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The League: Nemesis Rising #4
Born of Shadows
For Caillen Dagan, a defiant soldier of fortune, survival isn't a it's a brutal daily battle. Moving through the Ichidaian universe like a wraith, his brushes with the law and death are legendary. But when an act of rare heroism reveals his hidden birthright, he's forced into a world much more dangerous and cold-hearted than the bloody streets where he was raised - one of obscene wealth and lethal politics.Ferocious and determined, Desideria serves as an official bodyguard for her queen. Born of questionable genetics, she will do anything to prove herself worthy of the weapons she carries and the position she's won by combat. But when she uncovers a ruthless plot to assassinate the queen and overthrow her country's government, Desideria is caught in the crossfire. With assassination contracts out on both of them, Caillen and Desideria must learn to fight together or die alone. And if they fail, their governments will fall into the hands of an unimaginable evil.
430 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 26, 2011
406 people are currently reading
7535 people want to read
About the author
Sherrilyn Kenyon
243 books30.2k followersOfficial Author site
Official Nevermore site
Official Deadman's Cross site
Official Chronicles of Nick site
Official Silent Swans site
Official Hunter Legends site
Official Witch of Endor site
Official Lords of Avalon site
Official Facebook site
New York Times and international bestselling author Sherrilyn Kenyon is a regular at the #1 spot. With legions of fans known as Paladins (thousands of whom proudly sport tattoos from her series and who travel from all over the world to attend her appearances), her books are always snatched up as soon as they appear on store shelves. Since 2004, she had placed more than 80 novels on the New York Times list in all formats including manga and graphic novels. Her current series are: Dark-Hunters, Chronicles of Nick and The League, and her books are available in over 100 countries where eager fans impatiently wait for the next release. Her Chronicles of Nick and Dark-Hunter series are soon to be major motion pictures while Dark-Hunter is also being developed as a television series. Join her and her Paladins online at MySherrilyn.com and www.facebook.com/mysherrilyn
Official Nevermore site
Official Deadman's Cross site
Official Chronicles of Nick site
Official Silent Swans site
Official Hunter Legends site
Official Witch of Endor site
Official Lords of Avalon site
Official Facebook site
New York Times and international bestselling author Sherrilyn Kenyon is a regular at the #1 spot. With legions of fans known as Paladins (thousands of whom proudly sport tattoos from her series and who travel from all over the world to attend her appearances), her books are always snatched up as soon as they appear on store shelves. Since 2004, she had placed more than 80 novels on the New York Times list in all formats including manga and graphic novels. Her current series are: Dark-Hunters, Chronicles of Nick and The League, and her books are available in over 100 countries where eager fans impatiently wait for the next release. Her Chronicles of Nick and Dark-Hunter series are soon to be major motion pictures while Dark-Hunter is also being developed as a television series. Join her and her Paladins online at MySherrilyn.com and www.facebook.com/mysherrilyn
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 644 reviews
April 26, 2011
The latest installment in Sherrilyn Kenyon's The League series is definitely a mixed bag. Let me start with what I liked about it. Caillen's story takes us back to the original cast of characters featured in
Born of Night
and
Born of Fire
. We had jumped ahead in time for a while to focus on the next generation of the core families for
Born of Ice
. But this story is set 2-3 years after the events in Born of Fire. I'm happy about this. I thought there were plenty of great characters in the original group still waiting to be explored, and now Kenyon is giving me just what I was hoping for.
Caillen is a rouge smuggler who is also a charming rake. He bears no loyalty to any woman but his sisters. And he lives life by the seat of his pants. As our story begins, he is arrested and sentenced to death while taking the blame for something his sister did. Just before he is executed, it's revealed he is actually the long lost son of a foreign king. Caillen isn't really cut out for life as a prince, but he is giving it his best shot, in honor of his new father. It's during a sort-of international summit that he meets Desideria, a princess from a race of warrior women. When the two of them get framed for the murders of their own parents, they go on the run, while trying to solve the mystery of who set the terrible plan in motion.
It's hard not to like Caillen, though he didn't inspire terribly deep feelings. Obviously, he and Desideria fall for each other as they are drawn together by circumstance. But this book is seriously missing the dark and sexy vibe of my favorite Kenyon books. In fact, if memory serves, I think there is only one love scene in the entire book. (Come on! Play to your strengths, Ms Kenyon!) But honestly, this isn't even my biggest complaint. My biggest issue with the book is the plot surrounding the assassinations. The closer we got to the end of the book, the more convoluted it became. Every time I thought we finally understood what was going on, a different twist was revealed. Now, I love a good twist as much as the next person, but I think I've got whiplash. It got confusing.
It was great to see Syn, Sharhara, Nykyrian, Hauk and Darling again. But this brings me to another point.... The epilogue is set up to clearly pave the way for Darling's book, when Desideria asks Caillen, "Are you sure Darling is gay?... Because I caught him ogling a female secretary." Um. No. Way. I am highly disappointed by the idea of revisionist history for Darling, who has always been as gay as the day is long. So gay that he was beaten to a pulp over it, time and time again by his uncle in previous books. And now we're supposed to believe, what? He was faking it? He is bi? But he never told the friends he has trusted with life and death secrets? Again I say: No Way.
So when all was said and done, this book was ok. I would have liked a bit more sex and a less complicated resolution, but I'm glad we've returned to this time period. Now if only I could get that Nero book I've been wishing for. 3 1/2 stars.
*ARC Provided by NetGalley
Caillen is a rouge smuggler who is also a charming rake. He bears no loyalty to any woman but his sisters. And he lives life by the seat of his pants. As our story begins, he is arrested and sentenced to death while taking the blame for something his sister did. Just before he is executed, it's revealed he is actually the long lost son of a foreign king. Caillen isn't really cut out for life as a prince, but he is giving it his best shot, in honor of his new father. It's during a sort-of international summit that he meets Desideria, a princess from a race of warrior women. When the two of them get framed for the murders of their own parents, they go on the run, while trying to solve the mystery of who set the terrible plan in motion.
It's hard not to like Caillen, though he didn't inspire terribly deep feelings. Obviously, he and Desideria fall for each other as they are drawn together by circumstance. But this book is seriously missing the dark and sexy vibe of my favorite Kenyon books. In fact, if memory serves, I think there is only one love scene in the entire book. (Come on! Play to your strengths, Ms Kenyon!) But honestly, this isn't even my biggest complaint. My biggest issue with the book is the plot surrounding the assassinations. The closer we got to the end of the book, the more convoluted it became. Every time I thought we finally understood what was going on, a different twist was revealed. Now, I love a good twist as much as the next person, but I think I've got whiplash. It got confusing.
It was great to see Syn, Sharhara, Nykyrian, Hauk and Darling again. But this brings me to another point.... The epilogue is set up to clearly pave the way for Darling's book, when Desideria asks Caillen, "Are you sure Darling is gay?... Because I caught him ogling a female secretary." Um. No. Way. I am highly disappointed by the idea of revisionist history for Darling, who has always been as gay as the day is long. So gay that he was beaten to a pulp over it, time and time again by his uncle in previous books. And now we're supposed to believe, what? He was faking it? He is bi? But he never told the friends he has trusted with life and death secrets? Again I say: No Way.
So when all was said and done, this book was ok. I would have liked a bit more sex and a less complicated resolution, but I'm glad we've returned to this time period. Now if only I could get that Nero book I've been wishing for. 3 1/2 stars.
*ARC Provided by NetGalley
February 6, 2017
I read this for the Pirates square (space pirates!) and my Series read selection.
I felt the couple went back and forth snarking at each other for too long and not sure I bought into their romance. The futuristic space jargon was a bit goofy to follow sometimes but it also adds to this world.
The betrayal, villain storyline was so rushed and a bit convoluted at the end and I found myself not really caring.
This is at times a lighthearted, goofy, dark, emotional, simple, and complex book series. I can't pinpoint why I keep going back to it but I will.
I find myself really wanting to read the heroine's brother's, Chayden, story.
I felt the couple went back and forth snarking at each other for too long and not sure I bought into their romance. The futuristic space jargon was a bit goofy to follow sometimes but it also adds to this world.
The betrayal, villain storyline was so rushed and a bit convoluted at the end and I found myself not really caring.
This is at times a lighthearted, goofy, dark, emotional, simple, and complex book series. I can't pinpoint why I keep going back to it but I will.
I find myself really wanting to read the heroine's brother's, Chayden, story.
May 5, 2017
I loved this book. I know that many people have been a bit disappointed by it, but I definitely was not. I know one of the biggest problems was The Darling Thing and I will touch on that later, but other than that, I personally don't see why it was so disappointing. Sure, there was less sex in this book and it was a little different from the others in the series, but I didn't feel like those were any reasons to be dissatisfied with it.
I really loved Caillen and Desideria. Up until this book, I was still harboring a few negative feelings towards Caillen for certain things he said to my Syn in Born of Fire, but after starting this book, it was so hard to continue feeling anything malicious towards him. He was adorable. I thought he was funny and cute, a risk-taker yet reserved, intelligent yet dumb, and I found the fact that he was not quick to love or trust saddeningly endearing. Desideria starts out as pretty much the complete opposite of Caillen; she's unworldly and not very outgoing, but they are also very similar: they love deeply, do everything they can to take care of those they love, and I found them both to be amusing. Desideria is my second favorite heroine of this series (after Alix of Born of Ice) and I thought she was perfect for Caillen. Together, the two of them were utterly dynamic. They could always put a smile on my face and kept me enthralled in the story.
Along with the main characters, there were the amazing supporting characters. I really loved the new characters that were introduced into the series with this book. Fain always kept me amused. Maris was so adorable in his unabashed flaunting of his homosexuality. And I loved the sudden appearance of Chayden, long-lost brother and old friend. He was a cutie and I kind of hope that he will get a book sometime in the near future. Along with the new characters, I loved the return of older characters. Nykyrian made only a small appearance but I adore that man. I have a mini-orgasm every time I simply read Syn's name, let alone imagine his deep voice. I enjoyed seeing more of Hauk in this book, too, because he is only in Born of Night previously and has only a very small part in there. Shahara was less annoying than usual, but Kasen was more so and she made me want to bitch-slap her. Repeatedly. And of course there was Darling, the wonderful man.
Now I want to talk about The Darling Thing. I'm probably one of the very few people who isn't upset by the fact that Darling was apparently checking out a female at the end of the book. The Darling Thing doesn't bother me because I never interpreted him as being completely and utterly gay. I always felt that he was bisexual and that he only sought out men to be with because he had a painful relationship with a woman in the past. I also read something, though, where Sherrilyn Kenyon said something of that sort when I was first starting the series, so I went in with that mentality. However, I am pretty confident that, even if I hadn't read that somewhere, I still would not have believed that Darling is gay. To me, he just doesn't seem that way. I can totally buy the fact that he is bisexual, but I would never totally buy that he is gay. So, like I said, I know I'm one of the very few people who is actually okay with this and really can't wait for Darling's book to come out next year, but I'm okay with that. I love Darling; he's one of my favorite characters of the series. So I just want him to be happy no matter who he is with, whether that person is a man or a woman.
