the tale in this book.

I feel like happily babbling a bunch of character names, but that in itself might be spoiling things: the names I would say would not all be the ones you would expect. And some that do feature don't have the role that you would expect.

Here is a not-spoiler: I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I finished it about an hour ago. And started reading it again immediately.

I read the third novel in the Midnight's Daughter series for the first time in 2012 and re-read it every year until finally Shadow's Bane came out in 2018. It was everything I wanted, equally parts action and comedy, romance and fantasy. I absolute adore Dory and Louis-Cesare, along with their band of misfits. Reading Shadow's Bane only made me love them more. I eagerly await the next installment (and hope it won't take another 6 years).

If you're looking for a great, funny, romantic urban fantasy read, look no further than Karen Chance!

I seriously had a hard time putting this book down. This book starts to answer some questions about the upcoming war, the major players, and the motivations behind those players.

There are some great interactions (blast from the past) scenes that also shine a light on the relationship between Mircea, Dorina, and Dory. I have found that I like mircea more as a character in this series as a father then a lover in the Cassie series. I look forward to his scenes in this series every time.

Shadow’s Bane also spends a lengthy time giving us background on the Fey to include a history lesson, religious views, and interactions between different fey. Caedmon has a lengthy and entertaining chance in the spot light. Although by the end of the book, there are still many questions about his motivations for the war, Faerie, and his intentions regarding Dory.

Shadow’s Bane has one of my favorite chapters from the entire Dorina series that all but had me rolling on the floor laughing. Specifically, the chapter when Dory finds out that Claire may have told a certain French vampire that Dory and Kit Marlowe were/should be an item giving said French vampire the impression that Kit was poaching his woman. Poor Kit never had a chance.

I am very interested to see where this series takes us and how Dory/Dorina will continue to grow as a character. Until next time!

Dorina/Dory Basarab has lived 500+ years fighting her dual nature. Her father, vampire master Mircea, has spent an almost equal amount of time fighting desperately to keep her alive starting when she was a young child. As a dhampir, Dory has ever been an outcast living in the shadows, both feared and reviled by humans, fey, and vampires. Now, Dory has friends and a vampire boyfriend, Louis-Cesare, who loves her despite the issues of having a lethal other half who just might take over permanently consigning Dory to the abyss, trapped in her own personal hell. Someone has kidnapped one of her troll housemate Olga’s nephew. Trolls do not take kindly the use and abuse they have endured for years as low class Dark Fey. Dory also has the challenge of her new Senate position which shows how bad things have gotten in the war between the Fey and Vampires when they let a pariah such as her on the council. With the help of her friends, Dory is trying to track down slavers as well as someone who has powerful magic weapons that will make an advantageous difference in the coming Faerie/Vampire war.

This story is told concurrently in distant past from Mircea’s POV in the form of dreams Dory is having about the time period when he was trying to find a way to save her life from that dual nature which seemed to be tearing her apart. Dorina seems to be more active now, but the question remains: is she trying to help or takeover permanently? As Dory finds out more about what Mircea did to save her life, she also learns about her darker twin in surprising ways.

As usual in the world and writing of Karen Chance there is much action, adventure, a little romance, and new developments in the storyline sending readers on a wild thrill ride. Epic battles, harrowing escapades, and Dory’s fey princess/dragon roommate, Claire’s, determination to protect her son, plus a house full of more fey, trolls, and vampires keeps the action brisk, entertaining, and spectacular.

Review first posted at Girl Who Reads. A free copy was provided in exchange for an honest review.

Dory is a dhampir, half human and half vampire. She was given a spot on the Vampire Senate because there is an upcoming war between vampires and Faerie, and they want a position of strength. In addition to the inevitable politicking and threats to her life, she is looking for a friend's missing nephew, which leads to the discovery of an illegal fight club ring. There's a bigger conspiracy at work, and Dory's vampire half is aware of more of it than she is.

