The Shadow Queen (Black Jewels)

I have to wonder what happened to the Janelle and Daemon that I loved from The Black Jewels trilogy. The characters in these latest books are flat and boring. I wish Anne Bishop would leave the boring marital lives of Janelle and Daemon out of books about other characters. Cassidy's story was intriguing and heart felt. Things were just starting to heat up towards the end and then...it's over. I hope there are more books in this series about Cassidy. I wouldn't call this Black Jewels book 7. To me there were only three, everything else should not be included, because they don't compare. Truthfully, I found myself skipping over pages with Janelle and Daemon. They are seriously THAT boring and unimportant. I don't like them as characters anymore. On the other hand Cassidy, Gray and Theran are amazing and deep characters. Even the secondary characters like the black widow and Ramon were wonderful. Less of Janelle and Daemon, Saetan and Lucivar, more of Cassidy, Gray, Theran, etc. Please!

I will agree that The Shadow Queen had a potential to be a great novel and fell short. The two storylines, the main storyline with Cassidy and the secondary storyline with the SaDiablo family, were not balanced well. Cassidy's story was better left as a short story to be put in a collection similar to Dreams Made Flesh, and that would have suited all the reviewers just fine, am I right? It could not stand on its own and be a long novel. The reason? The nature of the plot. The immediate danger that is present in all the other books is already gone, and Cassidy's struggle is to repair a people and their land. Suitable enough plot for a short story but not enough for a novel. I would have tolerated the secondary plotline if it tied into the main plot in some way, and Anne Bishop is usually very good at doing that. A seemingly mundane detail could be useful later on, but that subtlety did not happen in this novel.

Little new information was given to the old characters. If there was, I would have been more forgiving. And while I could go on about the secondary plot, I will say that the main storyline was wonderful and well written, and given the flair that only Anne Bishop can do. This new cast of characters turn out to be loveable, the type that you hope will come back in some way in later works. I just wish that they were allowed to shine on their own and have the big shiners of the series have cameos. Like in The Invisible Ring, cameos of our favorite characters make us love them all the more.

Would I buy this book? Perhaps not, and surely not in hardback. But I hope that Anne Bishop will consider the structural balance of her novels in the future.

I enjoyed this new installment of the Black Jewels, however some of the same problems that we saw in the previous books still linger.

I did like Cassidy. She was very real. And I actually liked Theran the character even if I didn't like Theran the man. He was very bitter but it was understandable and made the situation genuine. Gray was so adorable and I look forward to see him grow in the future books.

I was not as distracted by the shifts between the story in Terreille and the SaDiablo family in Kaleer as some reviewers were. I was expecting to be but I was not. Most of the SaDiablo story is connected to the story about Cassidy in that the action takes place before or after the characters from Terreille enter or leave the stage. However, the episode with Saetan was random and unnecessary.

What I liked (SOME SPOILERS):

1. I liked the story of a Queen who is not perfect a la our favorite Mary Sue aka Jaenelle.
2. I liked the further exploration of Protocol which I feel is a key part of this world.
3. I liked that there was some exploration of Daemon's sexuality this time.
4. I liked seeing what happened to Terreille after the Witch Storm.
5. I liked how this story was connected to the Invisible Ring, and it was done well, so that we could get our brief glimpse of Daemon, Lucivar, and the others.

What I didn't like (oh geez...)

1. I didn't like the fact that Jaenelle and Daemon had basically ignored Terreille up to this point. I understand the distrust of Theran but I don't understand why they didn't think of stopping the war before. It's kind of...heartless to have just let that go on for 2 years, especially when Jaenelle was the cause of it AND the Blood that were left should have been worthy to be saved.
2. I wanted to see more Protocol. This was a perfect book/opportunity to really create and describe the whole system.
3. I am not sure if I liked where she went with Daemon's sexuality, but Ms. Bishop's the boss. Whatever Jaenelle does is fine, (i.e. scare the living #$@#! out of him in Tangled Webs) but if he's a bit scary...apologies flow like water.
4. Enough with the white silk shirt already. That whole thing with the symbolism of the shirt was way over done. I'm not twelve...and would have gotten it if the author had changed the item that was taken from the man.
5. While I was not distracted per se by the shifts from Cassidy to the SaDiablo family, I do agree with others that these two plots could easily have been two separate books. She missed an opportunity here.