Overall, this book was fantastic in my opinion. I loved the characters, the story, the witticisms, and everything else about Born of Shadows. Sherrilyn Kenyon never fails me.
Favorite Quotes:
"You can't look at someone and tell what they've been through. The scars that hurt the most are never visible on the surface."
(Caillen, page 243)
"Subtlety is for those who lack the skills and the balls to be bold."
(Caillen, page 281)
"Nothing moves faster than the media." Fain changed the screen over to another report on a different frequency. "I swear, they hired a publicist to convict you both. I couldn't get this much coverage if I painted myself pink and ran naked through the League's main hall with a bomb strapped on my back, screaming 'death to sycophantic pawns.'"
(Fain, page 345)
"Give me one reason why I shouldn't."
"Because when I look at you, I can see into infinity."
(Desideria & Caillen, page 388)
Laugh as much as you breathe and love as long as you live.
(Desideria, page 418)
(I got this as an ARC from Netgalley.)
I really loved Caillen and Desideria. Up until this book, I was still harboring a few negative feelings towards Caillen for certain things he said to my Syn in Born of Fire, but after starting this book, it was so hard to continue feeling anything malicious towards him. He was adorable. I thought he was funny and cute, a risk-taker yet reserved, intelligent yet dumb, and I found the fact that he was not quick to love or trust saddeningly endearing. Desideria starts out as pretty much the complete opposite of Caillen; she's unworldly and not very outgoing, but they are also very similar: they love deeply, do everything they can to take care of those they love, and I found them both to be amusing. Desideria is my second favorite heroine of this series (after Alix of Born of Ice) and I thought she was perfect for Caillen. Together, the two of them were utterly dynamic. They could always put a smile on my face and kept me enthralled in the story.
Along with the main characters, there were the amazing supporting characters. I really loved the new characters that were introduced into the series with this book. Fain always kept me amused. Maris was so adorable in his unabashed flaunting of his homosexuality. And I loved the sudden appearance of Chayden, long-lost brother and old friend. He was a cutie and I kind of hope that he will get a book sometime in the near future. Along with the new characters, I loved the return of older characters. Nykyrian made only a small appearance but I adore that man. I have a mini-orgasm every time I simply read Syn's name, let alone imagine his deep voice. I enjoyed seeing more of Hauk in this book, too, because he is only in Born of Night previously and has only a very small part in there. Shahara was less annoying than usual, but Kasen was more so and she made me want to bitch-slap her. Repeatedly. And of course there was Darling, the wonderful man.
Now I want to talk about The Darling Thing. I'm probably one of the very few people who isn't upset by the fact that Darling was apparently checking out a female at the end of the book. The Darling Thing doesn't bother me because I never interpreted him as being completely and utterly gay. I always felt that he was bisexual and that he only sought out men to be with because he had a painful relationship with a woman in the past. I also read something, though, where Sherrilyn Kenyon said something of that sort when I was first starting the series, so I went in with that mentality. However, I am pretty confident that, even if I hadn't read that somewhere, I still would not have believed that Darling is gay. To me, he just doesn't seem that way. I can totally buy the fact that he is bisexual, but I would never totally buy that he is gay. So, like I said, I know I'm one of the very few people who is actually okay with this and really can't wait for Darling's book to come out next year, but I'm okay with that. I love Darling; he's one of my favorite characters of the series. So I just want him to be happy no matter who he is with, whether that person is a man or a woman.
Overall, this book was fantastic in my opinion. I loved the characters, the story, the witticisms, and everything else about Born of Shadows. Sherrilyn Kenyon never fails me.
Favorite Quotes:
"You can't look at someone and tell what they've been through. The scars that hurt the most are never visible on the surface."
(Caillen, page 243)
"Subtlety is for those who lack the skills and the balls to be bold."
(Caillen, page 281)
"Nothing moves faster than the media." Fain changed the screen over to another report on a different frequency. "I swear, they hired a publicist to convict you both. I couldn't get this much coverage if I painted myself pink and ran naked through the League's main hall with a bomb strapped on my back, screaming 'death to sycophantic pawns.'"
(Fain, page 345)
"Give me one reason why I shouldn't."
"Because when I look at you, I can see into infinity."
(Desideria & Caillen, page 388)
Laugh as much as you breathe and love as long as you live.
(Desideria, page 418)
(I got this as an ARC from Netgalley.)
July 11, 2012
Read my review at Demon Lover's Books and More
I had the amazing experience of going to Sherrilyn Kenyon's book signing and she is just a lovely, lovely woman! And so easy to talk to!
So in this review, I thought a little photo of the two of us might be fun :) Also, Dianna Love was there, and that woman is hysterical! She had us all cracking up.
So, moving on to the [Spoiler Free] review.
Born of Shadows picks up in the same time as the first two books took place- Born of Night and Born of Fire which I felt was refreshing since I liked the next generation of the League, but there was so much to work with in the first cast of characters.
When Born of Shadows opens, it is right into an action scene. There's like 60 pages of intense action and an almost execution before the storyline picks up with Caillen meeting Desideria.
We know a lot about Cai from the previous books, but it was cool being able to see his backstory. And to see why he was the way he was.
Desi is a princess from a planet of warrior women-and I thought the concept of how they became warriors was so cool. Basically a few hundred years ago, they got their butts kicked in battle. Seriously kicked. Since most of their men had been killed, they had women...so the women focused on becoming better warriors. I would compare them to the Amazon race, but the real Amazons, the ones who cut off their right breast to become better with a bow. These women were hard. Compassion got you killed, therefore compassion was a pointless emotion. Desi's mother the queen was no different. She was not soft, she didn't hug Desi, there was no preferential treatment, so when Desi earned her way to the elite guard, she really earned it.
Now the only thing that bothered me is how naive the young women were kept. Isn't the number one rule in warfare "know thine enemy?" They weren't allowed off-world unless they were elevated to adult status, so we have a twenty-something year old Desi who is completely ignorant of all cultures outside of her own.
This is important because when she and Cai end up stranded together, she won't believe him about anything. Her first time watching Hauk brothers fight was fantastic! She had to learn her people weren't the badasses they thought they were.
Watching Desi and Cai fall in love was the best part of the book. That and the ending.
The rest of the book picks up from there and it is such a great ride. The ending was great...all except for The Darling Thing, as my friend has dubbed it. It will bother some readers a lot, and some not at all. I'm in the meh category. I'd like to read his book, and hear how Sherrilyn will change us around, so I'm all for it....Trust in Sherrilyn, readers, she won't let us down.
I had the amazing experience of going to Sherrilyn Kenyon's book signing and she is just a lovely, lovely woman! And so easy to talk to!
So in this review, I thought a little photo of the two of us might be fun :) Also, Dianna Love was there, and that woman is hysterical! She had us all cracking up.
So, moving on to the [Spoiler Free] review.
Born of Shadows picks up in the same time as the first two books took place- Born of Night and Born of Fire which I felt was refreshing since I liked the next generation of the League, but there was so much to work with in the first cast of characters.
When Born of Shadows opens, it is right into an action scene. There's like 60 pages of intense action and an almost execution before the storyline picks up with Caillen meeting Desideria.
We know a lot about Cai from the previous books, but it was cool being able to see his backstory. And to see why he was the way he was.
Desi is a princess from a planet of warrior women-and I thought the concept of how they became warriors was so cool. Basically a few hundred years ago, they got their butts kicked in battle. Seriously kicked. Since most of their men had been killed, they had women...so the women focused on becoming better warriors. I would compare them to the Amazon race, but the real Amazons, the ones who cut off their right breast to become better with a bow. These women were hard. Compassion got you killed, therefore compassion was a pointless emotion. Desi's mother the queen was no different. She was not soft, she didn't hug Desi, there was no preferential treatment, so when Desi earned her way to the elite guard, she really earned it.
Now the only thing that bothered me is how naive the young women were kept. Isn't the number one rule in warfare "know thine enemy?" They weren't allowed off-world unless they were elevated to adult status, so we have a twenty-something year old Desi who is completely ignorant of all cultures outside of her own.
This is important because when she and Cai end up stranded together, she won't believe him about anything. Her first time watching Hauk brothers fight was fantastic! She had to learn her people weren't the badasses they thought they were.
Watching Desi and Cai fall in love was the best part of the book. That and the ending.
The rest of the book picks up from there and it is such a great ride. The ending was great...all except for The Darling Thing, as my friend has dubbed it. It will bother some readers a lot, and some not at all. I'm in the meh category. I'd like to read his book, and hear how Sherrilyn will change us around, so I'm all for it....Trust in Sherrilyn, readers, she won't let us down.
February 14, 2013
4.5 stars
Born of Shadows is (IMO) a sci-fi fairytale. A really good sci-fi fairytale!
It's got a long-lost prince with the charm and morals of Flynn Rider...
A kick-ass warrior princess...
Not too mention political intrigue, conspiracy, plenty of action and adventure... and cannibalistic aliens!
Sherrilyn Kenyon is in top-form in this highly entertaining League adventure... and, IMO, this is one of her best, and definitely the best of 'The League' books I've read so far. All I have to say now is: 'Born of Silence' - here I come!
Thanks so much to Aimee for putting this book back on my radar...
Born of Shadows is (IMO) a sci-fi fairytale. A really good sci-fi fairytale!
It's got a long-lost prince with the charm and morals of Flynn Rider...
A kick-ass warrior princess...
Not too mention political intrigue, conspiracy, plenty of action and adventure... and cannibalistic aliens!
Sherrilyn Kenyon is in top-form in this highly entertaining League adventure... and, IMO, this is one of her best, and definitely the best of 'The League' books I've read so far. All I have to say now is: 'Born of Silence' - here I come!
Thanks so much to Aimee for putting this book back on my radar...
May 24, 2017
3.75
Born of Shadows had action, suspense, mystery and romance. Liked the hero and heroine. Plot was good as well as pacing. Well written and nice secondary characters.
Good read.
Born of Shadows had action, suspense, mystery and romance. Liked the hero and heroine. Plot was good as well as pacing. Well written and nice secondary characters.
Good read.
May 5, 2014
3.5 Stars
The League is by far my favourite series by Sherrilyn Kenyon, her blend of sci-fi, adventure and romance makes my jelly quiver!
This is the fourth book in the League series and it follows Caillen Dagan, the brother of Shahara the heroine of Born of Fire. Caillen is a third generation smuggler who would do anything for his sisters, no matter how crazy they drive him, including die for them which is what he almost does until he is saved in the nick of time by an unlikely source and is thrown in to a brand new world; the world of the aristocrats. Soon he is on the run with the beautiful and vivacious Desideria when they are framed for an assassination they didn't commit, as part of a plot that has been brewing for a lifetime.
I really wanted to like this book a lot more then I actually did, I think the main problem I had with this book was that for some reason Caillen really annoyed me. I don't know why but his constant "witty" comments really bugged me. I know he was supposed to be charming but slightly egotistical but I just found him irritating and yearned for him to be the strong silent type like my beloved Nykyrian (from Born of Night)! Desideria; however, I quite liked and I liked seeing her character develop and grow in confidence as she escaped from beneath her mother's tyrannical thumb.
