Book Review: Shadow's Lyric By C. A. Worley

Shadow's Lyric

(Crossing Daggers #1)

By C. A. Worley

It began with a blood oath.

It ended in bloodshed.

When twenty-one-year-old Lyric is told by her father, Gabrian, she will be crossing into the Otherland as payment for a favor he owes the Shadow Lord, she thinks her life is over. In truth, it is just beginning. Years of training as a soldier and an uncanny ability to learn pretty much anything give Lyric the tools she needs to survive her new reality — and it totally helps that her new lord and master is sex incarnate.

Draven has long awaited Lyric’s arrival, and not just because he needs her to track a powerful weapon stolen by an unknown adversary. He believes he has everything firmly in hand, despite the subterfuge he foolishly agreed to some twenty years back. When Draven’s enemies and lies of omission both threaten the fragile bond he and Lyric are forming, he refuses to allow anything to stand in the way, not even the razor-sharp blade of Lyric’s favorite sword.

WARNING: This novel contains tons of bad language, the occasional smackdown, and a good deal of inappropriate humor — sometimes all at once.

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My Review:

* Everything in red is a spoiler.

This book had so many good things going for it but all the slut-shaming (towards other women and the main character bad-mouthing herself constantly) really took away from everything. I liked the world the author started building in this series. I enjoyed all the new concepts that were introduced (speaking of a glossary of terms would have really done this book some good). The secondary characters were memorable and made the story that much better.

Lyric was something alright. She started off as a bad*ss and violent to an interesting degree kind of character but like I mentioned at the beginning of this review all the internalized slut-shaming both towards herself and other women almost made me DNF this novel multiple times. It wasn't because she was a prude either. She was half-demon (and it's said that they are normally very sexual creatures) living in a household of full blooded male demons. Things like that weren't a secret to her. As soon as she starts feeling something towards a guy she calls herself all the names in the book and so much more. I don't know about you but what she was feeling is completely normal. I wish Draven called her out on it at some point. Mental illnesses are also loosely mentioned in this book by means of insulting another character. It wasn't graphic but it rubbed me the wrong way nonetheless.

Draven was such a good character! He was charming and respectful of Lyric and his people but would rain h*ll upon anyone or anything that messed with him. I liked that even though he was protective of Lyric he wanted her to get to know his fighters and prove herself as capable in battle in their eyes. He has his secrets but it wasn't something he could help considering the extenuating circumstances.

The end was good, the epilogue was meh. If you've read enough of my reviews I don't usually like epilogues that end in pregnancy because I don't believe pregnancy is the end-all-be-all some people seem to think it is for a couple to be happy and lead a fulfilling life. Daven and Lyric have it hard enough why would you choose to have a baby in the middle of all this is still beyond me. That being said good on them, I just don't think that was necessary for the story.

My Rating: