Title: Shadow Wings
Author: Raye Wagner & Kelly St. Clare
Pages: 322
Genre: YA Fantasy
Release Date: 08 February 2018
From Goodreads: "I will never be controlled again. A manipulative dragon shifter. A sexy phaetyn prince. Me? I shouldn’t even exist. With peace established in Verald, I should be free; Lord Tyrrik is liberated from his blood oath, after all. But the freedom in Verald is an illusion. If I remain, destruction will surely follow. As soon as I come into my powers, the blood-thirsty emperor of Draecon will know. Even now, he is hunting me. When a Phaetyn prince arrives promising safety, the solution seems perfect. A little too perfect. But is the objective of our group security or something more? Because everyone is telling me what my goals should be. Who do you trust when everyone has lied to you? Should I listen with my head – or my heart? I might not get a choice."
Thank you to Raye Wagner and Kelly St. Clare for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for review! All opinions are my own.
I am at a loss for words with this book. I really enjoyed book one, Blood Oath, and knew that I was going to enjoy the sequel because one, that book was fantastic and two, I love both of these authors writing together. But I had no idea that I would fall absolutely in love with everything about this book, the world, the characters, and the authors. Shadow Wings surpassed my expectations and delivered everything you could possibly want from a sequel. Please be aware this review may spoil Blood Oath if you have not read it. I will avoid spoilers as much as possible but proceed with caution!
Plot:
Some second books in trilogies tend to suffer from horrible second book syndrome but Shadow Wings is not one of those books. It bridges the gap wonderfully from book one to book three and lets you dive deeper into the Ryn's world. You get to see more about the political side of the war against the Emperor and that was something I absolutely loved! I enjoy getting to read about characters dealing with the politics of war probably more than reading about the actual battles that may happen. It involves the characters having to be smart and cunning about their words and actions versus them physically fighting. It's a mental game more than a physical one and it's always so much fun for me to see how different authors approach that side of battle. With Shadow Wings, we're introduced to more Phaetyn and readers get to see how they live in their forest and all of the problems that their people are facing. You also get to see Ryn growing into her Phaetyn side and start to learn how to control her other side that's not exactly human and it's so much fun watching her try to learn how to do things. She's harnessing her powers and trying to be the best she can be but of course does it with all of the sass and silliness that she had in Blood Oath. This book is just perfect in terms of delivering everything you could want out of a sequel. Character growth and development? Check. Expansion of the world and an introduction to new characters? Check. An ending that sets up the final book in the series with a cliffhanger that makes readers quite literally scream about? Check!
Characters:
Ryn is a precious potato queen and I absolutely adore her, oh my goodness. I loved everything about her in book one and she just took it all to the next level with Shadow Wings! She's suffering from what seems like PTSD from the horrible events that took place in the dungeon and the reveal about Lord Tyrrik so not only is she trying to cope with that, but also the discovery that she isn't who she thought she was. But even through all of that, she still manages to stay the sassy and silly girl that I loved from book one. There's just something about Ryn that you can't help but adore and watching her grow into her "new" life is so much fun to read about.
The relationship between Tyrrik and Ryn grows so much throughout the book and by the end, I was shipping them so hard I was ready to sail away. Things between them aren't exactly perfect, and even when the book ends they're still not 100% better, but dangit if they aren't just adorable together. Sure they're not the most realistic couple (he's a dragon and she can make plants grow and heal the land) but they definitely go through some real things that "normal" couples go through. They fight and disagree and it's great to see that even couples in fantasy books deal with things like that. No relationship is perfect and I really enjoy seeing them basically build theirs from the ground up, learning about each other and building trust and all that good stuff that relationships involve.
One character that I absolutely could not stand was Kamoi. Just...I had so many feelings about him as I was reading Shadow Wings and none of them were good. He was disrespectful in every way he could possibly be and completely ignored Ryn's feelings and boundaries at every turn. I was excited at the thought of Ryn having another Phaetyn to connect with and learn from but he was just the absolute worst. And even when he did "apologize" for disrespecting Ryn's boundaries, it was completely insincere and you could tell that he wasn't actually sorry and knew what he was doing the entire time. So far, I dislike him more than the Emperor even though that character hasn't been introduced formally yet. Ryn did continually tell him no and asked him to respect her wishes and made it clear that she did not return his feelings, so it definitely wasn't on her that he continued to act that way. I hope that if he returns in Black Crown that Ryn really kicks it up a notch and puts him in his place.
Writing:
Raye Wagner and Kelly St. Clare are definitely an incredible writing pair. This world that they've created is so huge and full of so many different characters and locations and I couldn't get enough of it. I believe that I stated this in my review of Blood Oath but it still rings true for the sequel, these two authors write so well together. There's never a distinct difference in who is writing what part of the book because their writing reads like it's just one author writing the story. It's so descriptive and really makes you feel like you're in the story with Ryn growing potatoes alongside her or flying in the sky with Tyrrik. I was so excited to read Shadow Wings because I was hoping to read more about the world and see it grow as the characters travel outside of Verald and they did and wow was it fantastic. This is definitely a fantasy world that I could see myself getting lost in, minus the whole evil drae Emperor of course.
If you're looking for a book that doesn't suffer from second book syndrome, then Shadow Wings is the sequel for you! It expands on the already established world, brings in new characters that allow our loveable heroine Ryn to learn more about herself and grow as a person, gives you the romance you didn't know you wanted but now cannot get enough of, and writing that will hook you through the entire trilogy. This is the sequel I wanted and I'm so glad to have had the opportunity to read it! If you loved Blood Oath, then pick up Shadow Wings and continue your adventure with the Soap-tato Queen Ryn!