Well so far I sound quite negative about this book, which isn't the case! What I really liked was the amount of action and adventure in it, I have found that normally SK is inside her characters heads a lot which is good, but can get repetitive. With this book there was a lot going on around them so it focused on the plot as well as the romance making it fast paced and exciting. I also liked that it showed you more of the other characters that although are mentioned in the books you don't really get to see them, like Darling Cruel and Dancer Hauk.
Now for the BEST this about the book...Fain Haunk, Dancer's big brother, now I know he was only a secondary character in this book but I instantly loved him! I have a thing for massive guys with long black hair and fangs (Wrath anyone?!) and he fits that image PERFECTLY! Along with a dry and sarcastic sense of humour, I am his for the taking and I really hope he gets a book (and his heroine is named Suzanne LOL!)
So although this wasn't my favourite in the series, I did enjoy this book and am definitely going to pick up the next one.
August 13, 2012
2.5 Stars
This is one of my least favorite Kenyon stories I've ever read and I should probably round it down to 2 stars...but I didn't stop and put it to the side like I really wanted to, therefore I'm generously rounding up to 3 stars
What I did not like:
♦ The beginning was very slow. I don't think the MC's even laid eyes on each other until nearly 20% into the book.
♦ The heroine...Desideria...was TSTL. I wanted to throw her out an air lock myself. She basically ruined the book for me.
♦ There was hardly any romance and absolutely no sexual tension or chemistry between Caillen and Desideria.
♦ There were a lot of inconsistencies in the plot
♦ The whole conspiracy was too obvious and predictable
What I did like:
♦ The hero...Caillen...although I have a little less respect for him because he's with Desideria
♦ Darling and Maris. I wish they would have played a bigger role here; maybe I would have enjoyed it more.
♦ Reading this book gets me closer to reading Darling's book next.
This is one of my least favorite Kenyon stories I've ever read and I should probably round it down to 2 stars...but I didn't stop and put it to the side like I really wanted to, therefore I'm generously rounding up to 3 stars
What I did not like:
♦ The beginning was very slow. I don't think the MC's even laid eyes on each other until nearly 20% into the book.
♦ The heroine...Desideria...was TSTL. I wanted to throw her out an air lock myself. She basically ruined the book for me.
♦ There was hardly any romance and absolutely no sexual tension or chemistry between Caillen and Desideria.
♦ There were a lot of inconsistencies in the plot
♦ The whole conspiracy was too obvious and predictable
What I did like:
♦ The hero...Caillen...although I have a little less respect for him because he's with Desideria
♦ Darling and Maris. I wish they would have played a bigger role here; maybe I would have enjoyed it more.
♦ Reading this book gets me closer to reading Darling's book next.
October 5, 2017
2.5 stars
I read the first book in this series years ago. When I read it, I thought it was okay but not good enough to continue with the series. Since that time, my thoughts kept going back to the story. I decided if it was that memorable I would pick up where I left off and resumed reading books 2 and 3. They were a little slow but okay. I decided this might be a good series to listen to.
Well, I listened to the CDs for this book. The story has a despicable hero who I already did not like. In this book, Caillen is even worse than I previously realized. I also am tired of the characters in this series saying that self sacrifice for others is stupidity. It is not stupidity. It is love. Also, listening brings out just how cheesy many of the sayings and descriptions in this story are. Even though the narrator is fine, I definitely do not recommend listening.
After reading and listening thus far, I am going to take a break again. We will see if I decide to pick up again in another few years. It can truly be difficult to find a great sci-fi romance series.
I read the first book in this series years ago. When I read it, I thought it was okay but not good enough to continue with the series. Since that time, my thoughts kept going back to the story. I decided if it was that memorable I would pick up where I left off and resumed reading books 2 and 3. They were a little slow but okay. I decided this might be a good series to listen to.
Well, I listened to the CDs for this book. The story has a despicable hero who I already did not like. In this book, Caillen is even worse than I previously realized. I also am tired of the characters in this series saying that self sacrifice for others is stupidity. It is not stupidity. It is love. Also, listening brings out just how cheesy many of the sayings and descriptions in this story are. Even though the narrator is fine, I definitely do not recommend listening.
After reading and listening thus far, I am going to take a break again. We will see if I decide to pick up again in another few years. It can truly be difficult to find a great sci-fi romance series.
May 22, 2011
Wow, so where do I start?
OK, let me start with...
1. Sarcasm. I have friends who're sarcastic, so I get it when sarcasm is used. Kenyon, I know when your childish characters are being sarcastic. You don't have to tell us every second of it. In addition, the sarcasm SUCKED. It seemed to me as if they were 10 year-olds arguing & cursing at one another instead of mature "deadly" assassins who got tortured for every little thing. So the sarcasm in this book was just BAD. Epic Fail.
2. The hero. I have never in my life read about a hero so annoying like Caillen. I wanted to (somehow) get in the book & tell him to shut the hell up!
3. The heroine. Desidera or whatever her name is..... OK, seriously, why does every heroine have to end up pregnant? I'm sick of it! Just because we're women and can get pregnant doesn't mean that we're all the octo-mom. I don't have problems with children, but it's always the same. Every heroine gets pregnant! Although technology is used a lot in this series, I guess Caillen the manwhore & the other heroes out there don't know what a freaking condom is.
4. Fain. He's the main reason why I wanted to read his book. I checked his profile out on dark-hunter.com, his picture looks amazing and sexy and he looks like a real badass. But once I read this book, his childish sarcastic speeches were just a no no! He may be 7 feet tall & all powerful, but he acted like a brat! Disappointed.
5. The sex scene. I understand why Kenyon didn't fit a second sex scene in this book. I'm not mad about that. What surprised me was one part of the sex scene. OK, the part where Desidera cups him too hard & he says "Careful, love..." is just like the scene in Dream Warrior (Dream-Hunter series) when Delphine cups Jericho too hard & he says "Gentle, love..."........I have both books in my hands and when I read the Born of Shadows sex scene, I immediately thought of Dream Warrior. But of course Dream Warrior was a much better book.
6. Darling Cruel. Is he gay? Bisexual? Straight? When I first read about him, I was glad that Kenyon was adding a gay character since every other romance author (except for Lora Leigh & a few other) are too homophobic to add homosexual characters in their work. But all of the sudden he's not gay, has a daughter, blah blah blah. Kenyon, don't play this stupid joke on me. I'm part of the gay community & if you decided to make Darling straight just so the homophobic or "no offense, but I'm uncomfortable reading about gay characters" side of your fans continued reading your series & you continue making more money, then you're one ignorant author. Please don't let me down. And next time you decide to add a gay character & make him straight the next instant, think 'bout your fans & gay people out there & how that hurts them.
7. This book was so pointless and boring that I didn't understand (and still don't) what the hell the happened.
OK, let me start with...
1. Sarcasm. I have friends who're sarcastic, so I get it when sarcasm is used. Kenyon, I know when your childish characters are being sarcastic. You don't have to tell us every second of it. In addition, the sarcasm SUCKED. It seemed to me as if they were 10 year-olds arguing & cursing at one another instead of mature "deadly" assassins who got tortured for every little thing. So the sarcasm in this book was just BAD. Epic Fail.
2. The hero. I have never in my life read about a hero so annoying like Caillen. I wanted to (somehow) get in the book & tell him to shut the hell up!
3. The heroine. Desidera or whatever her name is..... OK, seriously, why does every heroine have to end up pregnant? I'm sick of it! Just because we're women and can get pregnant doesn't mean that we're all the octo-mom. I don't have problems with children, but it's always the same. Every heroine gets pregnant! Although technology is used a lot in this series, I guess Caillen the manwhore & the other heroes out there don't know what a freaking condom is.
4. Fain. He's the main reason why I wanted to read his book. I checked his profile out on dark-hunter.com, his picture looks amazing and sexy and he looks like a real badass. But once I read this book, his childish sarcastic speeches were just a no no! He may be 7 feet tall & all powerful, but he acted like a brat! Disappointed.
5. The sex scene. I understand why Kenyon didn't fit a second sex scene in this book. I'm not mad about that. What surprised me was one part of the sex scene. OK, the part where Desidera cups him too hard & he says "Careful, love..." is just like the scene in Dream Warrior (Dream-Hunter series) when Delphine cups Jericho too hard & he says "Gentle, love..."........I have both books in my hands and when I read the Born of Shadows sex scene, I immediately thought of Dream Warrior. But of course Dream Warrior was a much better book.
6. Darling Cruel. Is he gay? Bisexual? Straight? When I first read about him, I was glad that Kenyon was adding a gay character since every other romance author (except for Lora Leigh & a few other) are too homophobic to add homosexual characters in their work. But all of the sudden he's not gay, has a daughter, blah blah blah. Kenyon, don't play this stupid joke on me. I'm part of the gay community & if you decided to make Darling straight just so the homophobic or "no offense, but I'm uncomfortable reading about gay characters" side of your fans continued reading your series & you continue making more money, then you're one ignorant author. Please don't let me down. And next time you decide to add a gay character & make him straight the next instant, think 'bout your fans & gay people out there & how that hurts them.
7. This book was so pointless and boring that I didn't understand (and still don't) what the hell the happened.
April 18, 2011
I don't know if I can express into words how long I have waited for Caillen Dagan's story and OMG I was as lost as I was when he first was introduced. Now it this is absolutely the gate way drug into the next book (Darling) *dreamy sigh* but I am getting off track but back to the the love of my life from another world.
The latest installment in Sherrilyn Kenyon's The League series is definitely one worth reading. Let me start with what I liked about it. Caillen's story takes us back to the original cast of characters featured in her previous books. There were plenty of great characters in the original group still waiting to be explored, and now Sherrilyn Kenyon is giving me just what I wanted all along.... Caillen Dagan.
Caillen is rouge smuggler who is also so damn charming you want to choke him sometimes. The only women that hold his loyalty are his three sisters. No one can compare to them and he holds them all on the highest of the pedestal. Living life by the seat of his pants isnt always what is cracked up to be. At the beginning of the story, Caillen is arrested and sentenced to death while taking the blame for something one of his sisters did. Just before he is executed, it's revealed he is actually wll I cant tell because it is a major part of the story (sorry). Caillen isn't really cut out for this other life but is willing to give it all he can.
During the summit that he meets Desideria, a princess from a race of warrior women. When the two of them get framed for the murders of their own parents, they go on the run, while trying to solve the mystery of who set the terrible plan in motion. This happens to bring them wayyyyy closer then was intended. Neither one can believe all the feelings come to the surface.
Ever since I stared this series I have longed and dreamed of this book. Caillen is not only sexy and fun, but his humor kept everything going. Now I wont act like I wasn't disappointed in a few things. Well, for one the sex was kinda missing something. Yeah they had it but it lacked some passion that Kenyon usually brings to the table. Also Kenyon usually writes dark and sexy. I felt this book lacked the dark and sexy. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed it all the way to the end but I wasn't left as satisfied as I usually am by reading her books.
