The Shattered Dark

I was a really big fan of Williams' first book, I think if I had to boil it down to one element that took her first book over the top for me, it would be her pacing. It was one of those books you really didn't want to put down, and so I had big hopes for her second book. I am happy to report that The Shattered Dark has the same awesome pacing as her first, and I really didn't want to stop reading until I finished (thank God for caffeine or I never would have made it past 3am).

I really like McKenzie, I feel bad for the hand she was dealt in a lot of respects. I can totally understand her desire to have a more normal life. After the events of the last book McKenzie is literally in the middle of some big time fae events, and the stakes show more couldn't be higher. And now with her friend Paige missing it just makes the stakes even bigger for McKenzie.

One of things I really love about Williams is the way she paints the relationships between characters. Oftentimes I feel like authors need to take time out of the action in order to give the reader a full sense of the relationships between characters, but Williams has an amazing way of keeping the action jam packed while putting together relationships that the readers not only understand but can pull for. I really enjoyed this book further exploration of McKenzie and Aren. I liked Aren from the minute I read him on the page, so being able to find out more about his backstory in this book was great. Plus I love watching/thinking what is going to happen next between these two. Kyol is also in this book, although not to the extent of the last, but he definitely keeps things interesting.

I think maybe the think I enjoy the most about McKenzie is that a lot of things that happen to her are completely beyond her control, but she makes decisions that are true to herself even when in the hardest of positions. I like that about her. She is really a fighter in every sense of the word. She's super enjoyable to read, and an extremely likable character.

There is so much more I would love to say about this book, but I don't want to give everything away. This book is such a great ride, finding out what is going to happen next is so much fun, so I don't want to ruin that for anyone. But that being said, if you enjoyed the first book, you will certainly enjoy the second. And if you haven't given Sandy Williams a try yet, than you should. She has great characters and amazing action. I can't wait to find out what happens next! show less

Review also posted at The Book Pushers:

http://thebookpushers.com/2012/11/15/review-and-giveaway-of-the-shadow-reader-th...

After defeating the King and his fae in the last book, McKenzie still can’t take a breather as the rebels are still dealing with daily attacks from the remnants (fae who are still loyal to the previous King or who are unhappy with the replacement) and Lena who has a direct claim to the throne. But that is not all. McKenzie finds out her best friend, Paige, has been abducted by the remnants who are using her to get back at McKenzie who is on the quest to rescue her. But someone close to the rebel alliance is a traitor, and the rebels may not be able to hold the fae kingdom together as the war still continues with show more the remnants refusing to accept Lena’s rule.

I really enjoyed the first book, The Shadow Reader which focuses on a young woman, McKenzie, who is able to see and track Fae who have the ability to appear into different locations on earth and in their own realms. I loved the premise – even though it featured the dreaded love triangle which is a staple for most UF these days. However, the events in the last book left me hanging for more because the love triangle looked like it was resolved with McKenzie choosing Aren. Aren’s rebels also took over the fae kingdom after defeating the autocratic King Altoth.

The Shattered Dark held so much promise but I was let down with this book. I found it hard writing this review because I really enjoyed the first book. So let’s start with the good before I broach with the bad and the ugly because, readers, there are aspects of bad and ugly. And sadly that affected my enjoyment of the book.

The book starts off after the events of the last book with McKenzie helping the rebels defend against the remnants who, ironically, seem to be gaining ground against Lena’s forces. There were also hints of a lost history between Shadow Readers/humans and the fae which held some tantalizing possibilities. There was also hope about a tragic death from the previous book. At this point I was beginning to fear that the book was going down-hill for me because it felt like a Deus Ex Machina linked with that possibility and I am not too sure how I feel about that because I do want it to happen because I hated what happened to that character.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed the main plot of the fae rebels trying to gain their stronghold over the remnants, and there were a few twists and turns, as well as a mystery, of who could be behind the betraying and undermining of Lena’s claim to the throne. But the book falters with the romance or should I say love triangle resurgence – and it was not good. It fell into the same pitfalls and traps that I was afraid would happen in the first book. Going back to the first book, I was pleasantly surprised because Sandy Williams bypassed that and actually resolved the love triangle with McKenzie making her choice of Aren. And it was the right one because despite starting off as enemies and disliking each other, Aren had never let her down and was steadfast in his commitment to her. McKenzie was in love with Kyol, but he never dared to rebel against the old King’s edict, and commit to McKenzie.

