ARC Review: Shadow’s Bane by Karen Chance

” It is a fast paced, action packed series of fights and skulduggery that doesn’t give you much time to do anything but hang on and enjoy the ride.”
~ Under the Covers

I’m exhausted. After reading the action packed Shadow’s Bane I need a long hot shower, a truck of food and a week to recover. You barely get a second to breath in this book before you are plunged straight into the next chaotic and fast moving battle. Which, is pretty standard for a Karen Chance book, what most authors will do in a few books Chance crams into a hundred pages.

It’s been a 6 years since a full length novel has come out in the Dorina Basarab series and so when I picked this book up I admittedly was a little fuzzy on previous events. In fact, I still can’t remember many details, but as I got further into the book the big ticket plot points started coming back to me. Unfortunately this did mean that I spent the first portion of the book slightly confused. This wasn’t helped by the chaos of catastrophes that Chance likes to throw into her books.

But the aforementioned chaos is part of the reason I like Chance’s book and this series. It is a fast paced, action packed series of fights and skulduggery that doesn’t give you much time to do anything but hang on and enjoy the ride. However, this is as much a curse as it is a blessing. There were points in the book where, and maybe I am just being dim, I was confused about what exactly was happening and why. I eventually caught on but some parts of the book may have benefited from slowing down and being more concise.

However, I did have a lot of fun reading this. One of the highlights were the flashbacks to Mircea’s POV during his time in Venice when he was a baby vamp and struggling to take care of a young Dory. Mircea is a fascinating character who is also prominent in the Cassie Palmer series so I always enjoy learning more about him. The Cassie Palmer series runs parallel to this series and features a lot of the same character, so you should definitely pick up if you haven’t already.

What I also enjoyed about this book was the continuing exploration of the dynamic between Dory and Dorina. They both share the same body and now the mental wall is down between them. Dory is faced with the fear that Dorina will take over. Dorina is afraid she will be walled off again, doomed to watch life but never able to live it. Then there is also a dash of romance as we see the relationship progress between Louis-Cesare and Dory.

I really enjoyed this book and hopefully won’t have to wait another 6 years for the next book in the series. If you like your urban fantasy fast paced with some humour and a bit of romance thrown in, then you need to pick up Karen Chance.

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[about-author author=”Karen Chance”]

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