It was great to see the characters again from the first 4 books. You can't help but miss Syn, Sharhara, Nykyrian, Hauk and Darling. The epilogue is set up for Darling's book and I have mentioned how excited I am for that. Although I am a tad confused on that will happen but you have to read this to know why I feel that way. I just hope all the unanswered questions about him are revealed. I am looking forward to continuing the series. Way to go Kenyon! Your books rock!
The latest installment in Sherrilyn Kenyon's The League series is definitely one worth reading. Let me start with what I liked about it. Caillen's story takes us back to the original cast of characters featured in her previous books. There were plenty of great characters in the original group still waiting to be explored, and now Sherrilyn Kenyon is giving me just what I wanted all along.... Caillen Dagan.
Caillen is rouge smuggler who is also so damn charming you want to choke him sometimes. The only women that hold his loyalty are his three sisters. No one can compare to them and he holds them all on the highest of the pedestal. Living life by the seat of his pants isnt always what is cracked up to be. At the beginning of the story, Caillen is arrested and sentenced to death while taking the blame for something one of his sisters did. Just before he is executed, it's revealed he is actually wll I cant tell because it is a major part of the story (sorry). Caillen isn't really cut out for this other life but is willing to give it all he can.
During the summit that he meets Desideria, a princess from a race of warrior women. When the two of them get framed for the murders of their own parents, they go on the run, while trying to solve the mystery of who set the terrible plan in motion. This happens to bring them wayyyyy closer then was intended. Neither one can believe all the feelings come to the surface.
Ever since I stared this series I have longed and dreamed of this book. Caillen is not only sexy and fun, but his humor kept everything going. Now I wont act like I wasn't disappointed in a few things. Well, for one the sex was kinda missing something. Yeah they had it but it lacked some passion that Kenyon usually brings to the table. Also Kenyon usually writes dark and sexy. I felt this book lacked the dark and sexy. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed it all the way to the end but I wasn't left as satisfied as I usually am by reading her books.
It was great to see the characters again from the first 4 books. You can't help but miss Syn, Sharhara, Nykyrian, Hauk and Darling. The epilogue is set up for Darling's book and I have mentioned how excited I am for that. Although I am a tad confused on that will happen but you have to read this to know why I feel that way. I just hope all the unanswered questions about him are revealed. I am looking forward to continuing the series. Way to go Kenyon! Your books rock!
January 25, 2016
Born of Shadows by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Fourth in The League series
4.5 stars
Whimsical Writing Scale: 5
Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 4
Swoon Worthy Scale: 4
The Villain- I’m not gonna spoil that ‘cause where would be the fun in reading.
Villain Scale: 4
Character Scale: 4.25
Plotastic Scale: 5
Cover Thoughts: I like the cover and the skull thingy looks so cool.
Fourth in The League series
4.5 stars
Caillen Dagan discovers something about himself he never would have suspected in one of the worst of times. Caillen doesn’t belong in the world he was thrown into. He’s not proper, clean, or a gentlemen and he would rather be on his ship. Desideria is a Qillaq princess. The Qillaqs are trained for battle and their women are strong and more vicious than the men. Desideria is sure she’ll die alone because the only way for her to be married is for her to be defeated in battle by a man and she’s one of the fiercest warriors of the nation. Desideria and Caillen both have assassins chasing them and they end up on the run together. I liked Born of Shadows a lot more than Born of Ice. Again though there were times when the chemistry between Caillen and Desideria was extremely lacking, but there were also times when it was there.
Whimsical Writing Scale: 5
The main female character is Desideria. Desideria is a strong heroine who at times reminded me a lot of Shahara, but not quite. She was an entertaining character, but I didn’t love her nearly as much as Shahara or Kiara.
Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 4
The main male character is Caillen. Caillen is Shahara’s adopted brother. Caillen had to adapt to a lot of different things in this book. I’m not a big Caillen fan, but I really enjoyed his book and I like him more than I did in the previous books.
Swoon Worthy Scale: 4
The Villain- I’m not gonna spoil that ‘cause where would be the fun in reading.
Villain Scale: 4
Character Scale: 4.25
I love the League series, even if the books lack chemistry they make up for it in action, suspense, and awesomeness.
Plotastic Scale: 5
Cover Thoughts: I like the cover and the skull thingy looks so cool.
May 24, 2011
Oh my god. This book was slightly better than than Books 2 and 3, but these books are just extremely repetitive in character development and description.
ALL of the male characters have some kind of tragic past, which usually ends up being several times more tragic than the female character. I usually wouldn't have a problem with this, but honestly? A tragic past isn't necessary for a character to be "good" or "attractive".
All the female character tend to be missing a parent or two, and tend to have god awful personalities.
The protaganist won't stop gushing and gushing in their minds about how drop-dead gorgeous their significant other is, it really takes away from the storyline. Hearing it once or twice is okay, but every single time you switch character perspectives, you hear the character in question just exploding with sexual fantasies and lust.
The male characters keep getting erections, pretty much every single time they interact with the female characters.
All of the male characters are large, extremely muscular and gorgeous men. The only difference between them is coloring and race.
And all of the females are small and petite. Why?
Desideria really annoys me. She was miles better than her predecessors, particularly Kiara. Sometimes I think that Caillen is deluding himself when he describes her, using adjectives that don't even remotely apply, such as "compassionate", "intelligent", "wise", etc.
ALL of the male characters have some kind of tragic past, which usually ends up being several times more tragic than the female character. I usually wouldn't have a problem with this, but honestly? A tragic past isn't necessary for a character to be "good" or "attractive".
All the female character tend to be missing a parent or two, and tend to have god awful personalities.
The protaganist won't stop gushing and gushing in their minds about how drop-dead gorgeous their significant other is, it really takes away from the storyline. Hearing it once or twice is okay, but every single time you switch character perspectives, you hear the character in question just exploding with sexual fantasies and lust.
The male characters keep getting erections, pretty much every single time they interact with the female characters.
All of the male characters are large, extremely muscular and gorgeous men. The only difference between them is coloring and race.
And all of the females are small and petite. Why?
Desideria really annoys me. She was miles better than her predecessors, particularly Kiara. Sometimes I think that Caillen is deluding himself when he describes her, using adjectives that don't even remotely apply, such as "compassionate", "intelligent", "wise", etc.
February 25, 2014
*sigh* perfection. Sherrilyn has yet to disappoint me. I just adore this whole flipping series.
June 28, 2011
In compliance with FTC guidelines, I disclose that I received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
This novel is bad. In fact, calling it a novel is unwarranted. This collection of ink printed paper is possibly one of the most inconsistent, poorly written, lazy, and juvenile fictional works ever created.
First off, the “Born of Shadows” is the fourth book in the “League” series. I can accept that without reading the first 3 I am lacking some context, but from reading just this book I have no idea what the League is or does. They apparently keep the 9 systems (not sure if this was a metaphor or actual number) from constantly fighting, dispatch assassins that the Systems aren’t allowed to prosecute, and are so corrupt they can be bought by anyone. However, a minor plot of the novel is one system/kingdom (ruled by a Queen) is lying to give pretense to invade another system, for resources maybe, and nothing is said of the fabled “League”. The shadowy background government isn’t an effective plot device when their only reason for existing doesn’t matter for the sake of the current plot.
Next, the characters. The idiotic, offensively 1-dimensional characters. For the male lead we have Caillen, who is the first 30 pages demonstrates that he is the biggest badass in the universe by brutally killing 6 Enforcers while running parkour around an environment that is never described or made clear. There’s an alley of some kind, and mention of a wall and roofs, but nothing else. This quickly sets the tone for the rest of the novel with the line
“Badass came at a price and today that price just might be his life.”
Then, following his walk to the execution grounds, his last words are to yell to the Warden’s daughter that she has a hot ass. But, he’s not dead, and wakes up to be told he’s the son of the System’s Emperor.
What follows is the brief attempt of Caillen to adjust, described by his new father as fluent in 38 languages plus all dialects (one language has 19), idioms, and cultures, a better fighter then the top tier of Special Ops, and able to seduce any woman he meets with a smile. He of course chaffs at high society with its rules and longs to be back smuggling, fooling around with women, and being a charmingly misogynist braggart.
We also meet Caillen’s friend Maris, who’s every dialogue starts with a graphic overtly sexual advance on Caillen, in jest of course, and Darling Cruel (I swear this is the printed name) who is some high society noble who also became a gun/explosive expert after meeting Caillen.
The main female character is Desideria, raised on an Amazonian planet where women are bred to be violent and skilled warriors who treat men like fourth class citizens, unless said man manages to best the woman in combat and will then be treated like an equal. Her culture is hard, unforgiving, and eschews all emotion. She cries frequently throughout the book.
Desideria initially is brought in to emphasize just how insanely handsome Caillen is, and also has some plot or something. From her perspective, he is described as a smoldering, god-like figure who also has the appearance of being an ultra fierce warrior. Her mother, the Queen has come to a starship for some diplomatic meeting. As the Queen airs her grievances to the council and lies about a neighboring system, Caillen shows off his command of galactic politics and knowledge by loudly and smugly calling out her lies in front of everyone, causing an incident. As a side note, the Queen wears the most revealing outfit possible, extremely skimpy thin gauze, and puts rouge on her nipples to enhance the effect.
I cannot fucking believe a woman author wrote this.
So, the conspiracy starts and Caillen and Desideria end up on a hostile planet and have to avoid capture. They constantly fight back and forth while thinking to themselves how captivated they are with the other, and talk over a campfire for what feels like 80 pages. It wasn’t a campfire, but there was no action or plot at all for the duration, other then the sexual tension.
Then the plot twists begin, fighting, injuries, attempts at self sacrifice, nobly saving each other, same old tripe. It’s not important. What is important is that Caillen is almost offensively misogynistic to her, and she constantly mentions how her warrior race shows no emotions but cries at least 6 times during the course of the book. They fall into “true love” of course. OF COURSE, and it is so florid, melodramatic, and cliché a 13 year old girl would find it too juvenile.
The plot is almost non-existent, makes nearly no sense in any context, and the twists continue past any point of reason until they are laughably absurd. It’s one thing to make up words and technology in a Sci-Fi setting, but to have paper-thin characters switch their entire motivation on a whim is pretty awful.
I really need to just highlight the most offensive parts, this is getting too long.
The Queen ‘womyn’, who refers to men as “manginas” laughs and exiles Desideria for being stupid enough to report an assassination plot, but then apparently follows in lock-step with something Darling Cruel (still cannot fucking believe this) and Maris, 2 men, plan for her to avoid getting murdered.
And speaking of fake words, the word “subclass” is used as a unit of speed, along with ‘starclass’, and then 1 page later used as a unit of planet size. Then later wormholes are methods of travel, but only for badass dudes like Caillen.
In describing a sex scene, Desideria’s state of total bliss is defined as being “unbodyconscious.” That is not a word. Body conscious is not even a word; it’s apparently some new age massage technique. When you resort to pushing words together to describe something, you are a terrible writer who cannot effectively communicate with the language.
This line. “I would laugh at your arrogance, but aside from your sister, you’re the one person I know who could pluck the right particle out of dark energy.” And given that dark energy made up 70 percent of the universe, that was saying something.
This book was being written, and the author decided she needed more “sciencey” things so she pulled up Wikipedia and picked that gem, dark energy never being mentioned again.