I sincerely love this world but I have to say that once again I am disappointed with the author's skills. She has created something wonderful but then writes books with random bits of information about her characters that don't do them justice and don't show much progression as a writer. This book was light-years better than Tangled Webs but I feel that the readers have to do too much filling in for the author with our own imagination. I'm sure all of us can think of at least 2-3 scenes that we would like to see with Cassidy or with the SaDiablo family and it doesn't stretch our brains to think them up. Great books leave you wanting more but don't force you to create you own adventure to get the answers that you crave.

I will give one example. It is sort of a spoiler but not really a spoiler and that is, amusingly, part of my point. In this book we find out that Daemon has gone into rut with Jaenelle more than once. We, the devoted readers, get this in one sentence...blink and you miss it...one casual sentence. So by telling you this, I actually haven't really spoiled anything because we don't even get to read about it.

Maybe I am expecting too much. But this is not a children's book so I feel that some attempt should be made to develop the world and answer lingering questions.

The Shadow Queen is an elegant combination of two story lines set in the Black Jewels universe shortly after Witch has destroyed all Blood tainted by Dorothea. We pick up with the characters from Black Jewels (Daemon, Satan, Janaelle, etc) as well as the descendants of Lia and Jared from the one-off novel Invicible Ring (also by Anne Bishop).

The Blood of Dena Nehele are trying to pick up the pieces after Witch destroyed all but 100 lighter jeweled Blood males. After a violent Landen revolution, the people of Dena Nehele seek help from the Shadow Realm...and Daemon Sadi in particular. Jaenelle and Daemon send a Kaleer Queen into Little Terrielle where she must heal a damaged land, and restore faith in a people who have reason to hate and fear all Blood Queens. The new queen must also discover a centuries old treasure that holds the promise of saving the Blood of Dena Nehele.

Back at the Keep, Saetan and Daemon are struggling with inner demons relating to their tortured past...demons that are threatening to drag them into the Twisted Kingdom.

I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars only because I wanted to hear more about the new characters. I love Jaenelle, Daemon, Lucivar etc. but Anne Bishop had resolved that storyline satisfactorily. Though I feel that undue attention was paid to them, I am very happy that the author has not completely written them out of future Black Jewel stories.

If Bishop stays true to form then we can expect at least two more Shadow Queen novels, both of which I will immediately purchase. This is an excellent book that I would recommend to anyone.

The Shadow Queen is an elegant combination of two story lines set in the Black Jewels universe shortly after Witch has destroyed all Blood tainted by Dorothea. We pick up with the characters from Black Jewels (Daemon, Satan, Janaelle, etc) as well as the descendants of Lia and Jared from the one-off novel Invicible Ring (also by Anne Bishop).

The Blood of Dena Nehele are trying to pick up the pieces after Witch destroyed all but 100 lighter jeweled Blood males. After a violent Landen revolution, the people of Dena Nehele seek help from the Shadow Realm...and Daemon Sadi in particular. Jaenelle and Daemon send a Kaleer Queen into Little Terrielle where she must heal a damaged land, and restore faith in a people who have reason to hate and fear all Blood Queens. The new queen must also discover a centuries old treasure that holds the promise of saving the Blood of Dena Nehele.

Back at the Keep, Saetan and Daemon are struggling with inner demons relating to their tortured past...demons that are threatening to drag them into the Twisted Kingdom.

I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars only because I wanted to hear more about the new characters. I love Jaenelle, Daemon, Lucivar etc. but Anne Bishop had resolved that storyline satisfactorily. Though I feel that undue attention was paid to them, I am very happy that the author has not completely written them out of future Black Jewel stories.

If Bishop stays true to form then we can expect at least two more Shadow Queen novels, both of which I will immediately purchase. This is an excellent book that I would recommend to anyone.

