Bookish Mumma

This has been one hell of a week! I have been absent because I was actually in hospital for a little while and needed time to recover. I am okay now, though my health battles unfortunately do continue and aren’t likely to end any time soon. Good for me though in that reading doesn’t require me to overly exert myself and I take great joy in writing, so what started as a hobby is now a sanctuary. Moving on from the morbid note, however, we are not onto chapters 15 – 19 of Shaedes of Power with the last block of chapters being the last and then the final review. Stay tuned! As always, thanks go out to The Nerd Fam for giving me this eARC to read!

If you’d like to read the previous posts or any other books I have reacted to and reviewed, you can do that here

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“Why do you do this?” I asked pleadingly. “Why would you serve someone so rooted in darkness.”
The servant narrowed her eyes and said, “Because when you aren’t good enough for the light, the only place left to turn is the darkness. Now get in.”

This has become an emerging theme through Shaedes of Power that I have actually really enjoyed. There’s what everyone thinks is a clear hero and villain, but the more you look, the more you see that who you thought was good and who you thought was bad, isn’t necessarily who you thought they were.

I stood there, confused, a thousand questions vying for priority on my tongue. “You aren’t going to force me to mate with you tonight?”
He was seated on the chaise lounge and pulling off his boots now, smiling at my confusion. “No,” he said with the devil in his eyes. “Not tonight, nor ever if you do not wish it. I’m always eager for a chase and happy to win a struggle, but only if my lover is willing to play with fire.”

Yes! We love a consent conscious king! Er, prince.

“Anyway,” he said, adjusting himself to get more comfortable. “That is why I would defy my brother. He stole an entirely different eternity from me, And although I love him, I will never forgive him for that.”

The story here was quick, but it was so sad and I definitely feel more sympathy for Edmyn now. He had seen what life had to give and he loved it… Right before his brother stole it all away and for what? Power? Company?

“Black on black, or black on black?” I offered sarcastically to Glory.
“Hmm, that’s a tough one. You choose,” she responded with a wry smile.

I am so so glad that they are able to find a scrap of humour in what would be otherwise extremely bleak. It’s certainly a more realistic approach to just giving up or playing the martyr.

As a young girl, I fantasized about my sister returning someday and about all the secrets we would share. How much I would have loved growing up at court with someone else like me around. Perhaps we could have even saved each other. But right now, all I could do was eye the butter knife on the table and imagine stabbing her in the eye.

Good to know that Opal has a normal reaction to her sister being an ass.

Henrick? Knife to the throat. Ciaran? No problem, knife to the throat. But Amira? Family is tricky like that.

When it comes to family, the ties that bind are never so simple or straightforward. My siblings drive me crazy and have been really awful people to me, but I don’t think I could do this either.

“Remember, the Balance did not favor the Nymphs in our histories, Opal. She sounds kind of unhinger to me,” Glory said, taking a few more bites and diving back into her book.

It’s important to note that the Nymphs weren’t favored in THEIR histories. Just because the faeries have one version of history, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t altered or incorrect. Someone else, likely the Nymphs, would have a different version of that history and that is just as important to pay attention to and to recognise. Also, unhinged makes for great stories!

“Say it, Opal,” he urged. “Fucking say it, so help me.” His breath sounded ragged, like a man trying to decide whether or not he was going to jump off a cliff.

“Vampire.” Good job, Bella! I am going to quote Twilight every time I see this line and I’m not even remotely sorry.

Glory had stopped going to the library as several orgies had broken out randomly among the stacks.

First of all, won’t someone think of the books?! Also, where was my invite?!

“No, I never though Ciaran wanted to be the king of everything,” she said soberly. “He would have been happy with equality. A seat for himself alongside the High Shaedes would have sufficed. But it was the Shaedes that wanted submission – the Shaedes who looked down on him and called him lesser and unworthy.”

While our world seems to have a rise of bad people, most people who come to power aren’t bad at the outset. Like the famous quote from Lord Acton said, ‘power tend to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.’

This Ciaran looked like he needed a nap.

What kind of nap? Like a dirt nap or a nap nap? Because same.

“What is this, Little Prism?” he whispered, our faces so close that I could feel his breath on my lips. “Do not start fires you cannot tame.”
“You once said that I belonged to you,” I whispered back, my voice a little surer sounding than I think either of us expected. “Prove it.”

Oh the bi paaaaanic!

“You would find the one plant in the entire realm that holds bold color. The Moonflower is an inexplicable occurrence in the shadowlands. We think instead of sunlight, it might actually feed on moonlight. Some say it is an indicator that the Balance has not forsaken us forever; that it still wants us to remember that beautiful things can grow in the darkness and that we can adapt and grow into something good. We spell the floors with Moonflowers when we want to bless someone with good fortune. As if to remind them if the goodness that lay dormant here, within the shadows.”

This was such a gorgeous concept and Jenny has done a brilliant job in coming up with this. I want a Moonflower! Also, it’s a beautiful, physical way of seeing balance in the darkness that they see everywhere.

Conclusion

This block of chapters of Shaedes of Power feels like a flipped switch and while it feels strange, it is knitted together with pacing that works and chemistry that works. It’s easy to make the building of a relationship feel super rushed and feel wrong. I’m looking forward to seeing how the relationship with Ciaran and the relationship with Farris with mesh with each other. Edmyn might me kinky and wild, but I’m still pretty partial to Farris.

If you’d like to preorder this book (which releases on March 11th, so super soon!), you can do that here