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Dorina Basarab #4
Shadow's Bane
Half-human, half-vampire Dorina Basarab is back—and facing her biggest challenge yet in the next urban fantasy in the New York Times bestselling series.
Dorina Basarab is a dhampir—half-human, half-vampire. As one of the Vampire Senate’s newest members, Dory already has a lot on her plate. But then a relative of one of Dory’s fey friends goes missing. They fear he’s been sold to a slaver who arranges fights—sometimes to the death—between different types of fey.
As Dory investigates, she and her friends learn the slavers are into something much bigger than a fight club. With the Vampire Senate gearing up for war with Faerie, it’ll take everything she has to defeat the slavers—and deal with the entirely too attractive master vampire Louis-Cesare....
Dorina Basarab is a dhampir—half-human, half-vampire. As one of the Vampire Senate’s newest members, Dory already has a lot on her plate. But then a relative of one of Dory’s fey friends goes missing. They fear he’s been sold to a slaver who arranges fights—sometimes to the death—between different types of fey.
As Dory investigates, she and her friends learn the slavers are into something much bigger than a fight club. With the Vampire Senate gearing up for war with Faerie, it’ll take everything she has to defeat the slavers—and deal with the entirely too attractive master vampire Louis-Cesare....
616 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published July 31, 2018
371 people are currently reading
3255 people want to read
About the author
Karen Chance
62 books5,246 followersKaren Chance is the author of two New York Times bestselling series, plus a number of novellas and short stories, all set in the Cassandra Palmer universe. A full-time writer since 2008, she was previously a university history teacher, which comes in handy when writing the time-travel aspect of Cassie’s crazy adventures. She loves Las Vegas, the main setting for her novels, but currently lives in Florida near her family home. Visit her website or connect with her on Facebook here.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 278 reviews
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February 25, 2020
So the next Cassie book already has a cover and a 2016 release date, but we can't get so much as a name for this one?
There will have been THREE Cassie books since the last Dory one. Dory is so much better. What gives?! I'm not reading another Cassie book until I see new Dory. It's going on 4 years already.
February 2, 2019
That was GREAT!!
but I feel that I like Dorina a lot more than Dory after reading it.
A rollercoaster of story, with plenty of non-stop action. And emotions.
The plot? The vampiric senate continues in disarray. Dory must face more than one headache because of it. Meanwhile, Olga looks for a nephew kidnapped by slavers who shows us a sordid world where they perform clandestine fights like gladiators and children have the worst part. This forms part of a network of smugglers with a very dark secret.
I confess that all this Dory affair, distressing to keep L-C from his life to 'protect it' is really annoying. For a woman with 500 years of age, her feelings become too teenager-like when it comes to L-C and their relationship. All that 'get away from me so as not to hurt you', that deep down is 'I chase you out before you leave me' is uf, so tiring.
THE BEST: Louis-Cesare. He is so awww.
And Dorina. She totally kick-a**
I really liked the way everything was linked to the story of Mircea , and the Fae.
Claire has an attitude as the proverbial ostrich as Dory. Everything is a huge redoubt to say: embrace all yourself, or something like that.
The house of Claire and Dory is attacked, despite Caedmon's guards. And it seems that fae and vampires have more than one thing in common.
I don't know who is the major manipulative bastard: Mircea or Caedmon (well the last one is way older). But the King is plainly playing a long game.
Through flashbacks, Dorina teaches Dory things from Mircea's past in his time in Venice, when he was a new vampire, it seems that it is in principle her only way of communicating VERY important things to her alter ego or rather it seems that was his twin. All my sympathy goes to Dorina, I feel bad for her to be cut off from life in this dichotomy. I can not understand why Mircea has hidden this for so many years from his daughter.
There is humor and sad moments. A good read.
Oh , Karen Chance has a deleted scene of this book in her site: Fluff and nice about little guys.
http://www.karenchance.com/deletedsce...
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
It has a cover and release date : august!
Update march 2018
----------------
There is not a release date yet?
(january 2016)
In real life, Prince Charming took a knife in the eye, because he fought fair when nobody else did, and the bad guys won.
That was my reality. Hell, that was everyone’s reality, because that was actual fucking reality, and yet here he was, acting like none of that was true, none of that could touch him. But it was, and it could; I could. Not only wasn’t I a Disney hero, part of me wouldn’t even have been cast as the villain because she’d scare the crap out of the kiddies.
but I feel that I like Dorina a lot more than Dory after reading it.
A rollercoaster of story, with plenty of non-stop action. And emotions.
The plot? The vampiric senate continues in disarray. Dory must face more than one headache because of it. Meanwhile, Olga looks for a nephew kidnapped by slavers who shows us a sordid world where they perform clandestine fights like gladiators and children have the worst part. This forms part of a network of smugglers with a very dark secret.
I confess that all this Dory affair, distressing to keep L-C from his life to 'protect it' is really annoying. For a woman with 500 years of age, her feelings become too teenager-like when it comes to L-C and their relationship. All that 'get away from me so as not to hurt you', that deep down is 'I chase you out before you leave me' is uf, so tiring.
THE BEST: Louis-Cesare. He is so awww.
And Dorina. She totally kick-a**
I really liked the way everything was linked to the story of Mircea , and the Fae.
Claire has an attitude as the proverbial ostrich as Dory. Everything is a huge redoubt to say: embrace all yourself, or something like that.
The house of Claire and Dory is attacked, despite Caedmon's guards. And it seems that fae and vampires have more than one thing in common.
I don't know who is the major manipulative bastard: Mircea or Caedmon (well the last one is way older). But the King is plainly playing a long game.
Through flashbacks, Dorina teaches Dory things from Mircea's past in his time in Venice, when he was a new vampire, it seems that it is in principle her only way of communicating VERY important things to her alter ego or rather it seems that was his twin. All my sympathy goes to Dorina, I feel bad for her to be cut off from life in this dichotomy. I can not understand why Mircea has hidden this for so many years from his daughter.
There is humor and sad moments. A good read.
Oh , Karen Chance has a deleted scene of this book in her site: Fluff and nice about little guys.
http://www.karenchance.com/deletedsce...
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
It has a cover and release date : august!
Update march 2018
----------------
There is not a release date yet?
(january 2016)
May 7, 2021
Reread: 5/2-6/2021
Read: 2/23-27/2019
I didn’t want it to end!!!!