What a beautiful story. Complicated yet easy to follow, it holds your attention from start to finish. And the love stories are not just the romantic kind but also the love for your family. A very worthwhile and enjoyable read.

Absolutely love all the Black Jewels novels! I've read Cassidy's story 3 times so far and I think I'll read it again. I can never get enough of Daemon so I adore the glimpses into his and Jaenelle's lives. I wish the series would go on indefinitely. It doesn't matter whose story Anne Bishop tells. It will always be amazing.

I was really happy that Anne Bishop returned to Dehena Nele, as I really enjoyed the Invisible Ring. I wondered how and when the Territory fell to Dorothea, but Bishop doesn't go totally into it.

**SPOILERS**

I thought that Theran was a complete jerk: whiney, rude, and totally lacking in Protocol, even though there were vestiges of it ingrained in his blood (he is a Warlord Prince after all) it's practically genetic! I am sure that he will betray Cassie in the end, even if he doesn't mean to, she doesn't sing to him like the others, and he will have to face Gray. I liked Rannon, he reminded me a little of Chatosi. They should send some of the males to serve in Kaeleer Courts for a while to observe Protocol, but then again, the Kaeleer males might slaughter them all for looking at a female the wrong way....
I loved Gray! I have a thing for damaged needy men ;) I didn't mind his spurts of fragility, we haven't seen such a damaged male in a while. Talon was amusing, but I really with that Jared, Lia, Thera and Blaed were there to kick some sense into their decedents!! Also them dealing with WITCH might have been interesting.
I am truly a Daemon fan, but I wish that there had been less of him and the other regular characters in the book. Everything else was distracting and smutty, not sexy.
I can't wait to see how things come out, I'm a hopeless romantic!
I have reread the book at least six times, and it's a great book, but the whining of Theran, Talon's lack of cahones, and everyone being like "Oh my God! Cassie's friends are super powerful! Everyone freak out!"

So in conclusion, I agree with many who say More Cassie/Gray and Less Daemon Jaenelle, and good start to a new chapter with new people.

This novel was a wonderful spin-off from the Black Jewels Trilogy. I love the fact that while Anne Bishop's characters are all very powerful, that they are all very real as well. I love the squablles among the family members, the emotions and the mood swings.
While the main plot centred around the new characters including Cassidy, Theran, Gray and their exploits there was a side-plot which involved the characters from the original series as well. It is nice to know that although you are reading about new characters, you still get a chance to see the old ones again and find out how they are getting along.
Anne Bishop makes her character's very well and does not hesitate to show them as human, as I feel many fantasy authors do- they all have feelings and misunderstandings, and the themes from the original trilogy are continued on in this novel. I also really like that we get to see what happens to the cast from The Invisible Ring...
Very much looking forward the next installment :D

Anne Bishop is directly responsible for my lack of sleep time the evening I picked up this book. It's everything I loved about the previous Jewels books, and more--the heart, the consequences, the long view--and oh! the kindred sceltie! I confess, I am completely besotted with Lady Vae. In the end, this book has all the elements from the previous Jewels book--but every bit of it is sharper, deeper, and honed to an edge. Total delight!

I finally bit the bullet and borrowed The Shadow Queen from my local library. After Tangled Webs, I'll be honest; my expectations were in complete nadir. Initially, I was pleasantly surprised. I was intrigued by the idea Ms. Bishop put in place; how would the people of Terreille feel about the "Old Ways" after the centuries of abuse they endured at the hands of Dorthea and Hayll? I also liked the concept behind Cassidy, essentially a normal character without the ludicrously unlimited amount of power and resources we've become accustomed to in the Black Jewels Universe. The subsequent execution though, left me cold.