Returning to the The Shattered Dark, any developments between Aren and McKenzie were overshadowed by the love triangle resurgence. The tropes fell into pit-falls and traps which made reading this almost painful because it was chock full of forced obstacles. Williams threw so many emotional and physical obstacles along the way. I was more worried and caught up in the romantic sub-plot, and I think the main plot suffered because there were too many convenient coincidences, and flashbacks, that felt awkward and jammed in. For instance in the spoiler below is where I really felt disappointed when -

Spoiler:


McKenzie was life-bonded at the end to Kyol, which was the kicker, because it was used to save her life. I viewed this as a way to drag on the romantic plot-line instead of developing the relationship which never really evolved.
End Spoiler:



I also felt that I was emotionally manipulated because I was invested in the romance, and it turned out to be clumsy and hamfisted. I didn’t like the one instance where McKenzie finds out more about Aren’s past that hurts her. But then she gets a flashback of Kyol saving her, and that juxtaposition felt so heavy handed with the subtext on whether Aren was trustworthy. And I know that McKenzie, in this book, is very engaged with Aren – even though she has doubts. It felt like the romance was being strung along just to create forced tension. Nothing really happens in this aspect of the book other than a lot of angst. This pretty much overpowered the story for me and left me very disappointed because it was using tropes to create problems and obstacles instead of using natural conflict to create tension. The irony is that I really liked how the love triangle was tackled in the first book, because it avoided these issues and ended with a firm choice by McKenzie which felt so refreshing at the time. I know this is an UF but this felt a bit too much like a Paranormal Romance – and not in a good way - with the established tropes that were used.

I am not too sure if I will follow-up with the next book, although, I do want to know how the plot threads tie up. And maybe this is a middle-book syndrome. But overall I think I will wait for the reviews to see how things pan out to see if I want to pick up the next book. I dislike feeling this way. I think I am very burned out on the love triangle trope (which I am not a huge fan of) and this has firmly hit the nail on its head on why I dislike it.

I give The Shattered Dark a C- show less

Reviewed by: Rabid Reads

The first installment in the McKenzie Lewis series was one of My Top 5 Fav Books of 2011 so, needless to say, I've been anxiously awaiting the follow-up ever since. The beginning of this novel was a little muddled in my opinion. Multiple smaller plot lines are introduced simultaneously as well as a brief recap of The Shadow Reader so it was a lot to take in all at once. However, after things aligned the story really captured me and held me until the last page. I liked that McKenzie is no longer flying solo in the Realm, her friend Paige is now in it with her (for better or worse), and I thoroughly enjoyed the stolen lovey dovey moments that she squeezes in with Aren even though they're at war.

The Shattered Dark show more is definitely not lacking in the action department. There are countless interconnecting plot lines, conspiracies and love triangles; in other words, there's never a dull moment! Boredom was definitely never a factor but confusion sometimes was. I enjoyed the level of detail that Sandy Williams uses in this book but it wasn't without its shortcomings. At times, I almost felt like I needed to take notes in order to be able to keep track of all of the little story lines. I probably wouldn't be making this observation if I'd had the time to read this novel in one sitting but unfortunately I didn't have that luxury and as a result, I found the whole experience a little overwhelming. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy this installment because I did but I'm thinking that a re-read might be in order.

I was extremely happy with McKenzie's growth in this book. She's starting to think for herself instead of blindly trusting the fae and refuses to rush into a relationship with Aren. Lewis waited for twelve years for Kyol to come around so I think that I would have yelled at the pages had she immediately jumped into bed with her new suitor. I'd still be a bit weary over the possibility of Stockholm syndrome if I were her. I don't think that's the case in this instance but she should and does still proceed with caution. Smart girl! I loved the chemistry between McKenzie and Aren. He's obviously a much better match for her but then again, Kyol never really had a chance to be himself because he was constantly under the watchful eye of his king so I'm not ready to write him off just yet. The crazy ending only helped to reinforce that sentiment and when I say crazy I do mean c-r-a-z-y!

Very little, if anything, is solved in The Shattered Dark. Actually, I think more problems are added to the already massive pile. There's so many directions that this series can take and tons of different possible meanings that each can have. It's quite the kerfuffle! After an ending like that I'll probably be bald from anxiety before the next installment is published. The Shattered Dark is complex, moving and frustrating; Sandy Williams has some explaining to do! show less

Why does everything have to be a trilogy? My friend Samantha and I want someone to create a trilogy tracker app, because we both read about five books a week and its hard to keep track of what we've read of each series and when the next installments will be released.

