TITLE: The Shadow Queen
AUTHOR: Anne Bishop
COPYRIGHT: 2009
TYPE: Fantasy
PAGES; 448
SERIES: oh yeah
1. Daughter of the Blood
2. Heir to the Shadow
3. Queen of the Darkness
4. The Invisible Ring
5. Dreams Made Flesh (read 2 of the 4 in this anthology)
6. Tangled Web
7. The Shadow Queen

REASON FOR READING: I fell in love with the trilogy and had to read everything that has to do with the characters I’ve grown to love

SUMMARY: {From goodreads}
The invitation is signed "Jaenelle Angelline," and it summons her family to an entertainment she had specially prepared. Surreal SaDiablo, former courtesan and assassin, arrives first. But when she enters the house, Surreal finds herself trapped in a living nightmare created by the tangled webs of Black Widow witches...and if she uses Craft to defend herself, she risks being sealed in the house forever.

But Jaenelle did not send the invitation. And now Jaenelle and her family must rescue Surreal and the others inside without becoming trapped themselves-and then discover who has created such a place, and why...

THOUGHTS/OPINION:
I really enjoyed this book. I loved being able to visit the world again and seeing my favorite characters going through yet another adventure.

Things I enjoyed:
I loved see Surreal in an environment where she wasn’t the strongest and showed some weakness it was a nice change for her. And I have to admit even though I would have pissed my pants if I was in that house I totally thought the house was cool and very interesting.
I’m so glad the villain got what he deserved and he did deserve it considering what he did to Teresa b/c that was mean and I hated him for it. But I love that she personally got her revenge on him. Classic

Things I didn’t care for:
There wasn’t much I didn’t enjoy. The book was spot on for what I wanted in the Black Jewels world and what I needed at the time. I got a fix without it hurting the previous books.

Are you keeping it or passing it on? Sadly enough folks this was a library book but it is going on the To Be Bought pile as soon as it comes out in paperback.

SCORE: 9 out of 10

Anything Else: .You do not have to read the series to understand this book. HOWEVER, in order to fully appreciate the richness of the world Ms. Bishop has created you really should start at the beginning.

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100+ Book Challenge

26 / 100 words. 26% done!

TITLE: The Shadow Queen
AUTHOR: Anne Bishop
COPYRIGHT: 2009
TYPE: Fantasy
PAGES; 448
SERIES: oh yeah
1. Daughter of the Blood
2. Heir to the Shadow
3. Queen of Darkness
4. The Invisible Ring (need to read)
5. Tangled Web (currently Reading)
6. Dreams Made Flesh (read 2 of the 4 in this anthology)
7. The Shadow Queen

REASON FOR READING: I fell in love with the trilogy and had to read everything that has to do with the characters I’ve grown to love

SUMMARY: {From goodreads}
Dena Nehele is a land decimated by its past. Once it was ruled by corrupt Queens who were wiped out when the land was cleansed of tainted Blood. Now, only one hundred Warlord Princes stand—without a leader and without hope.

Theran Grayhaven is the last of his line, desperate to find the key that reveals a treasure great enough to restore Dena Nehele. But first he needs to find a Queen who remembers the Blood’s code of honor and lives by the Old Ways. The woman chosen to rule Dena Nehele, Lady Cassidy, is not beautiful and believes she is not strong. But she may be the only one able to convince bitter men to serve once again

THOUGHTS/OPINION:
I really enjoyed this book. I enjoyed catching up with J and D. I loved seeing S & L and learning where they were at in life. Aymless has a review posted that I tend to agree with. While I enjoyed reading and catching up with old friends their story tended to interfere with the new story revolving around Gray and Cassie. Whom I totally adore and what to know more about, I felt their story was rushed at the end and could have been a totally separate book from the others.

Things I enjoyed:
Like I stated above it was really nice getting to see where the old friends where in life and seeing little flashbacks here and there of their lives previous to the trilogy. However, I would have liked either a book about them or a separate book. Or I would have even enjoyed another short story book like Dreams Made Flesh to catch up.
I liked seeing Cassidy and Gray interact and felt there wasn’t enough of that interaction. I loved watching Gray struggle with his past to be the man that Cassidy needed in order to heal herself and I felt that in a way that was missing b/c we kept going back to D & J’s relationship.
I did however, like how all the men from Sadi and Lucivar as well as the other warlord princes interacting with Cassie. Showing her how she should be treated as a Queen but never letting her get to big of a head. However, knowing Cassidy that wouldn’t have been a problem she was damaged not in the same way as Gray but still hurt bad enough that she needed healing too.