And Louis-Cesare, you scared the SHIT out of me!!!
Update 7/31/2018
THIS IS OFFICIALLY OUT AND I CAN'T READ IT BECAUSE LIFE IS CRAP AND I DON'T HAVE TIME!
Update 1/31/18
IT HAS A WHOLE COVER!! I CAN'T WAIT FOR ANYTHING!!!!
Update 1/15/18
It's got half a cover and a release date! I can't wait!!!! I'll be rereading in August. Looking forward to it!
Update 4/15/17
IT HAS A WORKING TITLE!! AND PENGUIN NEEDS IT EARLIER than expected!!!
http://www.karenchance.com/news/dory-...
Update 9/29/16
Cassie Palmer has another fucking release date for 2017 but still NOTHING for Dory! I mean what the FUCK! I need Dory and Louis-Cesare! I NEED THEM. GIVE THEM BACK TO ME!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Why does this still not have a title? At least give me a title so I know that you are, in fact, working on it. It doesn't have to be a great title. You can change it later. But I need SOMETHING!!! I also need the whole book to be finished before any fucking Cassie Palmer books come out !!!
Read: 2/23-27/2019
I didn’t want it to end!!!!
And Louis-Cesare, you scared the SHIT out of me!!!
Update 7/31/2018
THIS IS OFFICIALLY OUT AND I CAN'T READ IT BECAUSE LIFE IS CRAP AND I DON'T HAVE TIME!
Update 1/31/18
IT HAS A WHOLE COVER!! I CAN'T WAIT FOR ANYTHING!!!!
Update 1/15/18
It's got half a cover and a release date! I can't wait!!!! I'll be rereading in August. Looking forward to it!
Update 4/15/17
IT HAS A WORKING TITLE!! AND PENGUIN NEEDS IT EARLIER than expected!!!
http://www.karenchance.com/news/dory-...
Update 9/29/16
Cassie Palmer has another fucking release date for 2017 but still NOTHING for Dory! I mean what the FUCK! I need Dory and Louis-Cesare! I NEED THEM. GIVE THEM BACK TO ME!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Why does this still not have a title? At least give me a title so I know that you are, in fact, working on it. It doesn't have to be a great title. You can change it later. But I need SOMETHING!!! I also need the whole book to be finished before any fucking Cassie Palmer books come out !!!
August 7, 2018
"People keep asking about Dory #4. And I keep saying the same things: Yes, it is coming. No, I don’t have a pub date yet. Yes, I am working on it. But that gets a little boring after a while, so after a bunch of recent questions came in, I thought maybe this time I would post a teaser instead. Consider it a good faith promise that yes, it really is in the works. So here’s part of the first chapter. Enjoy. :-)
The truck was old army issue, built back when even regular cars resembled tanks, and it could easily eat a Hummer for lunch and spit out the bolts. Or, at least, it could have in its prime. But the years had not been kind, resulting in it landing at Stan’s Auto Emporium, a junkyard/car dealership in which it was often hard to tell the difference between the two types of merchandise.
“It’s as dependable as they come,” Stan said, patting its rusty hood. He was a tiny man, four foot something, with the something being mostly chutzpah. “This truck is rugged.”
I crossed my arms. “This truck passed rugged a long time ago. This truck couldn’t find rugged with a map. This truck is—what’s the phrase I’m looking for? A hunk of junk.”
“A hunk of junk you can afford, sweetheart.”
He had a point.
“How much?”
“Two hundred.”
“Two hundred? I could practically get a limo for that!”
“But you don’t need a limo.”
“I don’t need a hole in my wallet, either.”
He crossed his arms and silently chewed tobacco at me.
“I just need it for the night,” I told him. “I can have it back in the morning.”
“Fine. That’ll be two hundred bucks.” Something hit the concrete below the cab with an ominous rattle. Stan didn’t bat an eye. “Okay, return her in good condition and I’ll take ten off the price.”
“Good condition? You mean something other than the way it is now?” I asked sourly, but I forked over the cash. Normally, I’d have driven a harder bargain, but I’d promised to help a friend and I was running late. And nowhere else was going to have the kind of steel gauge construction I needed. This thing might be a hunk of junk, but it was solid.
Yet, fifteen minutes later, it was also sagging and groaning as my team filed in, to the point that I feared for the tires–all six of them. It wasn’t too hard to figure out why. I peered into the cavernous interior, and found it alarmingly full of troll.
“Here’s the thing,” I told the nearest four-hundred-pound slab of muscle. “We’re going to need room to transport the illegals, assuming we find any, not to mention the slavers. And I don’t think they’re gonna fit.”
Nothing. I might as well have been talking to the brick wall the guy closely resembled.
“I’m not saying that everybody needs to stay behind,” I offered, trying again. “Just, you know, two or three of you.”
Nada.
I waited another minute, because troll reasoning faculties can be a little slower than some and I thought maybe he was thinking it over. But no. The small, pebble-like eyes just looked at me, flat and uninterested in the yammering of the tiny human. I sighed and went to find Olga.
The leader of the posse currently straining the hell out of my truck was still inside her headquarters, which consisted of a combo beauty salon and what looked like the back room at Soldier of Fortune. It would have been an odd marriage in the human world, even in Brooklyn, but there weren’t many humans shopping at Olga’s. And the local community of dark fey seemed to like buying their ammo and getting their nails done all in one place.
I found the lady herself pawing through a cardboard box of suspicious items in the storeroom. Like her squad of volunteers, she was of the troll persuasion, weighing in at something less than a quarter ton–but not a lot less. Not that she was fat; like most trolls, she was built of muscle and sinew and was hard as a rock, all eight-plus feet of her. I don’t know how she found clothes, but she usually managed to be more stylish than me.
That had never been more true than tonight.
For the evening’s sortie into New York’s magical underbelly, I had selected jeans, a black t-shirt, a black leather jacket and a pair of ass-kicking boots. It didn’t make me look tough—when you’re five-foot-two, dimpled and female, not a lot does—but it hid a lot of weaponry and didn’t attract attention.
Olga did not appear to be worried about attention.
Instead of well-worn denim, she was strutting her considerable stuff in pink satin clam diggers, a matching sequined butterfly top–cut low to show an impressive amount of cleavage–and glossy four-inch heels. The heels were nude patent leather, possibly so they didn’t clash with the toenails poking out the end, which were the same fire-engine red as her hair.
