Thursday, October 10, 2013

After Dark Review of The Road to Shanhasson by Joely Sue Burkhart

I have added After Dark Reviews to my blog as a way of notifying you of a review of a book with Adult themes and scenes. From now on I will keep my reviews of all books I read that have explicit scenes in them for late night posts for those of you who prefer to avoid them or easy to find for those of you who seek them out ;)
 
 
Synopsis: "The long awaited sequel to Joely Sue Burkhart's first Shanhasson novel, The Rose of Shanhasson, is finally here. The Road to Shanhasson is the second in the "Blood and Shadows" series, and continues the breathtaking story of Shannari, rightful queen of the Green Lands.

Shannari is about to be made the Khul’lanna of the Plains, wife to the Khul, leader of the 9 camps of the Sha’Kae al’Dan people. Unusual in the land of her birth for her skills as a warrior and prized as the rightful ruler of the Green Lands before being stolen away by Rhaekar, the Khul of the Sha'Kae al'Dan, Shannari is as foreign to these people as they are to her.

Shannari has admitted her love for Rhaekar, and, reluctantly, that she also loves Gregar, the Shadowed man who, along with the other eight Blood guards, protects Rhaekar from danger. Rhaekar, far from being angered by her love for another man, is man enough to give her what she wants, and determines that Gregar shall be her co-mate.

Some of her new people welcome Shannari, but others are angry that a hated Outlander is to become their new queen. Controversy and danger swirls around Shannari and the men she loves, threatening to tear apart the camps. Shannari works with Rhaekar, Gregar, and some new allies to bring peace to the camps, but she forgets that Theo, the current ruler of the Green Lands, will stop at nothing to debase and destroy her, and his bloody pact with Lygon, the god of Shadow, will bring Shannari to her knees."


My Review: I was really looking forward to this one, I couldn't wait to find out what happened with Shannari and Rhaekar and Gregar! The book started out really good and was moving along beautifully. Oh Gregar, I love Gregar so much! Some of the scenes definitely got my tears flowing. But the pace of the book really fell off and the blood sharing really took over along with all the divine meddling. I feel like maybe this should have been spread into two separate books or maybe a full length novel and a novella. I definitely started loosing interest and had to force myself to pick up the book and continue reading a few times, which is a shame because I do love all the characters so much and even the story line.
 
My Rating: While I adore the characters and even where the storyline winds up, I feel like it got a little lost in the middle and a little too drawn out.  I give it a rating of Two Paws and a Stump Wag. Even with that rating though I am going to continue with the series because I do want to follow the characters down their path.
 

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