I've said it in my earlier review of Queen of the Darkness and I'll say it here too. Ms. Bishop needs to vary her phrases something fierce. I didn't bother to count the number of times "killing field" or some variant thereof was used but it was waaay too many. Not only does she repeat these little gems ad nauseum but she loves to spice up the rest of the book with frustratingly meaningless descriptions. I know she did this to a certain extent in the original trilogy, Janelle's "slivery, velvet coated laugh" for example, but at least there she kept it to a minimum. Recently she's gone completely mad with them. My personal favorite, in this book, occurs somewhere around page 314 in the hard cover edition currently available in the States. Saetan gets his voice described as "like a velvet coated whip." This makes no sense at all. Think about it, how would a velvet coating soften the blow received from a whip? Answer, it wouldn't, in fact the nubby, drag reducing properties of the velvet, to say nothing of its absorbency, might make getting beaten with one worse than with the standard issue slick leather version.

All nitpicking aside, the writing in these later books is just sloppy. The characters from the original trilogy lack any kind of cohesion and the new additions seem like they would be better as side characters so sketchily are they written. Saetan, for example, goes bizarrely insane and brutally murders a villain while hallucinating that she's Dorthea. While his motivation is explained late in The Shadow Queen the continuing changes introduced to the character in the later books make little sense in the context of the original. I ask you, how does a character who is constantly described as a man so honor bound as to be unable even to injure a witch no matter how much she deserved it (in the original) blithely commit genocide ("Zuulaman" in Queen of the Darkness) as well as one of the most brutal killings of a witch we've seen in the series (Vulchera The Shadow Queen)? It makes him appear callous in the extreme when one thinks back to his role during the Black Jewels Trilogy. Why, if he had done all of this or was capable of doing any of it, did he let Daemon and Lucivar suffer for so long? Why did he not do more to support or even save Jaenelle? (And don't give me that `she was keeping him out of Beldon Mor' garbage, she wasn't always there) Not to mention, how can we the readers accept that man who is totally emotionally destroyed by killing a revolting child-rapist or who feels deep compassion for sparrows and daffodils (Heir to the Shadows) is able to just have a bit of a sniffle and then get on with his life after wiping an entire race and its land out of existence? Surely some of those people, plants and animals were uninvolved in ex's nastiness. It destroys the original, subtle, interesting motivation and balance of the character. The longer the series continues the more difficult it is to identify with or even understand the characters.

I'll get back to the supposed main plot of The Shadow Queen now. I've actually only got one objection to the book but it's a doozy. Theran, the best new character in these books, raises some very good questions about the "Old Ways." Why are they better, for example? How does one institute them to the people who aren't naturally inclined to submit to a certain woman? Are all parts of a culture or society that don't conform immediately and perfectly to this other system simply worthless or can they be incorporated? Not only are these concerns not addressed; a number of them are simply brushed aside. I, for one, find stories in which a dominant foreign power simply bulldozes a preexisting group because the ways of said outside group are "better" rather difficult to read. Despite all of the lip service given to "blending" peoples, masked as infuriatingly puerile gardening references, the real message is conform to our ways or GTFO. I understand Theran's frustrations, they're mine.

It's this weird crypto-imperialist thinking is the major problem with every aspect of the book. Cassidy is a perfectly likable character initially and might have become one of my favorites; but for the fact that she suddenly arrives in Dena Nehele knowing nothing about the cultures there or the underlying tension or even the basic history and becomes this paragon of the right way to live. Everyone else has to bend to her: there is no requirement for her to actually try to internalize or even acknowledge the way in which things have been done. I don't buy the idea that everything before the purge was bad and I don't think Ms. Bishop does either. She seems to go out of her way to establish that the males in Dena Nehele aren't inherently bad. The way in which she goes about "redeeming them", however, is quite awful.

I would love to see Theran and Cassidy actually talk to one another about their different ideas for the direction of Dena Nehele; you know, talk through your disputes and reach a compromise like adults, rather than dance around the idea by planting a frickin' metaphor garden. Don't even get me started on Gray by the way. Again, an interesting character who could have been used in cool ways to frame ideas about abuse of power and the need for a balance between old and new ways who is just tossed aside. The bare minute he sees Cassidy his character vanishes and he becomes a cipher for the overly subservient, hen pecked males of the original coven. Really people, and I say this as a woman with a very bitchy streak, you can't behave like the ladies in the coven (constantly belittling and infantilizing the men in your life) and expect them to like you. Life is about give and take and partnerships of equals, of complimentary strengths and support and that is exactly what this book lacks.