I regarded it enviously for a moment. It made the paltry blue streaks in my own short brown locks seem dull and lifeless by comparison. I needed a new color. Of course, for that, I also needed to get paid, which meant getting a move on.
“You’re coming, right?” I asked, as she flipped over the OPEN sign.
“Moment,” she said placidly.
“I just wondered because, you know,” I gestured at the acre of sequins.
Olga continued sorting through the box.
“Not that you don’t look good.”
Zilch. I was starting to get a complex.
“So, listen. We’ve got a problem with the truck.”
She finally looked up. “It no go?”
“No, it’s fine. It’s just, uh, sort of packed.”
“Everyone not fit?”
“No, they’re in there. But I don’t think we’re going to be squeezing in any more.”
“Slaves make their own way home, once we free them.” She held up a fistful of the type of charms her kind used to pass as more or less human.
“Okay, but that still leaves the slavers.”
That got me a long stare.
“Olga,” I said, getting a sinking feeling. “I have to bring them back for questioning. We’ll never stop the selling of your people if we don’t know who’s behind it.”
“That vampire behind it,” she said, stuffing the charms into a sleek pink clutch.
She was talking about a rat fink named Geminus. Until his recent, unlamented demise, he’d been a member of the Vampire Senate, the governing body for North American vampires. But power, fame and the idolization of millions hadn’t been good enough. He’d wanted to be rich as Croesus, too, and found that running the slave trade from Faerie fit the bill nicely.
“He’s dead,” I pointed out. “And yet business goes on as usual.”
“Not for long.”
I sighed but didn’t bother to point out that a handful of trolls and a lone dhampir were not likely to bring down a network Geminus had spent years building. Because that wasn’t our job. All we were after was a new arrival from Faerie who had failed to arrive.
That sort of thing had always been a hazard for the dark fey who paid to be smuggled out of the almost constant warfare in Faerie. Sometimes the smugglers took the money and then failed to show up, or left the would-be immigrants stranded far from home and on the wrong side of the portal. Others did make it through, only to end up in the usual mess faced by any illegals—lousy jobs, worse pay and no one to complain to. Although still beat what was behind door number three.
There are tons of old legends about the Fey kidnapping humans. What nobody bothered to record is that we do it right back. A lot of the slavers are dark mages who promptly drain the magic—and therefore the life—out of anybody unlucky enough to fall into their hands. Others were more like subcontractors, finding specimens for sale into nefarious “professions” that usually ended the same way.
But lately, thanks to Geminus’ death and a simultaneous crack down on smuggling by the Senate, the number of active portals was dwindling. That would have been good news, except for the law of supply and demand, which insured that the price for slaves was going nowhere but up. That had left the smugglers with the ironic problem of having to watch out for other crooks, who were trying to steal their illegal cargo–like the group who had attacked a band of would-be immigrants last night.
They’d been lucky enough to make off with an even dozen new slaves.
They’d been unlucky enough to have one of them be Olga’s nephew.
If she caught up with them, I strongly suspected that there’d be one less smuggler to worry about. Which wouldn’t have concerned me except that my job these days was to insure that that didn’t happen. Well, at least until I had a chance to question them first.
“You know,” I said idly, as Olga locked up. “One death—even of a scumbag slaver—won’t do much to help stop the trade. But the info he might provide…”
Olga threw me a look, which was hard to see behind her flashy new Dolce and Gabbana shades. They would have seemed a little odd, because the sun had gone down a while ago, but these shades weren’t about keeping light out so much as letting it in. They’d been modified to enhance all light in the area, because troll eyesight sucks even at the best of times.
And I guess Olga wanted to see the guy’s face before she bit it off.
“You stubborn little woman,” she told me.
“It has been remarked.”
She tilted her head. “You take them away, how I know they dead?”
“Because the Senate isn’t known for compassion?” She just looked at me. Olga didn’t have a lot of faith in the Senate. Olga knew that they only cared about the smugglers because of the weapons they also brought in, most of which went to their enemies. Olga knew nobody gave a shit about the dark fey, which was why they had to look out for themselves.
“And because I’ll take care of it,” I added.
“You kill?”
“It’s what I do.”
She thought this over while I sorted through the pastry box she’d brought for the boys. Tonight was muffins, although I couldn’t tell what kind. “What are these?”
“Lemon.”
I sniffed one. Human food was still a new experience for the fey, who tended to combine things in odd ways. I took a bite.
“And what are these green things?”
“Asparagus.”
That’s what I’d thought.
We reached the truck and Olga climbed in, making the struts groan and the tires drop another inch. I donated the muffins to the boys in back and turned to follow suit. And found a chest in the way.
It was a nice chest, wearing a blue knit pullover in some kind of thin material that outlined hard pecs and a washboard stomach. It was attached to an even nicer pair of hard, denim-covered thighs and a butt that ought to be hanging in a museum somewhere. It even smelled good—a rich, sweet, decadent scent that always reminded me of butterscotch.
“What are you doing here?”
That got me a raised eyebrow. “Aren’t you glad to see me?”
I guess so, since my nipples just got hard, I didn’t say. Because his ego was big enough as it was.
“It’s just a little unexpected.”
“I gathered that.” Narrowed blue eyes took in the straining truck. “Am I interrupting something?”
“Just…going out with some friends.”
“Indeed. That is reassuring. For a moment, I thought you might be planning to do something that would contravene doctor’s orders.”
And yeah, I was busted.
“We’re . . . going to see the fights,” I said, hoping he somehow hadn’t noticed the army issue truck, the armed to the teeth posse and the half ton of illegal weaponry I had hidden around my outfit.
An eyebrow raised.
Well, shit.
“I enjoy a good fight,” Louis-Cesare said, in what had to be the understatement of the century. “I’ll come along. Consider it a date.”
“A date, huh?” I looked him over. “If I buy you a popcorn, do I get to have my way with you later?”
He took another step, and I suddenly found myself trapped between hard steel and harder vampire. “How big of a popcorn?”
“I don’t know. What am I getting in return?”
He bent over and whispered something in my ear.
I swallowed. “We’ll see if they have a bucket.”"