Having not read the earlier Dorina Basarab books, I'm at a disadvantage. There's a full cast of characters and at least three books of backstory, but I was able to dive right in and catch up. We don't get the full story involved, of course, but there are enough hints to give me the relationships and keep going with the plot. It's convoluted in parts, partly because Dory just stumbles into the conspiracy regarding the fight club when she wasn't looking for it. Some of the context is missing, but that could also be because I've missed the earlier books in the series. The divide between the mortal half (Dory) and the vampire half (Dorina) as well as their separate abilities are clearly outlined, at least. This lends to some of the difficulties in figuring out the larger conspiracy amidst the war and the Vampire Senate. The flashbacks of memories from Dory's vampire father ultimately gives more background into the motives, as does the information that Dory gets in dribs and drabs from members of the faerie court.

The characters are actually really fun to read about and see how they interact. Even without the histories from the prior books, we really see the friendships at work and learn about how the different parts of faerie work in this universe, as well as the vampire power structure. The plot itself is very fast paced and gripping, and I was caught up in the story and cared about what would happen next. It's definitely an interesting series to follow, so I'll have to go back and find the earlier books in the series.

Dory is back and life is one big rollercoaster ride. Dory and Louis-Cesare jump from one fire to another with hardly a break between. After waiting what seemed like forever for this book it sped by too fast but it is a heck of a ride.

What a great installment in this fantastic series. As usual a LOT happens, and at times I did have to reread certain parts to make sure I had everything straight. It hit all my favorite buttons - humor, action, emotion. My only complaint was there is never enough Louis-Cesare for me, but these books, though long, take place over a short amount time (several days) so I know he can't be on scene every minute. But I just love him! Mircea is one of my favorite characters in this world and I love seeing more of him, even if most of it was in the past. A lot of revelations were made on the family history. It was fun to see Radu, Kit, Ray and I love the trolls. The fey guards were a hoot too. So now I have the urge to do a complete Cassie/Dory series reread while I wait for the next Cassie book.

This one has a lot more new characters along with old from the previous books that I really had to pay attention to what was going on. Really fast paced with non stop action that almost made me dizzy at times. Dory and Louis-Cesare are just too cute for words. Ray is a hoot along with the fey, and trolls, and other weird vampires. The fun just kept me turning the pages as fast as I could read them. Love this series. Happy reading, all!

Shadow's Bane is the fourth installment in author Karen Chance's Dorina Basarab series. This is a story that kicks into high gear almost immediately with a flashback to 1458 Venice with Mircea and a much younger Dorina. Readers who have gotten this far in the series know that Mircea is not the best father in the world. In fact, he's kind of an ass, truth be told. I think he actually loves Dorina, but he kinda played God, and now the two parts of Dorina are at war with each other. Also, please do not just skip over these parts of the story as they are definitely part of the larger picture.

As we get to alternative New York City, where the story mainly takes place, Dory is part of a group that deals with slave traders, and ends up deep into one conflict after another. Dory, who's vampire side has found a seat on the Vampire Senate, has found a home with her best friend Claire, who also has a unique blend of some interesting bloodlines. I especially love how strong she's gotten, and one not to be taken lightly by any means. Dory is also experiencing painful memories via Dorina, her alter-ego, and the strongest of the two of them.

Dorina is close to the surface and able to do some interesting things. Dory believes that it's only a matter of time before she loses her self to Dorina's will power and is gone forever. Dory's allies include Olga, a troll who wants to find the traders who caused her so much pain and suffering. Then there is the romance between Dory and Louis-Cesare, a master vampire and member of the Vampire Senate who has dealt with Dory's craziness for sometime now. There is a lot of ups and downs emotionally between the couple, but hopefully they will be able to move forward after everything that happens.

I am going off script a bit due to the fact that 1) it has been 6 years since the previous Dorina book (Fury's Kiss) was published, and 2) it seems that somehow I bought the third book, but never got around to actually reading it, and 3) there is a novella that was also released between books 3 & 4 that I also haven't read #EpicFail, and 4) you should really read Shadow's Bane and Cassie Palmer's Ride the Storm back to back since they are tied together.

*Per the publisher & author, the Cassie Palmer series and Dorina Basarab novels are interconnected, with characters from both making appearances in each series, and this story picks up after Ride the Storm left off, making it a must read for fans of Karen’s Cassie Palmer series. The author has a chart that readers can follow to know what books to read and when. More times than not, the books pick up where Cassie's left off, or vice versa.