I will probably read the rest of this series out of masochistic curiosity but I'm sure Theran will simply become another cardboard villain. The status quo will chew him up and spit him out on the way to inevitable triumph. Hurray.

This imaginative world consists of 3 parallel realms. There are 2 kinds of people, the ruling aristocrats with paranormal powers called the Blood, and everyone else, the Landen. The Blood have a central power structure of one Queen surrounded and balanced by a court of 12 Warlords. Around this central structure are their relatives, friends, spouses, etc. Over centuries, the Blood became twisted and tainted by aristocrats who used their powers cruelly. At the end of the Black Jewel Trilogy books, a wave of power swept all three realms, killing all those of the Blood who were tainted.

2 years later, the territory of Dena Nehele in the realm of Tereille is in trouble. During the power wave, so many tainted Queens were killed that there remained no Queens left able to hold a court. As a result, there are 100 Warlords with no one to balance them. Even worse, these Warlords are the ones victimized by the evil Queens before the storm. They appeal to the shadow realm of Kaeler for a Queen who can come to Dena Nehele, a Queen who knows the Old Ways.

Cassidy is the Queen who goes to Dena Nehele to teach these traumatized people how the Blood should rule.

Cassidy was a delight. Wise, smart, and knowledgeable about the Old Ways, she soon has the people in Dena Nehele supporting her. I loved reading about her and how she taught these people what the Blood should be, living in honour and protecting the Landen.

However, Theran, the man sent to bring her, was an utter jerk. Everytime Cassidy did something wonderful, he thought she was being selfish, stupid, careless or dumb. He was prejudiced, tactless and really idiotic. For example, he sees that she's plain and he dislikes her because she won't impress the other men. He sees she's in danger and doesn't protect her. She protects a Landen child and he thinks she's jeopardizing everything.

There is a lot of Jaenelle, Lucivar, Daemon and Saetan from the Black Jewel Trilogy. We see how they deal with their past trauma in their current situations. As much as I loved these characters, I found it very jarring to continually change to their stories from the story involving Cassidy.

So basically I loved Cassidy's story. Unfortunately, it was regularly interrupted by side stories about Jaenelle and Daemon. Even worse, Theran had too much time in this book. Almost everything Cassidy did was followed up by some stupid bitter viewpoint from Theran.

The story ended too soon. I wanted to see Cassidy reach out to the Shalador Queens and see her get together with Gray. Instead, it ended with Theran realizing he should be a better person and maybe not be so critical of her (well, duh!).

Hm, after writing this review, I just read an interview with the author, who said she'd be writing 2 more Black Jewel books, the second part of Cassidy's story (hurray!) and another book of short stories. Well, I hope there will be less Theran in the next book, or that at least he grows up.

For those who have read the Invisible Ring, this is the story of the Grey Lady's home centuries later, after the tainted Queens are removed and the land has to heal itself.

So only 4 stars from me.

I absolutely loved Shadow Queen. I didn't think I would at first and think there was way too much about Theran when there definitely could have been less. However, I LOVE the way Jaenelle, Daemon, Saetan, Lucivar, etc are continually portrayed. It continues their story and while reading about Cassidy readers also get to see more into the lives of the original characters and what made them who and what they are.

I finally bit the bullet and borrowed The Shadow Queen from my local library. After Tangled Webs, I'll be honest; my expectations were in complete nadir. Initially, I was pleasantly surprised. I was intrigued by the idea Ms. Bishop put in place; how would the people of Terreille feel about the "Old Ways" after the centuries of abuse they endured at the hands of Dorthea and Hayll? I also liked the concept behind Cassidy, essentially a normal character without the ludicrously unlimited amount of power and resources we've become accustomed to in the Black Jewels Universe. The subsequent execution though, left me cold.