The truck was old army issue, built back when even regular cars resembled tanks, and it could easily eat a Hummer for lunch and spit out the bolts. Or, at least, it could have in its prime. But the years had not been kind, resulting in it landing at Stan’s Auto Emporium, a junkyard/car dealership in which it was often hard to tell the difference between the two types of merchandise.
“It’s as dependable as they come,” Stan said, patting its rusty hood. He was a tiny man, four foot something, with the something being mostly chutzpah. “This truck is rugged.”
I crossed my arms. “This truck passed rugged a long time ago. This truck couldn’t find rugged with a map. This truck is—what’s the phrase I’m looking for? A hunk of junk.”
“A hunk of junk you can afford, sweetheart.”
He had a point.
“How much?”
“Two hundred.”
“Two hundred? I could practically get a limo for that!”
“But you don’t need a limo.”
“I don’t need a hole in my wallet, either.”
He crossed his arms and silently chewed tobacco at me.
“I just need it for the night,” I told him. “I can have it back in the morning.”
“Fine. That’ll be two hundred bucks.” Something hit the concrete below the cab with an ominous rattle. Stan didn’t bat an eye. “Okay, return her in good condition and I’ll take ten off the price.”
“Good condition? You mean something other than the way it is now?” I asked sourly, but I forked over the cash. Normally, I’d have driven a harder bargain, but I’d promised to help a friend and I was running late. And nowhere else was going to have the kind of steel gauge construction I needed. This thing might be a hunk of junk, but it was solid.
Yet, fifteen minutes later, it was also sagging and groaning as my team filed in, to the point that I feared for the tires–all six of them. It wasn’t too hard to figure out why. I peered into the cavernous interior, and found it alarmingly full of troll.
“Here’s the thing,” I told the nearest four-hundred-pound slab of muscle. “We’re going to need room to transport the illegals, assuming we find any, not to mention the slavers. And I don’t think they’re gonna fit.”
Nothing. I might as well have been talking to the brick wall the guy closely resembled.
“I’m not saying that everybody needs to stay behind,” I offered, trying again. “Just, you know, two or three of you.”
Nada.
I waited another minute, because troll reasoning faculties can be a little slower than some and I thought maybe he was thinking it over. But no. The small, pebble-like eyes just looked at me, flat and uninterested in the yammering of the tiny human. I sighed and went to find Olga.
The leader of the posse currently straining the hell out of my truck was still inside her headquarters, which consisted of a combo beauty salon and what looked like the back room at Soldier of Fortune. It would have been an odd marriage in the human world, even in Brooklyn, but there weren’t many humans shopping at Olga’s. And the local community of dark fey seemed to like buying their ammo and getting their nails done all in one place.
I found the lady herself pawing through a cardboard box of suspicious items in the storeroom. Like her squad of volunteers, she was of the troll persuasion, weighing in at something less than a quarter ton–but not a lot less. Not that she was fat; like most trolls, she was built of muscle and sinew and was hard as a rock, all eight-plus feet of her. I don’t know how she found clothes, but she usually managed to be more stylish than me.
That had never been more true than tonight.
For the evening’s sortie into New York’s magical underbelly, I had selected jeans, a black t-shirt, a black leather jacket and a pair of ass-kicking boots. It didn’t make me look tough—when you’re five-foot-two, dimpled and female, not a lot does—but it hid a lot of weaponry and didn’t attract attention.
Olga did not appear to be worried about attention.
Instead of well-worn denim, she was strutting her considerable stuff in pink satin clam diggers, a matching sequined butterfly top–cut low to show an impressive amount of cleavage–and glossy four-inch heels. The heels were nude patent leather, possibly so they didn’t clash with the toenails poking out the end, which were the same fire-engine red as her hair.
I regarded it enviously for a moment. It made the paltry blue streaks in my own short brown locks seem dull and lifeless by comparison. I needed a new color. Of course, for that, I also needed to get paid, which meant getting a move on.
“You’re coming, right?” I asked, as she flipped over the OPEN sign.
“Moment,” she said placidly.
“I just wondered because, you know,” I gestured at the acre of sequins.
Olga continued sorting through the box.
“Not that you don’t look good.”
Zilch. I was starting to get a complex.
“So, listen. We’ve got a problem with the truck.”
She finally looked up. “It no go?”
“No, it’s fine. It’s just, uh, sort of packed.”
“Everyone not fit?”
“No, they’re in there. But I don’t think we’re going to be squeezing in any more.”
“Slaves make their own way home, once we free them.” She held up a fistful of the type of charms her kind used to pass as more or less human.
“Okay, but that still leaves the slavers.”
That got me a long stare.
“Olga,” I said, getting a sinking feeling. “I have to bring them back for questioning. We’ll never stop the selling of your people if we don’t know who’s behind it.”
“That vampire behind it,” she said, stuffing the charms into a sleek pink clutch.
She was talking about a rat fink named Geminus. Until his recent, unlamented demise, he’d been a member of the Vampire Senate, the governing body for North American vampires. But power, fame and the idolization of millions hadn’t been good enough. He’d wanted to be rich as Croesus, too, and found that running the slave trade from Faerie fit the bill nicely.
“He’s dead,” I pointed out. “And yet business goes on as usual.”
“Not for long.”
I sighed but didn’t bother to point out that a handful of trolls and a lone dhampir were not likely to bring down a network Geminus had spent years building. Because that wasn’t our job. All we were after was a new arrival from Faerie who had failed to arrive.
That sort of thing had always been a hazard for the dark fey who paid to be smuggled out of the almost constant warfare in Faerie. Sometimes the smugglers took the money and then failed to show up, or left the would-be immigrants stranded far from home and on the wrong side of the portal. Others did make it through, only to end up in the usual mess faced by any illegals—lousy jobs, worse pay and no one to complain to. Although still beat what was behind door number three.
There are tons of old legends about the Fey kidnapping humans. What nobody bothered to record is that we do it right back. A lot of the slavers are dark mages who promptly drain the magic—and therefore the life—out of anybody unlucky enough to fall into their hands. Others were more like subcontractors, finding specimens for sale into nefarious “professions” that usually ended the same way.
But lately, thanks to Geminus’ death and a simultaneous crack down on smuggling by the Senate, the number of active portals was dwindling. That would have been good news, except for the law of supply and demand, which insured that the price for slaves was going nowhere but up. That had left the smugglers with the ironic problem of having to watch out for other crooks, who were trying to steal their illegal cargo–like the group who had attacked a band of would-be immigrants last night.