This story is filled with humor, romance, alternating timelines, plenty of action, suspense, and mysteries. I do hope it doesn't take the author another 4-6 years to come out with the next Dorina book. Hey, I'm getting up there in age, I don't know if I can keep going at this pace of reading 200-300 books a year. I do have one or two minor negatives, mostly dealing with how much time Dory spends hurt, or passed out. I don't mind the fight scenes. They are the best part of the story. I never learned who the Blonde and Purple villains were that were supposed to assassinate Dory. Did anyone else? At 600+ pages, this book is a monster. I think the author could have edited out a few hundred pages and still had an enjoyable story.

This is the fourth book in the Dorina Basarab series. It’s been six years (yes *six* years) since the last book in this series. I love this series so much more than Chance’s Cassie Palmer series (which I stopped reading after the third book). I was a bit nervous to pick this book up because of the huge time lag between books, but it used to be one of my favorite UF series so I decided to take a risk. It ended up being good...not great...but good. It was also very, very long and it felt long.

Chance does a pretty good job of re-introducing characters and providing background for those who don’t have the time or inclination to re-read the first three books in the series. I was still a bit lost in the politics and I think some nuances of the story were lost on me because I just couldn’t remember the full background and all the characters after six years. I mean really, if you are going to take six years to write the next book in a series you would think you could take some time to recap the “story thus far” at the beginning of the book or something.

My biggest issue with this book was the number and length of the fight scenes. I know, I know...I love fight scenes in my book and these were decently written ones. They were just soooo long and sooo frequent that they really interrupted the flow of the story. Chance could have gotten the same impact with shorter fight scenes that didn’t completely disrupt the story flow. I also got really sick of Dory getting knocked out and waking up somewhere else...that happened probably six or seven times in this book and got really old.

I kept forgetting the main storyline because of the fight scenes. This led to the story having a very disjointed flow. It was almost like the story, fight scenes, and relationship scenes between Dory and Louis-Cesare were separate… they really didn’t flow well and felt very choppy. Additionally, vast portions of the book follow Mircea and his past. I could have done without these long chapters told from Mircea’s POV; they didn’t add a ton to the story and the elements they did bring to the story could have been handled in a much more concise way.

Despite all the complaining above I did end up enjoying the book. I love these characters and the intriguing world they live in. I really enjoyed some of the developments in here. I love the scenes between Dory and Louis-Cesare and wish we had gotten more of that to balance all the random fighting. Chance’s writing style is easy to read and (for the most part) engaging.

Overall this was a good addition to the Dorina Basarab series. I really enjoyed re-entering this world and some of the developments around the characters here. The book should have been edited better and was kind of a mess. The story didn’t flow well and the lengthy/numerous fight scenes kept derailing things completely. The parts of the book from Mircea’s POV should have been left out completely; they didn’t really add much.

So, should you read this? If you are a huge Basarab fan like I am...yes! there is some really good stuff in here. However, be prepared for a lengthy slog...this book was seriously long and poorly paced.

Between the Cassie series and the Dory series, I usually prefer the Dory series, but this book was not as good as "Reap" was, so for once Karen Chance is only getting a 4-star rating from me! Otherwise, it was still pretty good.

I loved the newest installment in the Dorina Basarab series so much I read it twice! Karen Chance always throws a liberal amount of humor in her books, but there were several chapters that had me laughing uncontrollably. I really liked that some of the previously minor characters were fleshed out, and the new characters were well developed. My only wish is that Stinky made some more appearances - I love that little guy!

This book saw Dory becoming more in tune with herself (aka Dorina) while fending off would-be senate member contenders and a fae menace involved in trafficking. I always love to see more Dory and LC (and Caedmon and those twining plants become oddly more pleasing every book), especially when something quite monumental happens near the end.

Karen Chance is a fantastic world builder. I love these stories. As usual this book was great but maybe a little hard to read? I have decided I don’t love books that go back and forth between characters every other chapter. I may have preferred a Book 1 Mircea, Book 2 Dory, however, this was a great book, anyone who follows the series, this book is a must, you will be very happy with the ending. Another great book by Karen Chance.

This book beat my expectations. There was a lot of progress on the MC’s relationships, as well as incremental steps forward on the overall plot arc. I still really like Dorina, and am glad that I didn’t root for her in vain.