Blood Oath
Shadow Wings
Black Crown
by Raye Wagner & Kelly St. Clare
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More than anything, I crave adventure. But in the disease ridden land of Verald, life is mapped out much like the well-established rings of our kingdom. At the very heart reigns our vicious king and Lord Irrik, an invincible dragon shifter, at his side. Their power poisons the land and the people, leading to a steadily mounting number of enemies. But change is coming. When the rebellion surges, the king strikes back. Captured by Lord Irrik, I'm suddenly embroiled in a deadly game. One where I'm desperate to understand the rules. Because I'm not only fighting for my life... but also a love that could be the very key to my freedom. | I will never be controlled again. A manipulative dragon shifter. A sexy phaetyn prince. Me? I shouldn’t even exist. With peace established in Verald, I should be free; Lord Tyrrik is liberated from his blood oath, after all. But the freedom in Verald is an illusion. If I remain, destruction will surely follow. As soon as I come into my powers, the blood-thirsty emperor of Draecon will know. Even now, he is hunting me. When a Phaetyn prince arrives promising safety, the solution seems perfect. A little too perfect. But is the objective of our group security or something more? Because everyone is telling me what my goals should be. Who do you trust when everyone has lied to you? Should I listen with my head – or my heart? I might not get a choice. | I will not be ruled by fear. A depraved emperor. A wasted realm. A dying race. With Tyrrik by my side, I’ll lead the charge to remedy it all. After discovering the rightful heir to the Phaetyn, an alliance with the healers should be easy as pancakes. But while the armies of Verald and Gemond march to the border for war, the emperor delivers a crushing blow that threatens to put everything at risk. As I fight my father’s staggering power, I’m compelled to face evil on his terms. A twisted darkness worse than anything I’ve experienced. Nothing could’ve prepared me for this. How far would you go to defeat a merciless sovereign? I’ll lie to the liars. I’ll betray the betrayers. I’ll kill the killers. I will conquer my fear. |
Spice Level: 1/6 | Story Score (avg): 7.5/10 | Rating (avg): 4/5 |
The cover of Blood Oath has drawn me to it every time it has popped up on my screen. I mean, these covers are gorgeous. I originally only skipped it because it looked too dark for my tastes at the time. However, I’ve grown. So the next time it popped up, I read the blurb, and dove in. To be forthcoming, I love fantasy books: magic, dragons, different worlds. This series was no different.
Buckle up, love bunnies, because the world building in book one is hard and fast. I am normally a fast reader but I found myself having to go back to re-read entire sections just to visualize and understand what was going on until I eventually had to slow down drastically. Once I could see the world though and understand how it ran, I enjoyed it a lot. The concepts were simple even if the details weren’t.
I’ve read several reviews of people getting bored during the first book, but I didn’t. Even though nearly the entire thing takes place in the same spot, I still managed to stay engaged. I suspected a twist at the end but I was not expecting the twist I got. I laid in bed agape for a while after I finished. I liked the end of the the first book. I felt like it could be left there if you chose, and if you were okay without a HEA and rather liked just an ‘everything has changed’ ending.
Book 2 began in a whirl of things that once again I struggled to follow for a chapter or so. Like book 1, book 2 takes place mostly in one location, I think. Honestly, I read this over a month ago and I don’t remember where book 2 ends and book 3 begins. So I’m going to combine the rest of the review and say that the humor picked up a lot. I found myself chuckling and eventually even outright laughing at some of her antics. I thought she was hilarious. I think that Ryn tried desperately to make a space for herself in her life even though things were pulling at her from every angle. She has a mate that she didn’t choose and she just wants to know that it’s her choice. She has a life-threatening mission that she wants to just ignore, but she fights through to find her reason to fight and strength to win. She’s lost so much and she fights to deal with that. On and on. This 18 year old girl goes through a lot and she tries to stay herself through it. I appreciated that because as an 18 year old, I was just utterly moldable.
A LOT of reviewers kept saying that if you can’t say the world “sex” that you shouldn’t be participating in the deed. I don’t agree in this case though. This isn’t modern day Earth. I feel like she was raised in a certain way and she was still very innocent beginning this adventure. She goes through a lot in this series, but all of these monumental things are NOT directly related to her sexuality, so I don’t know why people expect her to just change her entire upbringing.
Also, I know a lot of preteens that are happy to say and talk about sex and I can’t say that they are ready to have sex.
Now for my bones to pick: I hate books that start with teenagers. She’s months, if not only weeks, from turning 18 in the first book. Nothing salacious happens so it shouldn’t bother me but it does. It affects me. Secondly, this is a slow burn series. I’m fine with slow burns as long as I get to combust when the time comes. That did not happen. Not at all. SEX SCENES ARE FADE TO BLACK. Fade to fucking black. I’d never felt so robbed of something in my reading life. Then! Then! The authors had the audacity to just drop the ending. Like, the battle is over, the characters are…compromised, and THEN! Epilogue. Yeah, just jump straight to the epilogue. Uuuuugh.
-SPOILERS-
I don’t have any major spoilers for this book. While there are some surprises and twists, they aren’t things that I feel the need to rant about or ruin. That dragon hoard humor though and that pumpkin scene had me cracking up.
3 Book Series - Book 1 could be standalone if you don't need HEA. The same cannot be said for Book 2. | 1,094 Pages (322 Pages) (383 Pages) (389 Pages) | Trope Challenge: Shape Shifters Genre: Late YA Fantasy |
“We pushed each other to places of aching desperation. And when the stars and moons exploded, lights burst behind my eyelids. Our lives intertwined, indiscernible as mine or his. Tyrrik was mine. And I was his.”
- Black Crown by Raye Wagner & Kelly St. Clare
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