This dialogue between the villain and Caillen
“No one will believe that”
“Sure they will. People are sheep. They believe whatever lies they’re told, especially when it comes from the media. After all, the news never lies.”
“Sad thing was, he agreed with her. Most of the time they did.
Goddamnit how did this book get published?
Finally, the last complaint. And, one of the biggest.
The Queen bitch, who comes from a society that treats men like shit, constantly calls her daughter a ‘half-breed’ for being born from an off-worlder. The man that was described up to this point as a coward is revealed by the Queen to be a prince from another planet who willingly agreed to live as a fourth class citizen that she loved and when her son ran away, she sobbed and begged her husband to retrieve him. It is mentioned earlier that this society tortures male children by peeling their fingernails back for the audacity to have a penis.
Ah, almost forget. It turns out Caillen does have a flaw.
This woman he was seeing ‘casually’, sexing up and occasionally eating with, whom he never called, she always sought him out, called him up out of the blue one day and screamed at him for forgetting her birthday, a date he never knew, and proceeded to try to destroy his life. Because of that psycho, Caillen refuses to let himself love a woman, because they’re all batshit crazy who want you to settle down and put a baby in them.
Someday, in the near future, man’s resources will become scarce, and in desperation we will turn to burning anything to stay warm, including books. When that day comes and a poor, shivering soul picks up this book, no one will say “Wait, we need to save this for future generations.” They will instead say “I’m so grateful Sherrilyn Kenyon wrote so many lines about Caillen’s cock, this will burn for hours.”
This novel is bad. In fact, calling it a novel is unwarranted. This collection of ink printed paper is possibly one of the most inconsistent, poorly written, lazy, and juvenile fictional works ever created.
First off, the “Born of Shadows” is the fourth book in the “League” series. I can accept that without reading the first 3 I am lacking some context, but from reading just this book I have no idea what the League is or does. They apparently keep the 9 systems (not sure if this was a metaphor or actual number) from constantly fighting, dispatch assassins that the Systems aren’t allowed to prosecute, and are so corrupt they can be bought by anyone. However, a minor plot of the novel is one system/kingdom (ruled by a Queen) is lying to give pretense to invade another system, for resources maybe, and nothing is said of the fabled “League”. The shadowy background government isn’t an effective plot device when their only reason for existing doesn’t matter for the sake of the current plot.
Next, the characters. The idiotic, offensively 1-dimensional characters. For the male lead we have Caillen, who is the first 30 pages demonstrates that he is the biggest badass in the universe by brutally killing 6 Enforcers while running parkour around an environment that is never described or made clear. There’s an alley of some kind, and mention of a wall and roofs, but nothing else. This quickly sets the tone for the rest of the novel with the line
“Badass came at a price and today that price just might be his life.”
Then, following his walk to the execution grounds, his last words are to yell to the Warden’s daughter that she has a hot ass. But, he’s not dead, and wakes up to be told he’s the son of the System’s Emperor.
What follows is the brief attempt of Caillen to adjust, described by his new father as fluent in 38 languages plus all dialects (one language has 19), idioms, and cultures, a better fighter then the top tier of Special Ops, and able to seduce any woman he meets with a smile. He of course chaffs at high society with its rules and longs to be back smuggling, fooling around with women, and being a charmingly misogynist braggart.
We also meet Caillen’s friend Maris, who’s every dialogue starts with a graphic overtly sexual advance on Caillen, in jest of course, and Darling Cruel (I swear this is the printed name) who is some high society noble who also became a gun/explosive expert after meeting Caillen.
The main female character is Desideria, raised on an Amazonian planet where women are bred to be violent and skilled warriors who treat men like fourth class citizens, unless said man manages to best the woman in combat and will then be treated like an equal. Her culture is hard, unforgiving, and eschews all emotion. She cries frequently throughout the book.
Desideria initially is brought in to emphasize just how insanely handsome Caillen is, and also has some plot or something. From her perspective, he is described as a smoldering, god-like figure who also has the appearance of being an ultra fierce warrior. Her mother, the Queen has come to a starship for some diplomatic meeting. As the Queen airs her grievances to the council and lies about a neighboring system, Caillen shows off his command of galactic politics and knowledge by loudly and smugly calling out her lies in front of everyone, causing an incident. As a side note, the Queen wears the most revealing outfit possible, extremely skimpy thin gauze, and puts rouge on her nipples to enhance the effect.
I cannot fucking believe a woman author wrote this.
So, the conspiracy starts and Caillen and Desideria end up on a hostile planet and have to avoid capture. They constantly fight back and forth while thinking to themselves how captivated they are with the other, and talk over a campfire for what feels like 80 pages. It wasn’t a campfire, but there was no action or plot at all for the duration, other then the sexual tension.
Then the plot twists begin, fighting, injuries, attempts at self sacrifice, nobly saving each other, same old tripe. It’s not important. What is important is that Caillen is almost offensively misogynistic to her, and she constantly mentions how her warrior race shows no emotions but cries at least 6 times during the course of the book. They fall into “true love” of course. OF COURSE, and it is so florid, melodramatic, and cliché a 13 year old girl would find it too juvenile.
The plot is almost non-existent, makes nearly no sense in any context, and the twists continue past any point of reason until they are laughably absurd. It’s one thing to make up words and technology in a Sci-Fi setting, but to have paper-thin characters switch their entire motivation on a whim is pretty awful.
I really need to just highlight the most offensive parts, this is getting too long.
The Queen ‘womyn’, who refers to men as “manginas” laughs and exiles Desideria for being stupid enough to report an assassination plot, but then apparently follows in lock-step with something Darling Cruel (still cannot fucking believe this) and Maris, 2 men, plan for her to avoid getting murdered.
And speaking of fake words, the word “subclass” is used as a unit of speed, along with ‘starclass’, and then 1 page later used as a unit of planet size. Then later wormholes are methods of travel, but only for badass dudes like Caillen.
In describing a sex scene, Desideria’s state of total bliss is defined as being “unbodyconscious.” That is not a word. Body conscious is not even a word; it’s apparently some new age massage technique. When you resort to pushing words together to describe something, you are a terrible writer who cannot effectively communicate with the language.
This line. “I would laugh at your arrogance, but aside from your sister, you’re the one person I know who could pluck the right particle out of dark energy.” And given that dark energy made up 70 percent of the universe, that was saying something.
This book was being written, and the author decided she needed more “sciencey” things so she pulled up Wikipedia and picked that gem, dark energy never being mentioned again.
This dialogue between the villain and Caillen
“No one will believe that”
“Sure they will. People are sheep. They believe whatever lies they’re told, especially when it comes from the media. After all, the news never lies.”
“Sad thing was, he agreed with her. Most of the time they did.
Goddamnit how did this book get published?
Finally, the last complaint. And, one of the biggest.
The Queen bitch, who comes from a society that treats men like shit, constantly calls her daughter a ‘half-breed’ for being born from an off-worlder. The man that was described up to this point as a coward is revealed by the Queen to be a prince from another planet who willingly agreed to live as a fourth class citizen that she loved and when her son ran away, she sobbed and begged her husband to retrieve him. It is mentioned earlier that this society tortures male children by peeling their fingernails back for the audacity to have a penis.
Ah, almost forget. It turns out Caillen does have a flaw.
This woman he was seeing ‘casually’, sexing up and occasionally eating with, whom he never called, she always sought him out, called him up out of the blue one day and screamed at him for forgetting her birthday, a date he never knew, and proceeded to try to destroy his life. Because of that psycho, Caillen refuses to let himself love a woman, because they’re all batshit crazy who want you to settle down and put a baby in them.
Someday, in the near future, man’s resources will become scarce, and in desperation we will turn to burning anything to stay warm, including books. When that day comes and a poor, shivering soul picks up this book, no one will say “Wait, we need to save this for future generations.” They will instead say “I’m so grateful Sherrilyn Kenyon wrote so many lines about Caillen’s cock, this will burn for hours.”
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 19, 2017
3.5~3.75 Stars
April 22, 2011
Each day is a fight for survival for Caillen Dagan. All too familiar with the taste of betrayal, Caillen risks his life for one of the few people he cares for. This leads to the unveiling of privileged birthright but no title or wealth can change who he really is. Caillen is a skilled fighter and when he learns of a deadly plot, nothing will stop him from uncovering the truth. Desideria Denaraii is from a race where women are warriors and nothing is given freely but earned. After recently receiving the position as a body guard to the queen, Desideria attempts to stop a murderous plan. When chaos hits, Caillen and Desideria must run to save their lives and learn to fight their enemies and not each other before both of their governments fall into the wrong hands.
Ever since he was young, Caillen looked out for his three sisters. They are a source of constant headaches but there is nothing he wouldn't do for them. After taking the blame for his sister's latest brush with the law, Caillen finds himself in jail and awaiting execution. He receives a last minute reprieve and is given unbelievable news. A couple months later Caillen is taking etiquette lessons and getting reacquainted with a world he never knew he was a part of. But he is not suddenly a different person. Ever the wise cracking, philandering, calculating fighter, Caillen does not give into demands to change or apologizes but sticks proudly to who he is and I was grateful for his stubbornness. This is what makes him one of my favorite characters in a series full of well developed, unconventional heroes.
When he learns of an attempt on his King, Caillen boards a ship of foreign dignitaries to stop the assassination and find the guilty party. There he meets Desideria. Desideria is from a society dominated by women and where emotions are considered a weakness and violence is a every day part of life. Desideria is aboard the ship as a guard for the queen and stumbles upon a plot to kill her ruler. Events take place that now have Caillen and Desideria working together to not only save their own lives but those of their leaders.
When I started this book I didn't think I'd care much for Desideria's character because I was expecting a woman who felt it necessary to constantly use violence as a means to get what she wants or prove she's stronger. Desideria is a skilled warrior like others of her kind but she's not cold and void of emotions. At times she was naive due to her kinds isolation and I saw it as a way to get a better picture of her people and their beliefs. Desideria was an appealing character from the start and my only complaint is in the irregularity of her fighting skills. At times she was feared and unmatched and then there would be moments I felt her strength was lacking. Together these two are a nice pair but nothing remarkable. I felt the affection and I thought they had nice chemistry but nothing occurred between them that will have me listing them as one of my favorite couples.
There is a lot of action in Born of Shadows as well as mystery surrounding the assassination attempts. I tried to guess the who and why but ended up being wrong, which was great because the story kept me guessing and wasn't completely predictable. There are some close calls for Caillen and Desideria that had me on the edge and of course, romance. I found myself more interested in the story and all its twists and turns, as well as the individual characters more than the actual romance. Returning characters from previous books, the Dagan sisters, Sin, Darling and Dancer are just a few, added a comforting familiarity to the story and it was great to reconnect with them while still feeling like this was Caillen's book. Born of Shadows is not as good as the first 2 books in The League series but I thought it was an improvement over Born of Ice and its odd time jump. Fans of Sci-Fi romance should enjoy.