Things I didn’t care for:
I did not, under any circumstance did I, enjoy Theran he was a complete and total ass through out the whole damn book. Is seriously kept hoping Lucivar would kill him. My God what a horrible person and try as I might I just couldn’t like him. He didn’t do anything that made me want to like him and if it wouldn’t have broken up her court I would have continued to wish him dead till the end. Hell even at the end I don’t feel as if he changed all that much. If there’s another book I hope it involves his death and his replacement. BLECH

Are you keeping it or passing it on? Sadly enough folks this was a library book but it is going on the To Be Bought pile as soon as it comes out in paperback.

SCORE: 8 out of 10 simple due to Theran

Anything Else: .You do not have to read the series to understand this book. HOWEVER, in order to fully appreciate the richness of the world Ms. Bishop has created you really should start at the beginning.

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100+ Book Challenge

25 / 100 words. 25% done!

TITLE: Queen of the Darkness
AUTHOR: Anne Bishop
COPYRIGHT: 2000
TYPE: Fantasy
PAGES; 448
SERIES: yes
Review of Book 1
Review of Book 2

REASON FOR READING: Read the first 2 had to know how it ends

SUMMARY: {From http://www.sfsite.com/04b/qd79.htm }
The series is set in a world of interlinked Realms ruled by the Blood, a race of witches and warlocks whose power is channelled through magical Jewels (the darker the Jewel, the greater the power). Over time, much of the Blood has become corrupt, and the delicate mesh of tradition and loyalty meant to maintain stability among these powerful and often violent people has become fatally distorted. Into this period of decline is born a Blood female, Jaenelle. Jaenelle is not simply a witch, but Witch: the embodiment of all the Realms' dreams of power, the Queen of the Darkness who will lead the Blood back to the purity of the old ways.
But there are those who fear the coming of Witch, and Jaenelle has many enemies, at whose hands she has suffered rape and worse, in an attempt to rob her of her birthright. Despite these terrible trials, she has survived to come fully into her power. She now rules as Queen of Ebon Askavi, protector of the Shadow Realm of Khaleer, protected in turn by her loyal Court of human and non-human Blood and by her loving adopted family, to whose devotion she owes both her life and her sanity. Her world can't be complete, though, until she's joined by her promised Consort: Daemon, the great love of her life, who for eight years has been lost to madness in the mistaken belief that it was he who raped her.
Now Daemon, understanding the truth at last, has broken free of the insanity that claimed him. He and Jaenelle are reunited, and slowly, hesitantly, their love is fulfilled. But one of Jaenelle's enemies still hunts her: Dorothea, a powerful and sadistic Queen determined to rule all the Realms. Reluctantly, Jaenelle realizes she must fight -- not just against Dorothea, but against the corruption that has infected so much of the Blood, and threatens the stability of all the Realms. There is only one way to do it: she must unleash the full power of Witch. She knows that in the storm that follows, all the Blood in the world will die -- unless she makes a much greater sacrifice.

THOUGHTS/OPINION:
Wow just wow. This book was fantastic I actually learned something from a fantasy book. The most important thing I think a lot of us forget. It takes time to heal. And wow oh wow does this book take that to far extreme. This is a powerful ending to a fantastic trilogy and I am so happy that I finally got to it. I really, really enjoyed this series. And I’ll be the first to admit when I read this book I started crying. It was so upsetting towards the end and yet I felt uplifted. This is going to be a very hard review for me to write.

Things I enjoyed:
Where to begin I enjoyed pretty much everything about this book. I enjoyed watching all the characters struggle to come into their own. I enjoyed watching the growth of the characters and I have to admit I was shocked at what each character had to go through in order to achieve their growth. There were parts in here that made me cringe and parts that made me cry. There were only a few parts in this book that made me snigger or laugh but there were enough to break up the darkness of the book. You have to keep in mind this is a dark series and it has a lot of things going on that are hard to read. This book is about action and how every action has a consequence. Sometimes the action has to be taken no matter what the consequence is going to be and this book proves that. It went above and beyond my expectations for an ending. While there were some romantic elements it didn’t feel as if the book suffered to make the readers happy in fact it kept its darkness all the way through the end.

