Fantasy is More Fun

My Initial Reaction…

I didn’t realize until picking up Cursed in Shadow how much I missed Celeste and Brock! This was just enough to remind me of what I loved about this series and to get me ready for the next full-length book, Sons of Dragons, which releases next month.

The Good…

Cursed in Shadow does a fantastic job of quickly reconnecting you to the characters. I hadn’t readThe Garnet Dagger since August and only quickly reread my review before launching into Cursed in Shadow, but it was enough! I immediately started remembering all the important details and it was like reuniting with a long-lost friend.

I don’t want to say too much here, because you really need to go read book 1, The Garnet Dagger if you haven’t yet. A really neat shift in this short, though, was that it takes place almost entirely in the Elvin lands. We haven’t seen much of them in The Garnet Dagger and this expanded our view. I can’t say that I’m much of a fan of the Elves – with a couple of exceptions they’re kind of the bad guys, except Brock is one of them and is sort of trying to save them, and you do want him to succeed. But their not the villains, exactly, just a very scared and angry race that has been living separate from the human world for too long! Andrea did a great job letting us see their anger, fear, and confusion – coupled in with the existence a few more likeable Elves – in such a short space.

I don’t usually give such short books a five star rating because, even if I enjoy them, it just doesn’t seem possible for them to fully satisfy me. Cursed in Shadow did! There was great action and magic, some pretty great romance, moments that made me angry or sad, and even world building! It also set up really well for Sons of Dragons, leading us towards the search for the four (which you’ll understand when you read the books!) and letting us know that we’re going to see some pretty exciting new villains moving forward (I’m dying to tell you about this one scene, but I don’t want to ruin it!)

The Bad…

Umm… okay I had to really think, but Celeste (who is my favorite character) had a reaction to Brock at one point that I found really unexpected and didn’t really fit her character. But that was really the only thing that bothered me at all in this short, except I guess, that I wish it weren’t so short!

Concluding Sentiments…

Andrea did a fantastic job utilizing all the elements that she built into The Garnet Dagger to make this short do the work of a novella or maybe even a full length book. I’m eagerly anticipating the release of Sons of Dragons now!

I received this book for free from Author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.