Review: Shadow Heir by Richelle Mead

2.5 Feathers

Shadow Heir

by Richelle Mead

(Dark Swan # 4)

It is with great sadness that I write this review.  Richelle Mead has beeen and, the events in this book aside, still is one of my favorite authors.  I have seen her end two wonderful series now and she has done so masterfully.  When I picked up Shadow Heir I was under the impression that this was the last Dark Swan novel, so I was expecting nothing less from her.

I was already going in with bitterness about certain things.  #1 Kiyo - Throughout the series Ms. Mead has managed to get me to actually hate the Kitsune with a passion *pulls out her Kiyo voodoo doll and stabs his head repeatedly* and I was prepared to only hate him more in this book, there was no going back for me on that.  Well, I wasn't disappointed on that!  He's still a slimy piece of crap, a rat bastard, and it's infuriating to see Eugenie having to work with him when all I want is for her to stand up to him and get some retribution for all he's done to her.  That didn't happen.  Until the end, he still sticks it to her and she just stands there with her mouth open in shock.  Oh by the way, I am writing this as a spoiler free review so maybe some of the things I say may sound a bit weird, you'll understand when you read the book.

Bitterness# 2 - Eugenie.  Yes I went in already feeling sort of hate for the heroine.  This has been slowly developing throughout the series and well, she didn't get any better in this book.  She sits around moping and doing the whole woe-is-me routine.  Get a grip, stop being so selfish and so stupid!  Stop listening to the dumb Kitsune and start appreciating the REAL man you have by your side!!  If not, I'll help Volusian kill you myself! *which I felt like doing repeatedly throughout this book*.

Now onto a better review of this book.

I wish the whole first 50% of this book would've been written in two chapters!  Seriously I considered putting this as one of my few ever DNF books.  Why? It is tediously boring, nothing happens, there's hardly any supernatural activity, nothing!  Eugenie goes on fishing dates and I felt like I was reading a depressing women's fiction book instead of an urban fantasy.

Once there's something that starts happening, it is not to follow the storyline that we were dealing with from the beginning but a completely randomly thrown in storyline that takes over the rest of the book and really doesn't do anything to close the series, this was more like another adventure of Eugenie, the moron Queen!  So I thought, perhaps, this could've been resolved faster so we would've seen something more in respect to an ending to the series.

Volusian - this storyline does deal in a small way with Volusian.  I have to say I love the little guy!  He is my favorite character in this series, apart from the all-perfect Dorian.  We learn about his past, Eugenie has to go to his homeland and she couldn't accomplish what she needs without his help.  So he gets closure and I really liked that part!

Dorian - I can't tell you enough how much Eugenie doesn't deserve this man.  First of all, with Dorian what you see is what you get.  You know he's sneaky and that he wants also what's in his best interest, but in this book he put Eugenie above anything and everything.  My heart breaks thinking of the fact that for the most part, she only uses him when it's convenient and this didn't change.

What wouldn't I do for you? *tear*

And I think this pretty much brings me to the ending.  OK, let me back up for the last 15%.  Everything you thought, was wrong, everything that we believed should've been one way was another.  In the last 15% of this book seems like all the loose ends that should've been tied throughout the series started rapidly weaving together.  That's all I can say about that without giving stuff away.  Just shock after shock.

Now for the actual ending.  What.The.Hell.Was.That?????  How can Ms. Mead end a series like that?  Actually, it doesn't surprise me just because I've known all along that Eugenie is a selfish bitch!  So we couldn't really expect more from her right?  But I don't see how that can be an ending.  No I cannot.  Sorry.  Very disappointing.

So why the 2.5 feathers if this is still very well written?  50% of the book was too slow, then from 60% on it was just ok.  Too many issues where left unanswered.  And you cannot end a series with those last few pages without expecting the reader to want to ring Eugenie's stupid neck! It is with great sadness I write this.