Things I didn’t care for:
The only thing I didn’t care for where certain parts that were skipped over. Like L getting a wife and a child where was that story and how did it happen? And I would have loved to see more of D and J hooking up. I did find out that Ms. Bishop put out other book that supposedly has these stories in it so you know I will be checking that out.

Was the author new to you and would you read something by this author again? Nope I’ve read her before

Are you keeping it or passing it on? Keeping

SCORE: 10 out of 10

Anything Else: You can’t read this one without reading the others.

TITLE: Daughter of the Blood
AUTHOR: Anne Bishop
COPYRIGHT: 1998
TYPE: Fantasy
PAGES: 416
SERIES: Yes the first in a trilogy
REASON FOR READING: Everyone rants or raves about this book and I thought *shrug* why not join in.

SUMMARY: [from Goodreads ]
Anne Bishop's debut novel, Daughter of the Blood, is like black coffee--strong, dark, and hard on delicate stomachs. Within the Blood (a race of magic-users), women rule and men serve, but tradition has been corrupted so that women enslave men, who seek to destroy their oppressors. Female children are violated before they can reach maturity; men are tortured and forced to satisfy witches' sexual appetites.

Bishop's child heroine, Jaenelle, is destined to rule the Blood, if she can reach adulthood. Her power is hidden; her family believes her mad. Saetan, High Lord of Hell and most powerful of the Blood males, becomes Jaenelle's surrogate father and teacher. He cannot protect her outside Hell, where he rules. She refuses to leave Terreille, risking herself to protect or heal other victims of violence. Can Daemon, Saetan's estranged son, keep her safe from the machinations of the evil High Priestess? Or will he lose his battle to control his destructive urges and endanger her?

THOUGHTS/OPINION:
Okay at first this book confused the hell out of me literally. I couldn't figure out what was going on. Why this was so important and how the hell one 7 year old could mean so much to so many people. After a while I finally caught on to this complex world the Ms. Bishop has created. Warning: this is not a book to read in spurts you need to have time to sit down and fully enjoy her imagination and story line.
Warning 2: this is not a story to read before bed your dreams will be very dark.Warning 3: LOTS and LOTS of violence in this story that will either turn you off or if you stick with it help you understand this violent world and why things are the way they are.

Things I enjoyed:
there were quite a few things I enjoyed about this book that others didn't. I have heard people complain that Janelle was this Mary Sue heroine that grated on their nerves. While I personally found her refreshing. Living in the time period she did surrounded and violated the way she was she still managed to keep some innocence around her. In her world she managed to keep the happiness and good that they need in a future queen. Had she given in to the darker urges this book would have been done and over with in a couple hundred pages.

As it is she is going to grow into a powerful woman if she can survive.I also enjoyed the men that surrounded her and made her appear to be the Mary Sue type. They loved her, they are and were willing to lay down their lives for her and they understood why her innoncence was so important. They appreciated seeing a being that wasn't corrupt, a person that would fight with honor not fight to gain strength or greed. Because of this she made the King of Hell bow before her.

His sons who have been dealt a fate worse than death fell in love with her goodness and vowed to do whatever it took to keep her alive.

I also enjoyed the fact that Ms. Bishop didn't hold back. She showed us a world so ugly, so repulsive that it almost made me feel dirty to be reading about it and unable to stop it. She made me feel anger and hurt but at the same time I felt that all would be righted if only we could get the proper Queen to power. I felt as if I was one of her subject just wanting her to get to the proper place to help clean up this world.

That's how powerful of a writer Ms. Bishop is.

Things I didn’t care for:
the thing I didn't care for was the same thing I respected in the book. The violence and the way the little girls were treated. I'm sure you can figure out what that is so I won't go into details. It was very hard to get past these parts, it was hard to continue to read without getting angry but I managed. And because I managed and worked through the hard emotions I discovered that the book was richer for it. Could I have done without the violence? yes however, it was needed to show a richer world.

Would I recommend this book? Yes I would highly recommend the first and I will let you know about the rest.

Was the author new to you and would you read something by this author again? I have read this author before but that previous works didn't move me the way this book has.

Are you keeping it or passing it on? Keeping

SCORE: 9 out of 10

Anything else? Remember my warnings!!!