-Stephanie
Ever since he was young, Caillen looked out for his three sisters. They are a source of constant headaches but there is nothing he wouldn't do for them. After taking the blame for his sister's latest brush with the law, Caillen finds himself in jail and awaiting execution. He receives a last minute reprieve and is given unbelievable news. A couple months later Caillen is taking etiquette lessons and getting reacquainted with a world he never knew he was a part of. But he is not suddenly a different person. Ever the wise cracking, philandering, calculating fighter, Caillen does not give into demands to change or apologizes but sticks proudly to who he is and I was grateful for his stubbornness. This is what makes him one of my favorite characters in a series full of well developed, unconventional heroes.
When he learns of an attempt on his King, Caillen boards a ship of foreign dignitaries to stop the assassination and find the guilty party. There he meets Desideria. Desideria is from a society dominated by women and where emotions are considered a weakness and violence is a every day part of life. Desideria is aboard the ship as a guard for the queen and stumbles upon a plot to kill her ruler. Events take place that now have Caillen and Desideria working together to not only save their own lives but those of their leaders.
When I started this book I didn't think I'd care much for Desideria's character because I was expecting a woman who felt it necessary to constantly use violence as a means to get what she wants or prove she's stronger. Desideria is a skilled warrior like others of her kind but she's not cold and void of emotions. At times she was naive due to her kinds isolation and I saw it as a way to get a better picture of her people and their beliefs. Desideria was an appealing character from the start and my only complaint is in the irregularity of her fighting skills. At times she was feared and unmatched and then there would be moments I felt her strength was lacking. Together these two are a nice pair but nothing remarkable. I felt the affection and I thought they had nice chemistry but nothing occurred between them that will have me listing them as one of my favorite couples.
There is a lot of action in Born of Shadows as well as mystery surrounding the assassination attempts. I tried to guess the who and why but ended up being wrong, which was great because the story kept me guessing and wasn't completely predictable. There are some close calls for Caillen and Desideria that had me on the edge and of course, romance. I found myself more interested in the story and all its twists and turns, as well as the individual characters more than the actual romance. Returning characters from previous books, the Dagan sisters, Sin, Darling and Dancer are just a few, added a comforting familiarity to the story and it was great to reconnect with them while still feeling like this was Caillen's book. Born of Shadows is not as good as the first 2 books in The League series but I thought it was an improvement over Born of Ice and its odd time jump. Fans of Sci-Fi romance should enjoy.
-Stephanie
June 23, 2022
Oh My Gosh!!! What a book! I still can't believe I didn't start reading this series untill last year 🤦
Caiilen and Desideria's story is one that just kept me in the pages from the very first chapter. Such an awesome, action packed read with twists and turns, that kept me on my toes. Beautiful love story too 🥰
Thanks Sherrilyn 👍
Caiilen and Desideria's story is one that just kept me in the pages from the very first chapter. Such an awesome, action packed read with twists and turns, that kept me on my toes. Beautiful love story too 🥰
Thanks Sherrilyn 👍
March 20, 2020
Another story set in the vast League universe, that focuses on Caillen, a smuggler who , and Desideria, a princess of an isolated, war driven planet.
The two meet in a formal function where Desideria is accompanying her mother for the first time in a guard capacity, and Caillen is accompanying his father in a similar role, determined to keep him safe from any further attempts on his life.
Their plans to protect their parents are derailed, however, when .
On the run for their lives together, the two slowly learn to trust one another while they try to figure out who is behind the attempts on their parents and their own lives, and they eventually fall in love despite their reservations.
It turns out that the main villain was .
Full of action, impossible odds and interesting characters, including the hero of the next book, Caillen's mysterious best friend Darling, whose story follows in Born of Silence. I'll try not to wait so long before getting to that one, since I'm sure I'll enjoy it a lot more if I have a few things about the world fresh in my mind instead of trying to remember who is who.
Previous book reviews:
✦ Fire and Ice (The League: Nemesis Rising #3.5) ~ ★★★★ (31/03/2015)
✦ Born of Ice (The League: Nemesis Rising #3) ~ ★★★★ (11/08/2014)
✦ Born of Fire (The League: Nemesis Rising #2) ~ ★★★★ (27/09/2012)
The two meet in a formal function where Desideria is accompanying her mother for the first time in a guard capacity, and Caillen is accompanying his father in a similar role, determined to keep him safe from any further attempts on his life.
Their plans to protect their parents are derailed, however, when .
On the run for their lives together, the two slowly learn to trust one another while they try to figure out who is behind the attempts on their parents and their own lives, and they eventually fall in love despite their reservations.
It turns out that the main villain was .
Full of action, impossible odds and interesting characters, including the hero of the next book, Caillen's mysterious best friend Darling, whose story follows in Born of Silence. I'll try not to wait so long before getting to that one, since I'm sure I'll enjoy it a lot more if I have a few things about the world fresh in my mind instead of trying to remember who is who.
Previous book reviews:
✦ Fire and Ice (The League: Nemesis Rising #3.5) ~ ★★★★ (31/03/2015)
✦ Born of Ice (The League: Nemesis Rising #3) ~ ★★★★ (11/08/2014)
✦ Born of Fire (The League: Nemesis Rising #2) ~ ★★★★ (27/09/2012)
May 17, 2012
I don't know why I seem to like these books so much. I'm not a huge romance reader, I initially started reading Kenyon and other PNR authors when I ran out of urban fantasy I wanted something, anything that was remotely related. Also, as a bookstore employee watching her books fly off the shelf, I wanted to see what the fuss was about. (I started with the Laurell K. Hamilton books somewhere around my freshman year of high school when there was almost nothing else in the genre)
I'm loving this sci-fi-romance series. I won't summarize the book (you really should read it for yourself).
One of my favorite things about Sherrilyn Kenyon's books is her ability to create the world. She seems to seamlessly connect one book to the next. After a few books in any of her series, we already know the character, the books are truly connected to each other. They aren't even necessarily in chronological order, sometimes occurring simultaneously. She throws in a hints and connections that you almost miss, or completely miss until a second reading. In Born of Ice, she mentions Callien's mysterious disappearance, setting up Born of Shadows without an obvious last chapter set up.
One thing I do like about this series being in the romance genre is that in the typical romance format, each book focuses on the story of an individual couple. This allows for different views of the world greater building.
Sometimes the romance in the stories does get a little too much for me, but I try to take it with a grain of salt, the world building makes it worth it to me.
To sum it up?
More please!
I'm loving this sci-fi-romance series. I won't summarize the book (you really should read it for yourself).
One of my favorite things about Sherrilyn Kenyon's books is her ability to create the world. She seems to seamlessly connect one book to the next. After a few books in any of her series, we already know the character, the books are truly connected to each other. They aren't even necessarily in chronological order, sometimes occurring simultaneously. She throws in a hints and connections that you almost miss, or completely miss until a second reading. In Born of Ice, she mentions Callien's mysterious disappearance, setting up Born of Shadows without an obvious last chapter set up.
One thing I do like about this series being in the romance genre is that in the typical romance format, each book focuses on the story of an individual couple. This allows for different views of the world greater building.
Sometimes the romance in the stories does get a little too much for me, but I try to take it with a grain of salt, the world building makes it worth it to me.
To sum it up?
More please!
June 17, 2012
Was I the only one who got very confused during one of the ship battles and all the characters suddenly poofed onto another ship. No explanation, just "oh shit we's about to die" to "It went dark, then the light came back and they were all on one of the enemy ships"???? I wasn't sure if someone had a special ability or what the fuck was going on..
I know they transported later in the book but was that what happened the fist time? I read the pages 3 times before saying fuck it but maybe that's what happened. whatever....
I was also a wee bit annoyed at the fact that the author thinks the reader needed to be told every time someone was being sarcastic...I've read pretty much all of mrs Kenyons works, I expect sarcasm will be delivered, I am not so dumb that I don't understand when people are being smart with one another (hell, I'm King smartass in my family)
BUuutttt... the story was so-so. And as typical I'm more interested in the guys that aren't the main lovebirds. It was a tad bit repetitive as well: hero and heroine get into bind, escape by the skin of their nads, heal wounds, hero and heroine get into bind with +2 hot guys, escape by the skin of their nads, heal wounds, hero and heroine get into bind with +4 hot guys, yada yada yada..they fall in love... the end.. everyones happy all the good guys live, all the baddies are bludgeoned to death.
I know they transported later in the book but was that what happened the fist time? I read the pages 3 times before saying fuck it but maybe that's what happened. whatever....
I was also a wee bit annoyed at the fact that the author thinks the reader needed to be told every time someone was being sarcastic...I've read pretty much all of mrs Kenyons works, I expect sarcasm will be delivered, I am not so dumb that I don't understand when people are being smart with one another (hell, I'm King smartass in my family)
BUuutttt... the story was so-so. And as typical I'm more interested in the guys that aren't the main lovebirds. It was a tad bit repetitive as well: hero and heroine get into bind, escape by the skin of their nads, heal wounds, hero and heroine get into bind with +2 hot guys, escape by the skin of their nads, heal wounds, hero and heroine get into bind with +4 hot guys, yada yada yada..they fall in love... the end.. everyones happy all the good guys live, all the baddies are bludgeoned to death.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 8, 2011
Another winner...I love this series...and this addition to the Leaque is no exception.
I enjoyed Caillen and Desideria's story and their fight for survival in a cruel and unforgiving world. I loved watching their love grow and take root. There's alot of action and when the passion is introduced well let's just say it was awesome.
Highly recommend this book; damn I recommend the series.
I enjoyed Caillen and Desideria's story and their fight for survival in a cruel and unforgiving world. I loved watching their love grow and take root. There's alot of action and when the passion is introduced well let's just say it was awesome.
Highly recommend this book; damn I recommend the series.
July 9, 2018
2'5/5
April 11, 2011
This book takes a step back in time from the third League book to the original group of Kick-butt heroes of the first two books. Caillen Dagan (Cai), you may remember from Born of Fire, is Shahara's brother and Syn (now his brother-in-law) is one of his best friends. This is Cai's story.
Twenty-two years ago Cai Dagan's father died protecting him and his sisters. He was warned never to join the League, to never let anyone take his DNA, a retina scan, or fingerprints, never give his address out, not to let someone take his picture, and basically stay under the radar. He was told his father's enemies would hunt him down if they got the chance. He was also left in charge of his three older sisters. That's a tall order for an eight year old. Against his father's wishes, he stayed and watched his dad's execution and saw those that murdered him. It is something that will be etched in his mind forever.
Cai had done a good job following his dad's advice until now. Seconds away from a guillotine blade striking it's fatal blow, he's granted amnesty. The reason? He's supposedly the long lost son of Emperor Reginahn Evzen Tyralehn de Orczy who was kidnapped years ago. Suddenly comments and statements made by the man he thought was his father take on a whole new meaning.
Desideria is a Qillaq princess. She's also a half breed which no one lets her forget. Qillaqs are known as being a tough man-hating race.
When a plan is put in motion to assassinate both ruling members and heirs of Cai’s and Desideria’s worlds they are thrust together in a fight for their lives. While they attempt to dodge an assassin and figure out who is behind the assassination plot, the two will get to know each other. That is when the story takes off and becomes really fun.