They’d been lucky enough to make off with an even dozen new slaves.
They’d been unlucky enough to have one of them be Olga’s nephew.
If she caught up with them, I strongly suspected that there’d be one less smuggler to worry about. Which wouldn’t have concerned me except that my job these days was to insure that that didn’t happen. Well, at least until I had a chance to question them first.
“You know,” I said idly, as Olga locked up. “One death—even of a scumbag slaver—won’t do much to help stop the trade. But the info he might provide…”
Olga threw me a look, which was hard to see behind her flashy new Dolce and Gabbana shades. They would have seemed a little odd, because the sun had gone down a while ago, but these shades weren’t about keeping light out so much as letting it in. They’d been modified to enhance all light in the area, because troll eyesight sucks even at the best of times.
And I guess Olga wanted to see the guy’s face before she bit it off.
“You stubborn little woman,” she told me.
“It has been remarked.”
She tilted her head. “You take them away, how I know they dead?”
“Because the Senate isn’t known for compassion?” She just looked at me. Olga didn’t have a lot of faith in the Senate. Olga knew that they only cared about the smugglers because of the weapons they also brought in, most of which went to their enemies. Olga knew nobody gave a shit about the dark fey, which was why they had to look out for themselves.
“And because I’ll take care of it,” I added.
“You kill?”
“It’s what I do.”
She thought this over while I sorted through the pastry box she’d brought for the boys. Tonight was muffins, although I couldn’t tell what kind. “What are these?”
“Lemon.”
I sniffed one. Human food was still a new experience for the fey, who tended to combine things in odd ways. I took a bite.
“And what are these green things?”
“Asparagus.”
That’s what I’d thought.
We reached the truck and Olga climbed in, making the struts groan and the tires drop another inch. I donated the muffins to the boys in back and turned to follow suit. And found a chest in the way.
It was a nice chest, wearing a blue knit pullover in some kind of thin material that outlined hard pecs and a washboard stomach. It was attached to an even nicer pair of hard, denim-covered thighs and a butt that ought to be hanging in a museum somewhere. It even smelled good—a rich, sweet, decadent scent that always reminded me of butterscotch.
“What are you doing here?”
That got me a raised eyebrow. “Aren’t you glad to see me?”
I guess so, since my nipples just got hard, I didn’t say. Because his ego was big enough as it was.
“It’s just a little unexpected.”
“I gathered that.” Narrowed blue eyes took in the straining truck. “Am I interrupting something?”
“Just…going out with some friends.”
“Indeed. That is reassuring. For a moment, I thought you might be planning to do something that would contravene doctor’s orders.”
And yeah, I was busted.
“We’re . . . going to see the fights,” I said, hoping he somehow hadn’t noticed the army issue truck, the armed to the teeth posse and the half ton of illegal weaponry I had hidden around my outfit.
An eyebrow raised.
Well, shit.
“I enjoy a good fight,” Louis-Cesare said, in what had to be the understatement of the century. “I’ll come along. Consider it a date.”
“A date, huh?” I looked him over. “If I buy you a popcorn, do I get to have my way with you later?”
He took another step, and I suddenly found myself trapped between hard steel and harder vampire. “How big of a popcorn?”
“I don’t know. What am I getting in return?”
He bent over and whispered something in my ear.
I swallowed. “We’ll see if they have a bucket.”"
August 12, 2018
To sum this up in a word: frustrating. Dory had a lot going on. There were issues with the fey, Mircea, Dorina, and Louis-Cesare. It took a while for me to get into it and to get to the satisfying ending. The first quarter of the book was one action scene after another. It took all of that time for those seemingly random scenes to evolve into a cohesive plot.
Some chapters were from Mircea's POV in the 1400's. Those scenes in the past were relevant to what was going on in the present. They also gave insight into Mircea's motivation for what he did to Dory all those years ago. I want to like Mircea, but it's hard. In this and the Cassie Palmer series, he starts off as likable and charming. The more I learn about him, the more he angers me. He means well but tends to be selfish.
Things with Dory and Louis-Cesare were tense. They had issues to deal with. I love them together though. On top of that, Dory began to sort out her issues with Dorina. They're both learning how to share. This was just the beginning for them; they have a long way to go before they figure out how to function in a way that suits both of them. I can't wait for the next one. I hope I won't be waiting 6 years for it like I did with this.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me this in exchange for an honest review!
Some chapters were from Mircea's POV in the 1400's. Those scenes in the past were relevant to what was going on in the present. They also gave insight into Mircea's motivation for what he did to Dory all those years ago. I want to like Mircea, but it's hard. In this and the Cassie Palmer series, he starts off as likable and charming. The more I learn about him, the more he angers me. He means well but tends to be selfish.
Things with Dory and Louis-Cesare were tense. They had issues to deal with. I love them together though. On top of that, Dory began to sort out her issues with Dorina. They're both learning how to share. This was just the beginning for them; they have a long way to go before they figure out how to function in a way that suits both of them. I can't wait for the next one. I hope I won't be waiting 6 years for it like I did with this.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me this in exchange for an honest review!
November 6, 2025
High velocity ride you won't want to get off! Chance, once again, brings the world of Dorina Basarab alive. Balancing humor, action, romance and suspense, while pushing the reader through the gambit... on a roller coaster of emotions.
I received this ARC copy of Shadow's Bane from Berkley Publishing Group. This is my honest and voluntary review. Shadow's Bane is set for publication July 31, 2018.
My Rating: 4.5 stars
I received this ARC copy of Shadow's Bane from Berkley Publishing Group. This is my honest and voluntary review. Shadow's Bane is set for publication July 31, 2018.
My Rating: 4.5 stars
August 7, 2018
CONFUSING JUMBLE
**Spoilers Alert
I’ve been a long time fan of the Dorina Basarab series and have reread the previous books dozens of times and LOVED THEM so it’s disappointing that this one fell far short of the others. All action and very little character/relationship development (And I don’t just mean romantic relationships but also friendships)
DORY/DORINA: At first I didn’t realize that there would be 2 separate consciousness’s inside one body and I have to admit I didn’t really like this aspect. I expected more that Dory would be one consciousness with 2 different perspectives. After I got used to the 2-minds thing I expected that Dory and Dorina would start to communicate and develop a relationship. After all they’ve been separated for 500+ years and need to learn each other. This didn’t happen except for a tiny bit at the very end.
