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Definite spoilers for Daughter of the Blood.
At the end of the first book, Jaenelle is broken and Daemon isn’t in much better shape. Jaenelle has to heal in this book and come to terms with what she is. Luckily, she’s surrounded by caring friends who are willing to protect her and push her as needed.
I truly wanted to give this one 5 stars. Again, it grabbed me and just did not let go. But there were a few more things that I couldn’t overlook. To start with, I was a little more aware in this book that the writing could have been more polished. I can’t think of an example, so you’ll just have to take my word for it. Also, this one felt more like a young adult book. The focus of the first book was mostly Daemon, a grown man. The focus of this one is a teenage Jaenelle, so the tone has gone backwards a little bit. As happens sometimes in trilogies, this second book felt like filler. The author wrapped up a few threads from the first book and set up the conflict for the third book, but there wasn’t a whole lot of actual new, necessary stuff going on in this book. The big thing was that the book felt very episodic. There wasn’t a great flow. I would finish one chapter/story, and in the next chapter, two years had passed and another little story was being told. It would take me a page or two to figure out when the story was happening.
That was the bad stuff, but there was still lots of good things going on. I love these main characters. Daemon wasn’t seen as much in this one, but we did get to see more of Lucivar. I do really like him, but I can’t wait to see more of Daemon in the third book. Saetan is still filling in as the long-suffering father-figure and I love him. He’s just great. Another cool thing is that we finally get to see some of Jaenelle’s far-flung friends that she only alludes to in the first book.
Overall, this was a decent second-book-in-a-trilogy, but I hope the third one lives up to the promise of the first. I’ll definitely keep reading though.
Reviewed March 26, 2009
Read an excerpt.
My review of Daughter of the Blood.
Find author Anne Bishop on her website.
Buy Heir to 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.
1 Comment
I started this trilogy so long ago, it was still even a trilogy at the time, and I still haven't finished it. So bad of me… People that read it because of me are done and I am still on book 3!