I liked this book fine. The author's voice is compelling, although the flashbacks seriously annoyed me until the end, when I understood why they were necessary. In general, though, they were used as a crutch to keep the love triangle going, and they made the ending come as less of a surprise--my reaction was more, "ah, of course," than "holy shit," and I think the author was going for the latter response.

At least the first person present narrator (I know, ugh) is show more reliable--she doesn't withhold information from the reader, Roger Akroyd-style, as they tend to in a lot of novels, and the reminders of who characters were and what they did in the previous book were brief and didn't intrude on the story being told.

I'm not waiting on the edge of my seat for the final book, but this was good, and if you enjoyed book one of this series you'll like this one as well. The first third of it is pretty slow, but the excitement builds, and some cool things happen with Paige.

I'm holding off on judging what I thought were some weak choices until the series is complete. show less

The Shattered Dark is the second book in the McKenzie Lewis series and The Shadow Reader is probably one of the best debuts to a UF series, I was such a huge fan of the first one that I had to get my hands on this one. The Shattered Dark picks up right after The Shadow Reader leaves off, the realm is still in chaos as Lena struggles to maintain the throne and get the nobles to acknowledge her as the queen. McKenzie has relocated to Las Vegas and maintain a double life, trying to hold down a regular job while still being a shadow reader for the Fae. McKenzie is cleaning out and packing up her old apartment getting ready to move to Las Vegas when she discovers her BFF Paige is missing, and she has been taken by the Remnants a group of fae show more trying to overthrow Lena.

Like the first book this one also has action from cover to cover, right from the very first scene as McKenzie is trying to pack up her apartment he action starts and never stops. The plot is filled with lots of twists and turns as McKenzie tries to deal with usual Fae court intrigue while trying to find Paige. The group of humans from the first book who are intent on destroying all the Fae are also around to make things interesting. They have developed a new formula that will allow regular humans to see the Fae and both sides of the Fae court are trying to get their hands on it.

McKenzie and Aron are trying to start their new relationship and everytime Mckenzie thinks she has a handle on things something from Aron's past comes up to bite her in the ass. As a rebel he was definitely not a nice guy and he did some pretty crappy things to other Fae. Every relationship McKenzie has gets tested in this book, especially with Paige and Aron. You don't see much of Kyol in this book but I'm ok with that cuz I have always been team Aron, I like the bad boys...lol. The ending is HUGE! I don't want to give away any spoilers but all I will say is ....AAAAAAAAAAAAARGH. If I didn't use a tablet to read I would have thrown the book across the room, but since I will be jumping on the third book when it becomes available the author probably made her point. show less

** spoiler alert ** I think I enjoyed this book better than the first. In The Shattered Dark, the story and characters become more complex. So many emotions were pulled out of me in this book. Aren turns out to have been Thrain's protege when he was younger. We meet a tor'um he made while under Thrain's guidance, Paige is kidnapped, Naito's brother tries to kill him, Kovak and various others from in the palace betray the rebels, Paige turns out to be sympathizing with the remnants, and Shane goes missing.
Throughout all of this I went from being happy to sad to shocked to crying and making other emotions. McKenzie, is captured and learns that there is even more mystery to the plot against Lena being voted as queen. Someone aside from show more the remnants is causing problems to keep the two sides fighting with no chance of peace. To top it all off, the book ends with McKenzie retiring after learning that Kyol life bonded with her (something extremely rare between fae and humans) in an attempt to keep her alive for Aren to reach her after suffering a mortal injury. Due to this Aren decides to break things off because he is convinced the life bond will be stronger than McKenzie's feelings for him. Lots of things happened in this relatively short time and I'm so ready for book three. show less

McKenzie is really looking forward to her retirement but when Paige goes missing, McKenzie jumps right into getting her back.

There is a lot of character development as well as getting to know more about their past's in THE SHATTERED DARK. The pacing is nice and fast with plenty of edge of your seat moments. I was extremely shocked by how Paige handled everything as well as some of the parts she played throughout the book. I love Aren and McKenzie together. Some things about Aren's past are revealed that don't sit that well with McKenzie but she works hard to make their relationship work. I do like Kyol but he never put McKenzie first and with Aren you can see he would always do that. A lot happens in this part of the series and once show more again a lot changes. I don't really know how I feel about the ending. Decisions are made before McKenzie even knows what is happening. She finally figured out what she wanted and was in a good spot with her decision only to have it all crumble around her.

I'm stumped on guesses of what will happen next but I'm pretty sure the Fae are not going to let her go that easily and the new twists and turns are going to make for a wild book 3. show less