Purchase Links: Amazon

Review: Storm Born Volume 1 (Storm Born Comic) by Richelle Mead

Storm Born Volume 1

(Storm Born Comic)

by Richelle Mead

Graphic Novel

It seems weird to me that I don't read more graphic novels. I do pick up the occassional one, but it's not a frequent occurrence. I knew that there was a graphic novel for the Dark Swan series, which I love, however I felt that when I originally saw the covers on Richelle's blog about it I wasn't that impressed.

See, I'm a visual person, and I'm into graphics, so I didn't think they were anything special from that one glimpse alone. But when I was asked to review this I was actually excited to see what it would be like and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised and I'm glad I picked it up.

Speaking in visual terms only I thought it was really nice. There were a few parts where Eugenie could've looked a little better, but in general I really liked the graphics, as well as positioning, and keeping things fresh with each page. Colors were vivid.

Now, the storyline. As I said before, I'm a fan of the series, and this Volume 1 starts right where Storm Born started... in the middle of the action! They did an amazing job at conveying the story within only a few pages!

I do have the second volume to read and I plan on making time very soon to do it.

So let me just say if you are a fan of the series, you're going to love this, you have to get it! And if you've never read the books, it's done perfectly where you can just pick it up and understand and enjoy it!

Review: Iron-Crowned by Richelle Mead

I’ve been lucky enough to meet and chat with Richelle Mead (and Carrie Jones. Both are such sweethearts!) so you can imagine how excited I was to read Iron-Crowned. First things first, I hate UF narrative. I usually find it too simple with too much inner dialogue. But Mead is the only UF author so far that doesn’t bore me. There’s this ease to which she writes and her plotting is beyond anything I could ever come up with. This book blew my mind! This whole series has taken us on a rollercoaster, and this book was no exception. If you're familiar with Richelle Mead's writing style, you'll know to expect that in her books.

But it didn’t start out that way. It’s been a while since I read Thorn Queen so I forgot a lot of what happened in the previous two books. But it wasn’t too much of a problem because Mead is able to give you a recap of past events without make you feel like you’re reading Dark Swan for Dummies. It’s never redundant or tedious.

Eugenie... Eugenie.... I wanted to kick your ass and smack you around a couple of times! But it wasn't just you! Arrggghhh .There are times when I wanted to beat her into submission because of her ego.(Just so everyone knows I am TEAM DORIAN.) I understand that Eugenie was hurt that Dorian left out an important fact about the Iron Crown, but I thought Eugenie reacted like a child. Her wounded pride made her blind to all the war politics while Dorian did what needed to be done during the war. Instead, Eugenie was back in Tuscan, fighting and pretending to live a normal life EVEN THOUGH SHE’S A FREAKING QUEEN! I didn’t think she embraced her titled as Thorn Queen. She pushed all her queenly duties onto Rurik and Shaya. She could have handled it better.

What also angered me what the fact that in the midst of her anger towards Dorian, she sleeps with Kiyo. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, KIYO JUST WANTS EUGENIE FOR SEX! He even says it in three different ways while he’s with her.

The ending blew my mind, which shouldn’t be a surprise because IT’S MEAD WE’RE TALKING ABOUT HERE! But after my issue with Eugenie, I was almost going to put this down. I’m so glad I didn’t because the whole pregnancy deal with Kiyo was a worldwind!

Cue rant. WHAT IS WRONG WITH KIYO!? HOW COULD HE DISOWN HIS CHILDREN LIKE THAT? I wanted to grab him as he was beating on Roland. And he says it’s “all in the name of good”. As you can probably tell, I love this series to the point where my thoughts are rumbled and I become bi-polar, hating it one moment and then loving it in the next! Richelle Mead is one of my all-time favourite authors and she never fails to wring my nerves out!

Volusian as always is great, I love reading his parts, he just wants to kill Eugenie, and sometimes I wish I could help him! He's the only one with common sense!

I LOVED that Eugenie was on her knees in front of Dorian, begging for his protection in the end. What Kiyo did, or rather fail to do with Leith and what Dorian failed to mention about the Iron Crown is no match. Kiyo messed up big time in the last book and he did it again tenfold in this one.

Once again, Dorian wins! 2-0.

All in all, this was a good instalment, but it was mostly to set up the next and last book of the series, which I'm looking forward to read!