Dianne Sylvan

Over the last couple of years I have read a lot of Urban Fantasy, and one of the things that has bothered me most about the genre is the expectation that everything is perfect and roses between the couples. If you bond, you lose your identity and all the baggage that you're bringing in suddenly disappears in a poof of rose-colored smoke. That's not how relationships work. Ever. It may be how they're done in Paranormal Romanceland, but Shadowflame is not a paranormal romance, and these show more relationships are not perfect. In the end that's what sucked me into this book. It took me a while to get back into Miranda's world, but what cemented it was that nothing was perfect. I could believe that the Shadow World existed and it made me get goosebumps. When I wasn't reading voraciously, I was thinking about how easy it would be for the Shadow World to move around my own town.

That right there is talent, people. I don't usually spend my days flitting through life wondering if there are vampires moving about my city, but Sylvan got that idea stuck in my head. When I walk my dog at night I look behind me. THAT is why I read Urban Fantasy. I'm looking for something that makes me a little creeped out. Shadowflame delivered that, and is a perfect example of the genre.
Are you looking for something where everything is sunshine and rainbows plus vampires? This book is not for you. There are costs for each decision the characters make, usually personal ones. You feel for Miranda and David. You get attached to them as people, and without those flaws I frankly wouldn't care.

What's also wonderful is that Miranda manages to balance who she was before she became a vampire and her responsibilities as the Queen of the Southern States. She doesn't fall in love and give up her identity; she carries on with the things that matter the most to her. I like her backbone and that she stands up for what she believes in. Her core doesn't change.

You'd better believe I'm counting the days until I can get my hands on Shadow's Fall. The Shadow World is a masterful example of what Urban Fantasy used to be, and what I would love to see it get back. Thank you, Ms. Sylvan. You made a loyal reader with this last installment. show less

Trigger warning for discussions of violent homophobia and rape

Miranda has been Queen of the South for three months now. As is custom, when she married her husband David Solomon, the Prime of the area, the other Primes pay a visit to show their respect of the new couple. Although Miranda loves David, she is very new to the shadow world and still feels the call of her human life. Learning to be Queen for Miranda means accepting that her 350 year old soulmate has had a long life without her and show more that comes with consequences. In between all of the political intrigue and trying to protect her human friends, Miranda has to come to terms with the new world that she has entered and all the costs that come with it.

Spoilers Ahead

When I read some of the reviews on Goodreads those who chose to give Shadowflame a low rating seemed largely to do so based on David's infidelity. Obviously, these are people who go into an urban fantasy/ paranormal romance book with the belief that once a couple pair up that they shouldn't deal with real world problems. I understand that there might be some who find David's infidelity a problem based on this; however, the problems with Shadowflame extend far beyond that.

In this book we learn that David had a past same-sex relationship of 10 years with Deven. There could be a lot of positive to say about having a bisexual co-protagonist - except the book makes it very very very clear that he's totally not bi, honest (there's more than a whiff of no homo about the whole thing)

This just sets the tone for the depiction of the same sex relationships involved. David and Deven split up not because of actual reasons but because of the magical Signet (which now demands David be with Miranda and Deven with Johnathon - screw true love, the Bling has spoken). While we could view this as a tragedy that magic has destroyed a long term, loving relationship, instead what we see is the spiteful, conniving Devon trying to steal Miranda's man (how very dare he!). Her relationship with David is presented as not only superior in her eyes (she decides she has the advantage because she "has a vagina" yes, penis + vagina is the one true relationship!) but also in general depiction - with Deven and Jonathon's relationship being almost chaste and certainly less passionate and powerful than Miranda and David.

To rub some salt into the wounds, we also have David described as "swishy", by Kat, Miranda's best friend. Miranda and Kat then proceed to fetishise the idea of David and Deven together and, to crown it all, Deven apparently working long term to make sure Miranda and David got together. Yes, this gay man devoted time and energy to bring his true love together with a woman to form a Real and Proper bling-sanctioned relationship.

Honestly, I could go on for pages about the trainwreck here (I haven't even touched on the gratuitous and graphic depiction of homophobia or the implication that Deven is bitter and nasty because of his origins that Miranda happily clubs him with), but the review would end up ridiculously long, especially considering the other many many problems with this book.

I'm starting to think that no Shadow World book is complete without some form of gratuitous rape involved. In this case, Prime Hart comes to pay his respects to the new couple and with him he brings his string of sex slaves. Prime Hart tortures these women, starves them and rapes them repeatedly. Though Hart keeps a stable of nine women, he chooses only to bring four of them on his state visit. Sylvan includes a very graphic description of Cora's rape. It's gratuitous and made further problematic by Cora's suggestion that women who give up after years of torture, rape and starvation are weak. Everyone in the Shadowworld is aware of how Hart treats women and yet no one intervenes. This is explained by the misogyny of the Shadowworld which seems to dictate that women are to be silent and stand behind their men. When Miranda brings this to the attention of David, he is unwilling to risk a war to free these women. David expressly forbids Miranda to intervene unless one of the women asks for sanctuary. To be clear, we are supposed to think of David as a complicated man but a good man but good people don't allow four women to be raped under their roof without trying at least to intervene.