ACTION: I enjoy a good fight scene. This is UF after all but this book was like a never ending loop of: Dory encounters bad guys and fight scene ensues -> Dory gets beat up and gets knocked out -> Dory wakes up at home and needs to have things explained -> Repeat every other chapter. I seriously lost count of how many times this happened. I would have liked Dory to have actually finished a fight scene and show her badass skills. I DID enjoy the DORINA perspective fight scenes. It was interesting to dive into her character/skills a little.
RELATIONSHIPS: I felt that there was very little relationship growth both on a romantic and personal level. Dory and LC are barely together except for fighting bad guys. I would have liked a little more interaction outside of that, especially after she pushes him away because of her fears. Dory also doesn’t spend a lot of time with Claire, Ray or Radu, which was disappointing. Those three provide a lot of comedic lighthearted relief in previous books and I missed that humor. I would have also loved to dive into DORINA’S relationship with MIRCEA. This was barely even touched upon.
Overall this book is my least favorite of the series and felt more like a ‘filler’ book than one that pushes the characters forward. I hope the next we dive into more character development, especially with DORY/DORINA.
**Spoilers Alert
I’ve been a long time fan of the Dorina Basarab series and have reread the previous books dozens of times and LOVED THEM so it’s disappointing that this one fell far short of the others. All action and very little character/relationship development (And I don’t just mean romantic relationships but also friendships)
DORY/DORINA: At first I didn’t realize that there would be 2 separate consciousness’s inside one body and I have to admit I didn’t really like this aspect. I expected more that Dory would be one consciousness with 2 different perspectives. After I got used to the 2-minds thing I expected that Dory and Dorina would start to communicate and develop a relationship. After all they’ve been separated for 500+ years and need to learn each other. This didn’t happen except for a tiny bit at the very end.
ACTION: I enjoy a good fight scene. This is UF after all but this book was like a never ending loop of: Dory encounters bad guys and fight scene ensues -> Dory gets beat up and gets knocked out -> Dory wakes up at home and needs to have things explained -> Repeat every other chapter. I seriously lost count of how many times this happened. I would have liked Dory to have actually finished a fight scene and show her badass skills. I DID enjoy the DORINA perspective fight scenes. It was interesting to dive into her character/skills a little.
RELATIONSHIPS: I felt that there was very little relationship growth both on a romantic and personal level. Dory and LC are barely together except for fighting bad guys. I would have liked a little more interaction outside of that, especially after she pushes him away because of her fears. Dory also doesn’t spend a lot of time with Claire, Ray or Radu, which was disappointing. Those three provide a lot of comedic lighthearted relief in previous books and I missed that humor. I would have also loved to dive into DORINA’S relationship with MIRCEA. This was barely even touched upon.
Overall this book is my least favorite of the series and felt more like a ‘filler’ book than one that pushes the characters forward. I hope the next we dive into more character development, especially with DORY/DORINA.
July 16, 2018
I loved this entry in the series because of Dorina. It was great to be inside her "head" and understand how she felt about Dory and their father. For as much as everyone feared Dorina, she proved she really is as loyal as her other half...especially to those that she loves. Can't wait for more.
April 20, 2019
Loved every minute of this rip-roaring ride of a book!
With typical audacious Dory style and humour, we’re back in Chance’s world of vampires and fae. In this instalment, we follow Dory on her first job with the Senate searching for smugglers looking to benefit from the upcoming war.
As with all of Chance’s books, this is full of action and so fast paced you will be on the edge of your seat!… if it’s possible to be on the edge of your seat reading a book… The book is quite a bit longer than previous instalments but with such a long gap between publications, the extra bit of recapping at the beginning was greatly appreciated but does slow progression of the plot for the first 100 or so pages.
Once that’s out of the way we’re treated to the most entertaining book in the series that also does a lot to expand the universe of both the Dorina series and the Cassandra Palmer series. I absolutely loved the glimpses into Mircea’s past as a young vampire and the growing dynamic between Dory and her alter ego vampire self Dorina. There’s a lot going on there I never suspected and I can’t wait to see where it goes. We get a lot of growth in relationships and in who the characters are in this one as well especially with Dorina, Mircea and Caedmon.
Loved every minute of this one and can’t wait for the next. Dragon’s Claw, a Dorina/Pritkin crossover novella is due out the end of this month.
Read more reviews and other bookish content on my blog https://elainehowlin.wordpress.com
August 7, 2018
Originally posted at SmexyBooks-http://smexybooks.com/2018/07/review-...
Favorite Quote:
“Love is sending someone away because you would rather hurt than hurt them. Love is fighting beside them, bleeding along with them and putting their well-being above your own. Love is trembling at their touch so much that you do not notice that they are trembling at yours.”
“I’m not trembling.”
“I am,” he whispered and kissed me.
Reviewed by Tori
Dorina Basarab is a dhampir–half-human, half-vampire. As one of the Vampire Senate’s newest members, Dory already has a lot on her plate. But then a relative of one of Dory’s fey friends goes missing. They fear he’s been sold to a slaver who arranges fights–sometimes to the death–between different types of fey.
As Dory investigates, she and her friends learn the slavers are into something much bigger than a fight club. With the Vampire Senate gearing up for war with Faerie, it’ll take everything she has to defeat the slavers–and deal with the entirely too attractive master vampire Louis-Cesare…. (Goodreads)
Dory is once again tossed into the fray with little more than a prayer and some help from her friends. Currently living with her bestie Cassie who has her own issues, Dory is experiencing more activity from her twin, Dorina, the dhampir side of her personality. The increasing flashbacks and blackouts have Dory scared that Dorina will eventually take over her body. She is also helping Olga and the other trolls find the slavers and rescue Olga’s nephew while trying to stay alive since being “elected” to the North American Vampire Senate and keep her lover, Louis-Cesare, a master vampire and fellow senator, safe from her craziness.
“Why are you here?” I asked wearily, looking up at him.
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Because, when you hitched your wagon to the crazy, it wasn’t this crazy?”