I was glad to find this book focused on Cai. He was one of the characters I hoped Kenyon would expand upon from her initial trilogy. I have a feeling Kenyon truly listens to what her fans want, either that or the woman is psychic. Hmmm…. Wouldn’t put it past her. *grin* I enjoyed how we slowly see behind the wall Cai has carefully constructed around himself. I love how many of Kenyon’s books focus on the theme that people aren't always born into a family, sometimes families are created out of friends and people you care for and trust. She has a way of having her characters take a bad situation and instead of sulking about it, do something to get themselves out of it. The fact all the guys are extremely good looking is an added boon. Yeah, Kenyon has my number. ;)
The only thing that was unclear in the story was what involvement, if any, Cai's dad (the one he grew up thinking was his dad) had in the initial kidnapping. Perhaps that will be more clear in a copy that is not an ARC or in a later story?
You could definitely read Born of Shadows before reading Born of Ice, the third book in the series. I wonder if Kenyon will, in time, renumber her series to reflect this? I would.
My recommended reading order for this series thus far:
Born of Night
Born of Fire
Born of Shadows
Born of Ice
Fire & Ice (a novella in the anthology 'In Other Worlds'. I haven’t read it yet, but I sneaked a peek. I actually own it.)
I gave this one 4 out of 5 stars.
Notes: I read the ARC (Advanced Reader Copy). The actually release date for Born of Shadows is April 26th. Does have some foul language which some may find offensive, but sometimes it just fits with the characters and this is one of those cases.
Twenty-two years ago Cai Dagan's father died protecting him and his sisters. He was warned never to join the League, to never let anyone take his DNA, a retina scan, or fingerprints, never give his address out, not to let someone take his picture, and basically stay under the radar. He was told his father's enemies would hunt him down if they got the chance. He was also left in charge of his three older sisters. That's a tall order for an eight year old. Against his father's wishes, he stayed and watched his dad's execution and saw those that murdered him. It is something that will be etched in his mind forever.
Cai had done a good job following his dad's advice until now. Seconds away from a guillotine blade striking it's fatal blow, he's granted amnesty. The reason? He's supposedly the long lost son of Emperor Reginahn Evzen Tyralehn de Orczy who was kidnapped years ago. Suddenly comments and statements made by the man he thought was his father take on a whole new meaning.
Desideria is a Qillaq princess. She's also a half breed which no one lets her forget. Qillaqs are known as being a tough man-hating race.
When a plan is put in motion to assassinate both ruling members and heirs of Cai’s and Desideria’s worlds they are thrust together in a fight for their lives. While they attempt to dodge an assassin and figure out who is behind the assassination plot, the two will get to know each other. That is when the story takes off and becomes really fun.
I was glad to find this book focused on Cai. He was one of the characters I hoped Kenyon would expand upon from her initial trilogy. I have a feeling Kenyon truly listens to what her fans want, either that or the woman is psychic. Hmmm…. Wouldn’t put it past her. *grin* I enjoyed how we slowly see behind the wall Cai has carefully constructed around himself. I love how many of Kenyon’s books focus on the theme that people aren't always born into a family, sometimes families are created out of friends and people you care for and trust. She has a way of having her characters take a bad situation and instead of sulking about it, do something to get themselves out of it. The fact all the guys are extremely good looking is an added boon. Yeah, Kenyon has my number. ;)
The only thing that was unclear in the story was what involvement, if any, Cai's dad (the one he grew up thinking was his dad) had in the initial kidnapping. Perhaps that will be more clear in a copy that is not an ARC or in a later story?
You could definitely read Born of Shadows before reading Born of Ice, the third book in the series. I wonder if Kenyon will, in time, renumber her series to reflect this? I would.
My recommended reading order for this series thus far:
Born of Night
Born of Fire
Born of Shadows
Born of Ice
Fire & Ice (a novella in the anthology 'In Other Worlds'. I haven’t read it yet, but I sneaked a peek. I actually own it.)
I gave this one 4 out of 5 stars.
Notes: I read the ARC (Advanced Reader Copy). The actually release date for Born of Shadows is April 26th. Does have some foul language which some may find offensive, but sometimes it just fits with the characters and this is one of those cases.
March 12, 2011
In the universe where the League is law, most live in fear. Some fight back. Welcome to a world where corrupt assassination politics dominate everyone. It's kill or be killed and for Caillen Dagan, a defiant soldier of fortune, survival isn't a right, it's a brutal daily battle. Moving through the Ichidian universe like a wraith, his brushes with the law and death are legendary. When an act of rare heroism reveals and seconds from execution his hidden birthright is revealed. The new world he is forced into is even more dangerous and cold-hearted than the bloody streets where he was raised.
Ferocious and determined, Desideria Denaraii serves as an official bodyguard for her mother, the queen. Desideria will do anything to prove herself worthy of the weapons she carries and the position she's won by combat to gain acceptance and approval from her mother. When she overhears a ruthless plot to assassinate the queen and overthrow her country's government, Desideria is caught in the crosshairs.
With assassination contracts out on both of them, Caillen and Desideria must learn to fight together or die alone. And if they fail, their governments will fall into the hands of an unimaginable evil.
*** Wow and wow! Talk about a universal James Bond! Caillen Dagan had more neat gadgets and weapons than one can shake a stick at as well as being an absolutely insane pilot who could outmaneuver anyone when flying his ship. His other main accomplishment was being able to seduce any woman on two legs! That is not to say he was doing any seducing in BORN OF SHADOWS - (not that he wouldn’t like to) - nope he and Desideria were too busy trying to stay alive.
As BORN OF SHADOWS was my very first League book and I was introduced to a whole new universe and characters who evidently had starring roles in previous books of this series, which I am now going to have to back track and add to my to-be-read piles!!!! With regard to Caillen I believe Kenyon did a superb job of creating an ultra hero who lives by his wits, outstanding physical abilities and luck (although Caillen would have to tell you it was all bad luck!)
Desideria is one mighty little package as well and what she lacked in size she made up for in determination and admirable fighting skills! In Desideria’s world, feelings were a hindrance - it was kill or be killed and take what you wanted. Her mother, the queen was a cold selfish bitch, whose approval was near to non-existent. Yet when Desideria overheard an assassination plot to kill the queen, she reacted with feeling/duty having just won a place on her mother’s royal guard. The fact that she was despised for her impure bloodlines was immaterial. Desideria’s father was not Qillaq but had had the misfortune of crashing his shuttle into Qilliq territory and became her mother’s slave.
All through the telling the reader realizes there is/are many assassination attempts on both the protagonists royal parents and a lot of red herrings are thrown out there to make the reader think they knew who they were. Kenyon kept these secrets right up to the wonderful end leaving this reader with the feeling, of having to back pedal and to pick up the previous series books, so that I’ll be more than ready for the next book of this series featuring - maybe - Desideria’s brother????
Bottom line: This book stands alone and is highly recommended!
Marilyn Rondeau, for www.ck2skwipsandkritiques.com
Ferocious and determined, Desideria Denaraii serves as an official bodyguard for her mother, the queen. Desideria will do anything to prove herself worthy of the weapons she carries and the position she's won by combat to gain acceptance and approval from her mother. When she overhears a ruthless plot to assassinate the queen and overthrow her country's government, Desideria is caught in the crosshairs.
With assassination contracts out on both of them, Caillen and Desideria must learn to fight together or die alone. And if they fail, their governments will fall into the hands of an unimaginable evil.
*** Wow and wow! Talk about a universal James Bond! Caillen Dagan had more neat gadgets and weapons than one can shake a stick at as well as being an absolutely insane pilot who could outmaneuver anyone when flying his ship. His other main accomplishment was being able to seduce any woman on two legs! That is not to say he was doing any seducing in BORN OF SHADOWS - (not that he wouldn’t like to) - nope he and Desideria were too busy trying to stay alive.
As BORN OF SHADOWS was my very first League book and I was introduced to a whole new universe and characters who evidently had starring roles in previous books of this series, which I am now going to have to back track and add to my to-be-read piles!!!! With regard to Caillen I believe Kenyon did a superb job of creating an ultra hero who lives by his wits, outstanding physical abilities and luck (although Caillen would have to tell you it was all bad luck!)
Desideria is one mighty little package as well and what she lacked in size she made up for in determination and admirable fighting skills! In Desideria’s world, feelings were a hindrance - it was kill or be killed and take what you wanted. Her mother, the queen was a cold selfish bitch, whose approval was near to non-existent. Yet when Desideria overheard an assassination plot to kill the queen, she reacted with feeling/duty having just won a place on her mother’s royal guard. The fact that she was despised for her impure bloodlines was immaterial. Desideria’s father was not Qillaq but had had the misfortune of crashing his shuttle into Qilliq territory and became her mother’s slave.
All through the telling the reader realizes there is/are many assassination attempts on both the protagonists royal parents and a lot of red herrings are thrown out there to make the reader think they knew who they were. Kenyon kept these secrets right up to the wonderful end leaving this reader with the feeling, of having to back pedal and to pick up the previous series books, so that I’ll be more than ready for the next book of this series featuring - maybe - Desideria’s brother????
Bottom line: This book stands alone and is highly recommended!
Marilyn Rondeau, for www.ck2skwipsandkritiques.com
April 16, 2011
Kenyon’s League Series has always been my favorite of her various series. I love futuristic sci fi and that is what this series is. This book takes place a few years after Born of Fire but many years before Born of Ice. I recommend reading this series in order, if not at least read Born of Night and Born of Fire before this one. Readers are introduced to Caillen Dagan in those books and also the supporting characters in this book. This book starts with fight action and the action never stops. There are many surprising twists and turns that keep the pages turning. The evil plotting of the families in these pages are utterly shocking! The readers get more of the characters they were introduced to in the first two books. We are also introduced to some new characters as well, one being a very sexy pirate named Chayden. (keep an eye out for him.)
Caillen is getting himself thrown in jail to protect one of his sisters. He has spent his life protecting them so this is just a typical day for him. He just wasn’t expecting that what his sister was being arrested for carried a death sentence. The moment before he loses his head he finds out that he is not who he thought he was. He was kidnapped as a child and his biological father is there to prevent the death sentence from being carried out. I am sure he never thought his new life would be more dangerous than the one he has been living for the past 30 years, but that is exactly what he finds out all too soon while trying to prevent multiple assassination attempts on his father’s life. The plotting and the scheming are very thick, involving numerous people and doesn’t stop with just his father’s life being on the line. I was left constantly guessing the whos and whys. Caillen decides that he can’t be who his biological father expects him to be, so he’ll just go back to the life he has always known. Before he can leave he finds himself assisting a damsel in distress that puts them in the center of another political assassination attempt, along with kidnapping and numerous other charges. Like I stated this book is NON STOP ACTION.
I was a bit disappointed with this installment of The League series. It is a great book and I highly recommend reading it. The book just differs from what I am used to with this series. The heroine Desideria is from a fierce female warrior race. She’s tough, she’s strong, she can fight and defeat anyone and she is clueless about everything concerning any race other than hers. This bothered me a bit. It would have made sense to learn your potential opponent’s weaknesses. This made her rely on Caillen too much. It weakened her character in my opinion. I also would like to point out that the sexual romance is minimal. There is romance and attraction with Caillen and Desideria, but only one sex scene. Although with all the action and fighting, which is all this book is it was probably difficult to fit in some quality steamy sexed up alone time. Not the usual Kenyon in that aspect.