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The unspeakable has happened. At the end of Shadow's Fall, Jeremy broke David's signet, killing him and separating Miranda from her soulmate. Signet bearers are not meant out live each other and the grief nearly kills Miranda. Were it not for the intervention of Stella, a witch and long time fan of her music, Miranda might well have died. Deven and Johnathon show up to help Miranda run Haven and keep her sanity but all feel the grief and loss of David. Fortunately for them all, David isn't show more actually dead, he has become something else - Thirdborn. It seems Persephone has plans for her children and the pieces are being shifted into place. It's not a moment to soon because the human group Morningstar has its own set of plans for the vampire world which are guaranteed to be a game changer.

Miranda's grief was really well written and her pain was at times difficult to read. Deven did show up to help her mourn David's loss but I felt that Miranda's pain far over shadowed his. I know that one could argue that Miranda and David were soulmates and that Deven's soulmate is Johnathon; however, Sylvan has made a repeated point of reminding us just how much Deven and David love each other and therefore I really felt like Deven's pain shouldn't have been so overshadowed.

It's a measure of exactly how much that Miranda has grown as a character that she determined to rule her area as the Queen that she is even without David at her side. I love that she took the time to grieve but then got right back on her feet because that's what one does - one finds a way to live with the pain. It was obvious from the ending of Shadow's Fall that we would see David again. When David and Miranda do find each other again, David has greatly changed and the bond between them still hasn't returned. Miranda must choose if regaining her soul bond with David is worth taking a leap into the unknown and becoming an uber vampire. I love that Of Shadow Born is filled with women having the opportunity to choose for themselves what their fate will be. David doesn't pressure Miranda and gives her all the time she needs to make her decision. Similarly, when Stella meets the Goddess Persephone, she gets to choose whether or not she will risk herself to get the information that Miranda and David both need.

The addition of the witches to this story has not only been fun, it has broadened Sylvan's supernatural world. I very much like that Stella's interest in Miranda isn't about Miranda's vampire nature but her talent as an artist. That being said, given how long Stella has known Miranda, her willingness to sacrifice has me wondering if this storyline is going to turn into a case of unrequited love between the two women - something I could definitely do without. I highly suspect that the witches will have a larger role to play as the story goes on, particularly when it comes to the vampires learning about their own lore. Stella also looks like she will be a replacement for Kat and Faith but it's a bit early to say at this point.

I am also interested to know where the story with Persephone the vampire Goddess and MorningStar the human group determined to eliminate the vampires are going.Persephone is the perfect Goddess in this world as she is the queen of the underworld. I wonder how much more of her we will see as the story progresses.

As with many books in this series, when it comes to GLBT people, Sylvan absolutely has a problem. When David first returns, he has trouble remembering and so Miranda describes Deven as, "Our friend. Little guy, lots of leather, the world's oldest bitch queen."(pg 109) It's one thing for a gay man to self identify as a "queen" and another for a straight woman to label him that way. Miranda and Deven may have burried the hatchet so to speak but it still very much comes off as pejorative. When Stella sees Deven for the first time she calls him cute. Deven may be short in stature but he is one of the oldest vampires in existence and the power coming off of him is immense. If that were not enough, we learn that Deven is at least part elf. That's right, Sylvan made a gay man a fairy. Thanks for that.

Sylvan has made it clear that Deven is gay and yet in this novel, we have him expressing love for Miranda.
"Miranda," he said, a sort of gentle firmness in the word that brooked no disagreement, "I thought by now you would understand - things aren't like they were three years ago. If I never expected to still love him, after all those years, well, let's just say I was utterly blindsided by you."
"By me?"
"Yes...I would do anything for you. Anything. Ask for the stars and I'll do what I can." (pg 162)
Here's the the thing, platonic love between Miranda and Deven I suppose I could wrap my mind around but Sylvan certainly stretches the limit on this point.

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Original post here: http://offbeatvagabond.blogspot.com/2012/07/book-review-queen-of-shadows-shadow....

Another book that once I started it, I wanted to punch myself for waiting so long to read it in the first place. I wanted to read this because I love my Urban Fantasies and I love my badass heroines. But I had no idea how dark this book would be. It definitely grabbed my attention quickly and didn't let go until the end.

The main character Miranda isn't your typical heroine. Due to her show more power, she can read and control people's emotions, she is very isolated. She keeps to herself because everyone effects her. She is a very depressed woman with one thing to love; her music. After a performance on stage, she experiences something dreadful and tragic night, she finds out she has more power than she thought. She finds her will to live and she finds that she shares the world with vampires. Our other main character David is definitely high on my list of book boyfriends. He is what I always wanted to see in a alpha male, but I never have. A vampire who is super hot, super powerful, super nerdy, loves video games and is obsessed with Ben and Jerry's ice cream. How can you not love that?!

I love the connection between David and Miranda. Lots of chemistry even though they both fought it. I love that Sylvan takes the time out to really let us know her characters. We get so much insight into our main characters, we love them seperately just as much as we love them together. And I also love that it didn't happen immediately. They had some bumps to go over first and that was a great experience to see.

I really love the story. It was paced very well. Someone is killing of vampires and humans and it just seems like random killings. But there is a connection that was interesting considering it is something you would expect from humans, not vampires. It was definitely a unique concept that was great to read.

I also like Sylvan's take on the vampire world. It was so structed and run well. David truly is a genius. I love how they choose the warriors to be a part of the team. It is nice reading that because with a lot of other books, it is all about who bit you first. This was different.

Overall, this is going the favorites list. I loved the characters. Miranda is such a wonderful heroine. She is strong and powerful, but very vulnerable and Sylvan did a great job showing us all those angles. This book is dark and action-packed. I couldn't ask for anything more really. Definitely recommended. I have book 2 with me right now and plan on starting it tonight. show less