For those not familiar with this series, it is a spin-off of Karen Chance’s Cassie Palmer series. This series revolves around Dorina (Dory) Bashabas who is a dhampir and the daughter of Mircea; a significant player in the Palmer series. I have been a long time fan of this series and have waited six years for this novel. Having not read the novella in between books 3 & 4, I left off after Fury’s Kiss and wow what a ride THAT was. As always, Chance jam packs her novel with action, suspense, intrigue, and violence while softening the never-ending blows with plenty of humor, wit, and some very nice romance scenes. It starts out with a bang and you are forced to hold on for dear life. Some may find the pacing slightly chaotic as we not only see Dory’s POV as expected but we also experience scenes from Dorina’s POV and are gifted with scenes from the past that highlight Dorina’s father’s actions- a nice addition because it goes far in explaining what happened to lead Dorina and Dory to this point. Dory is fighting on multiple fronts and she is tired and scared. Scared of losing her friends, family, lover…and now herself.
“Someday she would take over…then what would happen to me?”
I love Dorina. She is the definition of Urban Fantasy. Strong, snarky, vulnerable, and over 500 years old, she is the bogeyman that vampires fear. Born to a master manipulator who was cursed into being a vampire by a witch, she was ignored by her father for safety purposes and used by the Vampire Senate for centuries. Stronger and more secure in her life, Dory is slowing coming into her own and has enough powerful friends that any attempts to harm her will bring about serious consequences.
“What did you do to my car?” Blondie demanded, from the driver’s seat.
“Is there a problem?”
“You know damned well there’s a problem! It won’t go!”
Purple Hair didn’t say anything, just stood there, all daytime dominatrix in black leather jeans and jacket, and a low-cut silk shirt the same shade as her hair. She checked me out, in my ratty sweats, and her eyes narrowed in judgment.
Or, you know, because I hadn’t bothered to arm myself, and she was wondering why.
“That’s a shame,” I said, glancing at Claire, who had come out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on a flour-dusted apron. “I wonder what’s wrong with it.”
Claire just smiled. It wasn’t a particularly nice expression. But Blondie didn’t seem to notice. “Damn it! This is brand-new,” he told us furiously. “If you’ve fucked it up—”
A scaly arm reached through the window and jerked him out because Claire was suddenly beside the car. I blinked. I hadn’t even seen her move.
I guess the vamps hadn’t, either. Because Purple Hair’s hand twitched, in the general direction of her jacket. I tensed, prepared to jump her, but she paused the action, probably realizing that she was about to make things worse.
She had no idea.
So both of us just stood there, watching Blondie kick his heels several inches off the ground because Claire is a tall drink of water. One who suddenly had a wealth of iridescent purple scales covering one arm. And three-inch talons, shading from black to maroon to milky white, on the newly armored hand.
[…]
“My car now.”
After a moment, Purple Hair looked at me. “The car we wrecked. It was hers?”
I nodded.
“Ah.” She looked at Claire. “Your car now.”
Vampire politics and fairy tales make for strange bedfellows and this book pounds that point home. The past features heavily in here; from the decisions Mircea made to try and save Dory’s life when she was a child to the ongoing war between the species and a long forgotten fae legend. All of it running together, flirting with one another until they collide with a bang, leaving Dory with an impossible decision to make.
Lots of new faces and old ones keep the story from becoming too bogged down. I found myself laughing at most of their antics. Ray, one of my favorite characters and Dory’s sidekick of sorts features heavily in here. He sees Dory as his new master and nothing will deter him from his new position.
“What?” he demanded.
“You’re as much as a trainwreck as I am. And soon as the war’s over, someone else will have my seat anyway. You think they’re going to keep a dhampir on the Senate one second longer then they have to?”
“Well, not with that attitude.”
Cassie remains an integral part of Dory’s life. As her bestie and a magical null who helps to keep Dory’s psychotic nature in check calm, she remains a constant but her own dual nature is beginning to show itself in some interesting ways. I can’t wait to see where this plot line goes. Olga and her boys are a hoot and definitely the muscle Dory needs. Meeting Dorina was a highlight of the book. Always there but never heard or seen, tucked away like a bad secret, it was enlightening to see things from her perspective. I found her scenes bittersweet as she tries to find her own footing as she tries to make Dory understand what is really happening while doing what she can, in her own homicidal way, to keep Dory safe.
… there’s a truth about pain that most people never learn unless they’re really unlucky. Or really long-lived, long enough to have felt almost every kind there is. Pain has a signature to it, a type, a song. The first time you experience a new one, it’s a bright, white-hot, cutting edge; or a searing, brain-twisting burn; or a shattering, soul-crushing thud; or any of the thousand other forms it takes to torment you.
But the second time? Or the third? Or the fiftieth? No. It’s still terrible, still rage inducing, still debilitating, but it’s not the same shock as at first. You know this song, all its terrible highs, and dismal lows; you can hum it with your eyes closed because it’s just that familiar. Not like a friend—never that—but like an old enemy you’ve grown to know as well as to hate, his weapons and his limits.
You know what he can do to you.
But you also know what he can’t.
As for Mircea…it’s a love/hate relationship. You’ve no doubt he loves Dory; he sacrificed much to obtain the means to save her life. But as always, there is a price to pay whenever he helps and unfortunately, Dory always seem to be the one who pays it. He’s a meddlesome dad who happens to be immortal. OY VEY. The real treat though, as always, was the time spent with Louis-Cesere. A Disney-esque prince (Dory’s own words) who is strong, intelligent, battle fierce and deeply in love with her and she can’t seem to accept it or understand why. But she is beginning to. There are some gauntlets they have to run and some issues that must be dealt with eventually but in the end, love triumphs and alls well that ends well.
“…when you’re part of someone else, you don’t get to make that call,” I told him quietly.
And then felt like cursing, because the damned man still didn’t get it.
I could see it in those shimmering blue eyes: confusion, awkwardness, more than a little fear. He, who wasn’t afraid of anything, was afraid of this. Of me. Of being sent away.
And there was one really good way to solve that problem, wasn’t there?
I felt my fangs pop. “I’m proprietorial about my things,” I snarled and bit him.
Grade: B
Favorite Quote:
“Love is sending someone away because you would rather hurt than hurt them. Love is fighting beside them, bleeding along with them and putting their well-being above your own. Love is trembling at their touch so much that you do not notice that they are trembling at yours.”
“I’m not trembling.”