Caillen is getting himself thrown in jail to protect one of his sisters. He has spent his life protecting them so this is just a typical day for him. He just wasn’t expecting that what his sister was being arrested for carried a death sentence. The moment before he loses his head he finds out that he is not who he thought he was. He was kidnapped as a child and his biological father is there to prevent the death sentence from being carried out. I am sure he never thought his new life would be more dangerous than the one he has been living for the past 30 years, but that is exactly what he finds out all too soon while trying to prevent multiple assassination attempts on his father’s life. The plotting and the scheming are very thick, involving numerous people and doesn’t stop with just his father’s life being on the line. I was left constantly guessing the whos and whys. Caillen decides that he can’t be who his biological father expects him to be, so he’ll just go back to the life he has always known. Before he can leave he finds himself assisting a damsel in distress that puts them in the center of another political assassination attempt, along with kidnapping and numerous other charges. Like I stated this book is NON STOP ACTION.
I was a bit disappointed with this installment of The League series. It is a great book and I highly recommend reading it. The book just differs from what I am used to with this series. The heroine Desideria is from a fierce female warrior race. She’s tough, she’s strong, she can fight and defeat anyone and she is clueless about everything concerning any race other than hers. This bothered me a bit. It would have made sense to learn your potential opponent’s weaknesses. This made her rely on Caillen too much. It weakened her character in my opinion. I also would like to point out that the sexual romance is minimal. There is romance and attraction with Caillen and Desideria, but only one sex scene. Although with all the action and fighting, which is all this book is it was probably difficult to fit in some quality steamy sexed up alone time. Not the usual Kenyon in that aspect.
May 13, 2011
3.5 STARS
While I enjoyed this book it wasn't as good as the rest. Many reasons for this which I'll explain later, just wanted to say that I'm a bit disappointed about the book. After I finished book 3 I was extremely happy to see book 4 would be about one of the original characters as I adored them all and I had been hoping more books about them would come out. But this book wasn't the same as the rest, it was even written in a different way; which was not a good thing as I believe SK is a goddess in this genre and should stick to her usual writing techniques.
First, the beginning was REALLY slow, it took me forever to start enjoying the book, almost 50% of it. Too much plot developing and not enough focus on the romance. Moreover, the plot was mostly about politics, which I don't find an interesting topic at all, specially when it's politics from a fictional world from a distant galaxy. My top fav characters were not in the book either, which was a huge mistake IMHO; I missed Nyk and Syn so badly. We do get a bit of Darling, but not really much, mostly superficial comments. We get to read much more about Hawke though, which wasn't well introduced as a character till now. I loved Hawke and I definitely wanna read more about him and his brother Faine.
Luckily the 2nd half of the book was much better and things got really interesting. Still, this must be the book with less sheet action from our lovely author SK. I think we see them together on a bed just once, and that's about it; but as the plot gets better we don't miss it much . The hero and the heroine were great. I don't know why so many didn't like Cai much, but I just adored him! His sense of humor was great, he's just the type of guy I love to have as a hero. The heroine though was a bit disappointing. I thought she would be one of those super strong ass-kicking heroines but at the end she was just another weak girl who needed the hero to protect her from EVERYTHING.
Overall, it was a nice book. I had a nice time reading it but I found myself leaving it every now and then to do something else, it never completely grabbed my whole attention. I'm just sorry a stronger story wasn't written about Cai as I adored him since his first appearance. I hope Darling's book is better.
While I enjoyed this book it wasn't as good as the rest. Many reasons for this which I'll explain later, just wanted to say that I'm a bit disappointed about the book. After I finished book 3 I was extremely happy to see book 4 would be about one of the original characters as I adored them all and I had been hoping more books about them would come out. But this book wasn't the same as the rest, it was even written in a different way; which was not a good thing as I believe SK is a goddess in this genre and should stick to her usual writing techniques.
First, the beginning was REALLY slow, it took me forever to start enjoying the book, almost 50% of it. Too much plot developing and not enough focus on the romance. Moreover, the plot was mostly about politics, which I don't find an interesting topic at all, specially when it's politics from a fictional world from a distant galaxy. My top fav characters were not in the book either, which was a huge mistake IMHO; I missed Nyk and Syn so badly. We do get a bit of Darling, but not really much, mostly superficial comments. We get to read much more about Hawke though, which wasn't well introduced as a character till now. I loved Hawke and I definitely wanna read more about him and his brother Faine.
Luckily the 2nd half of the book was much better and things got really interesting. Still, this must be the book with less sheet action from our lovely author SK. I think we see them together on a bed just once, and that's about it; but as the plot gets better we don't miss it much . The hero and the heroine were great. I don't know why so many didn't like Cai much, but I just adored him! His sense of humor was great, he's just the type of guy I love to have as a hero. The heroine though was a bit disappointing. I thought she would be one of those super strong ass-kicking heroines but at the end she was just another weak girl who needed the hero to protect her from EVERYTHING.
Overall, it was a nice book. I had a nice time reading it but I found myself leaving it every now and then to do something else, it never completely grabbed my whole attention. I'm just sorry a stronger story wasn't written about Cai as I adored him since his first appearance. I hope Darling's book is better.
May 30, 2011
There was absolutely nothing about this book that I didn't like. I just loved it, much like I've loved every other book in this series. Sure I've liked some more than others but overall this has been a great journey. I was so excited to see that Kenyon was going to continue writing about these characters I've come to love and I only hope that she can continue. I think Darling's story shows great promise, and with some of the little tidbits that she kept throwing out in this book makes me think that she's priming to write his story next. All I can say is, YES!!
Anyway, a brief synopsis of this one. Caillen is the brother to Sharara who we saw in Syn's book. He's been working his whole life to protect his sister's ever since he promised his dad he would. He takes that promise very seriously and it's what lands him in trouble with enforcers in the beginning of this book. He's on the run trying to protect his family when he gets caught. The problem.. what his sister was smuggling carries a death sentence and his head is now literally on the chopping block. Until a strange thing happens and Caillen finds out interesting information about his past and his family. On his way to his new life he comes across a young woman who makes him want to beg for mercy and her name is Desideria. The two get thrown together into a life and death situation and have to try and trust one another in order to stay alive. Too bad they both have some trust issues.
This book drew me in from the beginning and didn't shake me loose until the last page was read. I enjoy reading about this world and the band of characters that keep getting more intriguing as the series progresses. My only hope is that Darling gets a story.. and soon.
Anyway, a brief synopsis of this one. Caillen is the brother to Sharara who we saw in Syn's book. He's been working his whole life to protect his sister's ever since he promised his dad he would. He takes that promise very seriously and it's what lands him in trouble with enforcers in the beginning of this book. He's on the run trying to protect his family when he gets caught. The problem.. what his sister was smuggling carries a death sentence and his head is now literally on the chopping block. Until a strange thing happens and Caillen finds out interesting information about his past and his family. On his way to his new life he comes across a young woman who makes him want to beg for mercy and her name is Desideria. The two get thrown together into a life and death situation and have to try and trust one another in order to stay alive. Too bad they both have some trust issues.
This book drew me in from the beginning and didn't shake me loose until the last page was read. I enjoy reading about this world and the band of characters that keep getting more intriguing as the series progresses. My only hope is that Darling gets a story.. and soon.
May 21, 2011
I feel like I should be bothered by the fact that the same thing happens to the main characters in most of the books in the series:
Man and woman either have someone after them or are framed with some form of illegal act and the rest of the story is spent trying to clear their name or names. Evil family members are involved with the plot to kill them or frame them, or both, all because they're jealous of something the other has or something the are or aren't.
Meh!
Who cares, right? A fun story is a fun story!
I liked Calien and I liked Desideria. They were normal, to me at least, and they were appropriately sappy when they needed to be. There was a lot of action in this book. Enough for me to pay attention. Especially when they tele-ported out of no where to another ship. Huh? I didn't know they could do that. Much less afford to have that sort of thing on their ships considering they usually gave me the impression they were just scraping by on what they had. Do Syn and Nyk have that on their ships? If not, they should totally go get one. Oh wait, they don't do that stuff anymore.
Anyway, because now I'm babbling...
My only complaint about this series is that we get to meet such great side characters but have to wait ages to see if anything other than a brief mention about them comes up.
The last book left me wondering what would happen to Paeden, Syn's brother. The first book had me wondering about Thia, Nyk's oldest daughter.
I guess I'll have to wait to see.
Man and woman either have someone after them or are framed with some form of illegal act and the rest of the story is spent trying to clear their name or names. Evil family members are involved with the plot to kill them or frame them, or both, all because they're jealous of something the other has or something the are or aren't.
Meh!
Who cares, right? A fun story is a fun story!
I liked Calien and I liked Desideria. They were normal, to me at least, and they were appropriately sappy when they needed to be. There was a lot of action in this book. Enough for me to pay attention. Especially when they tele-ported out of no where to another ship. Huh? I didn't know they could do that. Much less afford to have that sort of thing on their ships considering they usually gave me the impression they were just scraping by on what they had. Do Syn and Nyk have that on their ships? If not, they should totally go get one. Oh wait, they don't do that stuff anymore.
Anyway, because now I'm babbling...
My only complaint about this series is that we get to meet such great side characters but have to wait ages to see if anything other than a brief mention about them comes up.
The last book left me wondering what would happen to Paeden, Syn's brother. The first book had me wondering about Thia, Nyk's oldest daughter.
I guess I'll have to wait to see.
June 19, 2011
The hero in this book is Caillen. If you don't remember him, he is Shahara's brother. (Shahara is married to Syn and their book is the 2nd in the series, Born of Fire.) In the prior books, we got to know the snarky, ladies man and I was surprised to see a book for him. I knew that Sherrilyn Kenyon would have to pull off something good to get us to believe Caillen could be true to someone and I think she did a good job.
Desideria is a Qillaq princess....a people who only show anger and fight to the death. I really enjoyed her and loved how she came into her own. Desideria and Caillen are great with each other. I loved their snarky comments and at times, they made me laugh out loud. I even got teary eyed at the end.
Unfortunately, I really can't get into any details without giving things away but it's quite a ride. The only problem I had is that it is really long and some things were too drawn out. It gets much better after the half way mark.
I really enjoyed reading about all the Dragas and Syn of course! Chayden is very interesting and I wouldn't mind reading more about him. I'm definitely looking forward to Born of Silence since it's about Darling and seems really interesting!
Desideria is a Qillaq princess....a people who only show anger and fight to the death. I really enjoyed her and loved how she came into her own. Desideria and Caillen are great with each other. I loved their snarky comments and at times, they made me laugh out loud. I even got teary eyed at the end.
Unfortunately, I really can't get into any details without giving things away but it's quite a ride. The only problem I had is that it is really long and some things were too drawn out. It gets much better after the half way mark.
I really enjoyed reading about all the Dragas and Syn of course! Chayden is very interesting and I wouldn't mind reading more about him. I'm definitely looking forward to Born of Silence since it's about Darling and seems really interesting!
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