I've said it in my earlier review of Queen of the Darkness and I'll say it here too. Ms. Bishop needs to vary her phrases something fierce. I didn't bother to count the number of times "killing field" or some variant thereof was used but it was waaay too many. Not only does she repeat these little gems ad nauseum but she loves to spice up the rest of the book with frustratingly meaningless descriptions. I know she did this to a certain extent in the original trilogy, Janelle's "slivery, velvet coated laugh" for example, but at least there she kept it to a minimum. Recently she's gone completely mad with them. My personal favorite, in this book, occurs somewhere around page 314 in the hard cover edition currently available in the States. Saetan gets his voice described as "like a velvet coated whip." This makes no sense at all. Think about it, how would a velvet coating soften the blow received from a whip? Answer, it wouldn't, in fact the nubby, drag reducing properties of the velvet, to say nothing of its absorbency, might make getting beaten with one worse than with the standard issue slick leather version.

All nitpicking aside, the writing in these later books is just sloppy. The characters from the original trilogy lack any kind of cohesion and the new additions seem like they would be better as side characters so sketchily are they written. Saetan, for example, goes bizarrely insane and brutally murders a villain while hallucinating that she's Dorthea. While his motivation is explained late in The Shadow Queen the continuing changes introduced to the character in the later books make little sense in the context of the original. I ask you, how does a character who is constantly described as a man so honor bound as to be unable even to injure a witch no matter how much she deserved it (in the original) blithely commit genocide ("Zuulaman" in Queen of the Darkness) as well as one of the most brutal killings of a witch we've seen in the series (Vulchera The Shadow Queen)? It makes him appear callous in the extreme when one thinks back to his role during the Black Jewels Trilogy. Why, if he had done all of this or was capable of doing any of it, did he let Daemon and Lucivar suffer for so long? Why did he not do more to support or even save Jaenelle? (And don't give me that `she was keeping him out of Beldon Mor' garbage, she wasn't always there) Not to mention, how can we the readers accept that man who is totally emotionally destroyed by killing a revolting child-rapist or who feels deep compassion for sparrows and daffodils (Heir to the Shadows) is able to just have a bit of a sniffle and then get on with his life after wiping an entire race and its land out of existence? Surely some of those people, plants and animals were uninvolved in ex's nastiness. It destroys the original, subtle, interesting motivation and balance of the character. The longer the series continues the more difficult it is to identify with or even understand the characters.

I'll get back to the supposed main plot of The Shadow Queen now. I've actually only got one objection to the book but it's a doozy. Theran, the best new character in these books, raises some very good questions about the "Old Ways." Why are they better, for example? How does one institute them to the people who aren't naturally inclined to submit to a certain woman? Are all parts of a culture or society that don't conform immediately and perfectly to this other system simply worthless or can they be incorporated? Not only are these concerns not addressed; a number of them are simply brushed aside. I, for one, find stories in which a dominant foreign power simply bulldozes a preexisting group because the ways of said outside group are "better" rather difficult to read. Despite all of the lip service given to "blending" peoples, masked as infuriatingly puerile gardening references, the real message is conform to our ways or GTFO. I understand Theran's frustrations, they're mine.

It's this weird crypto-imperialist thinking is the major problem with every aspect of the book. Cassidy is a perfectly likable character initially and might have become one of my favorites; but for the fact that she suddenly arrives in Dena Nehele knowing nothing about the cultures there or the underlying tension or even the basic history and becomes this paragon of the right way to live. Everyone else has to bend to her: there is no requirement for her to actually try to internalize or even acknowledge the way in which things have been done. I don't buy the idea that everything before the purge was bad and I don't think Ms. Bishop does either. She seems to go out of her way to establish that the males in Dena Nehele aren't inherently bad. The way in which she goes about "redeeming them", however, is quite awful.

