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Written on Nov 15, 2020
- ISBN10 1947046233
- ISBN13 9781947046238
- Publish Date 18 September 2019 (first published 13 December 2016)
- Publish Status Active
- Imprint Teddy Harrison LLC
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 452
- Language Italian
Reviews
Melanie
Written on Jan 20, 2017
As a fan of Thea Harrison’s Elder Races series, I was excited to see what this spinoff series would entail. Truthfully, when I first saw reviews popping up for this book, I thought it was the next Elder Races book. It wasn’t until I read the first review that I realized it was just a spinoff. This story follows Sophie and Nikolas in Great Britain.
Sophie was adopted as a child. She has some magical abilities, but doesn’t really understand them. She doesn’t know where they came from. When she learns about her past, she also learns that she has the ability to inherit an estate in England, but only if she’s able to get into it. Seeing as she was currently not working (she’s a PI who is recovering from a gunshot), she decided to see what would happen.
A lot of strange things happen before she even makes it to the estate. Her car stops working before she makes it to town. She stumbles upon a mangy dog-like creature that she decides to take in.
Then she meets Nik and she is able to learn more about herself, since he knows what she is. They also have an interesting relationship at the beginning. They aren’t what you call friends, but there is an attraction between the two. There’s also some really great banter between these two. It only gets better as they get closer to each other.
I enjoyed this story. It’s not as good as the Elder Races, mainly because I miss so many of those characters. The story has several minor characters, but mostly it is Sophie, Nik, Gawain, Robin (the Puck), the villain, Morgan le Fae. Yes, there are some of the people in the town. There are also the other Daoine Sidhe that are trapped with Nik and Gawain, but their parts are very minor.
As per my usual, my favorite character in this story is not one of the main characters, but Robin, the Puck. He’s the dog-like creature that she finds walking down the road. He’s a shapeshifter (not like shifters you think of in most shifter books, but more can change into many different creatures). When she finds him, he has little of his power. He’s also very traumatized and doesn’t want to speak, out loud or telepathically. I loved watching him get stronger and braver throughout the book.
Overall, it’s a pretty good story. I wish there were more characters included in the story. If you looked at this book as the start of an entirely new series, I would say that it was a pretty good start. With this being a spinoff, I feel like there is a lot of world building that still needed. There isn’t a single character in this from the original series. The Wyr are mentioned, but only in passing. I will say that I enjoyed the story and plan to continue listening. I’m really hoping that I get more about Robin’s adventures.
She stuck the screen of her phone into his face. “Here. This is me.”
He watched the clip of an octopus running away along the ocean floor. The words, ‘NOPE. NOPE. NOPE’ appeared at the bottom of the screen.
“What the hell am I looking at?” he barked.
“It’s a nope GIF. You’ve never seen a nope GIF? There are hundreds on the Internet.” She smiled. “We literally never have to have this conversation again. You’ll bring it up again, and I’ll just send you a GIF. Subject closed.”
Narration
I’m a huge fan of Sophie Eastlakes. I think she did a great job with the narration of this book. I’m really glad that she was able to do this spinoff series. I think it helps with the cohesion with The Elder Races series. She did a great job with the English accents that she had to tackle for this story, though there weren’t as many as you would expect for a story set in Great Britain.
EBookObsessed
Written on Nov 27, 2016
If you love Thea Harrison's Elder Races series, you will squee with joy over these new characters. If you haven't given Thea Harrison a try, there is no time like now to grab a copy. These are new characters with no cross-over to the Elder Races series but the same world-building. After you finish, you will kick yourself for waiting so long.
Thea takes us to Europe for this new series and the centuries old battle between the Light and Dark Courts. It appears that the Queen of the Light Court has a screw loose but the leader of her army is a powerful wizard by the name of Morgan and he enforces all her crazy orders to destroy the Dark Court passageways and leave their knights stranded here so he can hunt them down one by one. (We met Morgan very briefly in Pia Goes to Hollywood.)
Almost a century ago as the Light and Dark Court Knights battled, Morgan managed to collapse every crossover passage to the Dark Court kingdom in the otherland, trapping Nikolas Sevigny and his knights here with no way to get home. As the years passed, with no way to get reinforcements, Nikolas's troops have dwindled down to only nine remaining, and they are currently all in hiding since their magic signature grows the longer they remain together making them an easy target for Morgan and his werewolves. But after all this time, Nikolas might have just found them a safe haven with Sophie Ross.
Sophie has been offered an opportunity of a lifetime to go to the U.K. and claim an English Estate. On the Boarder of England and Wales, there is an estate which was built on a collapsed crossover passage, and if she can get into the Old Weston Manor house, she will inherit the estate, the land, and a trust to take care of the Estate and still give her a livable income. The only catch is she has to get into the house. A feat which no one has been able to accomplish in almost a century.
The house fluctuates between this dimension and the otherland and although you can touch it, it is never entirely in one dimension. Sophie believes that her mixed blood, part human and part other(?), will allow her to get in. When she literally runs into Nik and he learns about Sophie's interesting property, he plans to use her to give his men the first feeling of safety they have had in decades. Sophie is well aware of Nik's plan, but the kindhearted person she is, she can't turn away these men.
Sophie and Nik butt heads constantly in this story. Nik has become so used to not trusting anyone and fighting every day against the Light Court, he doesn't know diplomacy any more. He makes decisions and gives orders and that doesn't fly well with a woman like Sophie. She constantly stands up to his pushy ways. That's what I loved most about her. Where most romances the heroine eventually gives the hero a pass on his domineering way considering it "just his way" or deciding he simply knows better, Sophie never relents in letting Nik know when he is being a pushy asshole. I am currently reading a story from another favorite author of mine and after meeting Sophie, I am getting pissed off that my new heroine keeps jumping every time the hero snaps his fingers. Ugh!
Anyone who reads my reviews knows that I love my wounded heroes and while in this story, it is not Nikolas, there is a small creature from the Dark Court named Robin who is called "the puck" (a type of shape-shifting lesser fae) who can control nature, and he was captured by the Light Court Queen and tortured for a long, long time. And it is Sophie's kindness that rescued him and nursed him back to health. It is the first kindness he has experienced in such a long time and her fierce protection meant so much to him. His loyalty and love for her shows deeply in this story (3 love him!). I am certain he will be back for more of this series.
Fans of Thea Harrison will delight in the new characters introduced in Moonshadow and I can't wait to see what comes next.