I would love to see Theran and Cassidy actually talk to one another about their different ideas for the direction of Dena Nehele; you know, talk through your disputes and reach a compromise like adults, rather than dance around the idea by planting a frickin' metaphor garden. Don't even get me started on Gray by the way. Again, an interesting character who could have been used in cool ways to frame ideas about abuse of power and the need for a balance between old and new ways who is just tossed aside. The bare minute he sees Cassidy his character vanishes and he becomes a cipher for the overly subservient, hen pecked males of the original coven. Really people, and I say this as a woman with a very bitchy streak, you can't behave like the ladies in the coven (constantly belittling and infantilizing the men in your life) and expect them to like you. Life is about give and take and partnerships of equals, of complimentary strengths and support and that is exactly what this book lacks.

I will probably read the rest of this series out of masochistic curiosity but I'm sure Theran will simply become another cardboard villain. The status quo will chew him up and spit him out on the way to inevitable triumph. Hurray.

The deceitful Queens ignored the honorable Rules of the Blood; their mendacious rule ruined Dena Nehele leading to open revolt. At about the same time weak Queen Cassidy of Bhak became Lady Cassidy when her retinue deserted her to join the stronger court of much prettier and more powerful Queen Kermilla.

Following an uprising, one of the remaining Warlord Princes, Theran Grayhaven desperately needs a partner to help him re-establish his family's control. The High Prince of Hell introduces him to Lady Cassidy. He proposes a marriage of convenience, which the former queen, encouraged by her few loyal friends, accepts as the new Queen of Dena Nehele. However, though Theran and Cassidy seem an ideal match, they have relationship issues further exacerbated when she meets and is attracted to his cousin Gray the gardener, a Warlord Prince with body and brain damage caused by the Blood Queens.

The latest Black Jewels fantasy thriller is a strong character driven tale as Theran and Cassidy seem genuine as does the key support players Gray, Ranon, and several Queens. The royal pair needs to unite if they want power, but once they do the duo realizes how incompatible they are especially when they meet significant others. To fully appreciate the interwoven history of the Blood magic world new readers should peruse previous tales in the saga (see TANGLED WEB and DREAMS MADE FLESH, etc.), even as Anne Bishop provides a strong romantic fantasy that fans will relish.

Harriet Klausner

Just finished and it's amazing. Simply amazing.

Two main story lines in the novel, and one of them revolves around Daemon, Sadi, and Jaenelle so fans of the trilogy are going to be happy so much time is spent with these beloved characters.

The other story line expands and answers questions from The Invisible Ring book.

Plan on this being one of your re read books...

This is another installment in the world of the Blood. None of the books will ever compare to the original trilogy, but those of us who love these characters can accept that, just as we accept Janelle is not what she used to be. Just as she has come into a new period of her life, so we have come to a new period of these wonderful stories. Grey and Cassidy are enthralling new characters in a world which we have come to love. The new shifts in Daemon's life open up a new side of Jaenelle we had not seen to this point. My one complaint is that there is not more of Lucivar...but then there will probably never be enough Lucivar for me!

Love all of the Black Jewel Series, I actually purchased them at this time for my sister as a Christmas gift. My sister had read the first 3 but hadn't had the opportunity to read any of the others so I purchased the entire series for her. She loved the first 3, I'm sure this one will be no different. These books are definitely not for the kindhearted and I would describe them as dark and disturbing for most of the series, they can be graphic, horrifying, fantastic, whimsical, saddening and much much more. I have found myself actually laughing out loud, and crying so hard I had to put them away for a while. I've read and reread them probably close to 10 times and can say that I feel they blow most other writers and writing styles out of the water. Everyone is all about 50 Shades of Gray for its sexual content and heat but, in my opinion, nothing beats these books in that aspect as well as many others, I find myself wishing I could step through the pages and live in their world. These books are definitely something you read with an open mind and they are by no means written for children. The Shadow Queen is probably one of my favorite of the series because it is a story that goes on without focusing solely on the Sadiablo family so it gives you more of the perspective of how normal blood interact without being able to intimidate their way through life.

Written after the events of Queen of the darkness, a realm looks for a queen to rule them. They're allocated a queen who is basically the best thing to happen to them, although they don't trust very much. I love the justifications for everyones responses, and the character interactions. Every action and reaction makes sense. I have read this book so many times, I've forgotten the number, but it'll remain one of my favourites.