“I am,” he whispered and kissed me.
Reviewed by Tori
Dorina Basarab is a dhampir–half-human, half-vampire. As one of the Vampire Senate’s newest members, Dory already has a lot on her plate. But then a relative of one of Dory’s fey friends goes missing. They fear he’s been sold to a slaver who arranges fights–sometimes to the death–between different types of fey.
As Dory investigates, she and her friends learn the slavers are into something much bigger than a fight club. With the Vampire Senate gearing up for war with Faerie, it’ll take everything she has to defeat the slavers–and deal with the entirely too attractive master vampire Louis-Cesare…. (Goodreads)
Dory is once again tossed into the fray with little more than a prayer and some help from her friends. Currently living with her bestie Cassie who has her own issues, Dory is experiencing more activity from her twin, Dorina, the dhampir side of her personality. The increasing flashbacks and blackouts have Dory scared that Dorina will eventually take over her body. She is also helping Olga and the other trolls find the slavers and rescue Olga’s nephew while trying to stay alive since being “elected” to the North American Vampire Senate and keep her lover, Louis-Cesare, a master vampire and fellow senator, safe from her craziness.
“Why are you here?” I asked wearily, looking up at him.
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Because, when you hitched your wagon to the crazy, it wasn’t this crazy?”
For those not familiar with this series, it is a spin-off of Karen Chance’s Cassie Palmer series. This series revolves around Dorina (Dory) Bashabas who is a dhampir and the daughter of Mircea; a significant player in the Palmer series. I have been a long time fan of this series and have waited six years for this novel. Having not read the novella in between books 3 & 4, I left off after Fury’s Kiss and wow what a ride THAT was. As always, Chance jam packs her novel with action, suspense, intrigue, and violence while softening the never-ending blows with plenty of humor, wit, and some very nice romance scenes. It starts out with a bang and you are forced to hold on for dear life. Some may find the pacing slightly chaotic as we not only see Dory’s POV as expected but we also experience scenes from Dorina’s POV and are gifted with scenes from the past that highlight Dorina’s father’s actions- a nice addition because it goes far in explaining what happened to lead Dorina and Dory to this point. Dory is fighting on multiple fronts and she is tired and scared. Scared of losing her friends, family, lover…and now herself.
“Someday she would take over…then what would happen to me?”
I love Dorina. She is the definition of Urban Fantasy. Strong, snarky, vulnerable, and over 500 years old, she is the bogeyman that vampires fear. Born to a master manipulator who was cursed into being a vampire by a witch, she was ignored by her father for safety purposes and used by the Vampire Senate for centuries. Stronger and more secure in her life, Dory is slowing coming into her own and has enough powerful friends that any attempts to harm her will bring about serious consequences.
“What did you do to my car?” Blondie demanded, from the driver’s seat.
“Is there a problem?”
“You know damned well there’s a problem! It won’t go!”
Purple Hair didn’t say anything, just stood there, all daytime dominatrix in black leather jeans and jacket, and a low-cut silk shirt the same shade as her hair. She checked me out, in my ratty sweats, and her eyes narrowed in judgment.
Or, you know, because I hadn’t bothered to arm myself, and she was wondering why.
“That’s a shame,” I said, glancing at Claire, who had come out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on a flour-dusted apron. “I wonder what’s wrong with it.”
Claire just smiled. It wasn’t a particularly nice expression. But Blondie didn’t seem to notice. “Damn it! This is brand-new,” he told us furiously. “If you’ve fucked it up—”
A scaly arm reached through the window and jerked him out because Claire was suddenly beside the car. I blinked. I hadn’t even seen her move.
I guess the vamps hadn’t, either. Because Purple Hair’s hand twitched, in the general direction of her jacket. I tensed, prepared to jump her, but she paused the action, probably realizing that she was about to make things worse.
She had no idea.
So both of us just stood there, watching Blondie kick his heels several inches off the ground because Claire is a tall drink of water. One who suddenly had a wealth of iridescent purple scales covering one arm. And three-inch talons, shading from black to maroon to milky white, on the newly armored hand.
[…]
“My car now.”
After a moment, Purple Hair looked at me. “The car we wrecked. It was hers?”
I nodded.
“Ah.” She looked at Claire. “Your car now.”
Vampire politics and fairy tales make for strange bedfellows and this book pounds that point home. The past features heavily in here; from the decisions Mircea made to try and save Dory’s life when she was a child to the ongoing war between the species and a long forgotten fae legend. All of it running together, flirting with one another until they collide with a bang, leaving Dory with an impossible decision to make.
Lots of new faces and old ones keep the story from becoming too bogged down. I found myself laughing at most of their antics. Ray, one of my favorite characters and Dory’s sidekick of sorts features heavily in here. He sees Dory as his new master and nothing will deter him from his new position.
“What?” he demanded.
“You’re as much as a trainwreck as I am. And soon as the war’s over, someone else will have my seat anyway. You think they’re going to keep a dhampir on the Senate one second longer then they have to?”
“Well, not with that attitude.”
Cassie remains an integral part of Dory’s life. As her bestie and a magical null who helps to keep Dory’s psychotic nature in check calm, she remains a constant but her own dual nature is beginning to show itself in some interesting ways. I can’t wait to see where this plot line goes. Olga and her boys are a hoot and definitely the muscle Dory needs. Meeting Dorina was a highlight of the book. Always there but never heard or seen, tucked away like a bad secret, it was enlightening to see things from her perspective. I found her scenes bittersweet as she tries to find her own footing as she tries to make Dory understand what is really happening while doing what she can, in her own homicidal way, to keep Dory safe.
… there’s a truth about pain that most people never learn unless they’re really unlucky. Or really long-lived, long enough to have felt almost every kind there is. Pain has a signature to it, a type, a song. The first time you experience a new one, it’s a bright, white-hot, cutting edge; or a searing, brain-twisting burn; or a shattering, soul-crushing thud; or any of the thousand other forms it takes to torment you.
But the second time? Or the third? Or the fiftieth? No. It’s still terrible, still rage inducing, still debilitating, but it’s not the same shock as at first. You know this song, all its terrible highs, and dismal lows; you can hum it with your eyes closed because it’s just that familiar. Not like a friend—never that—but like an old enemy you’ve grown to know as well as to hate, his weapons and his limits.
You know what he can do to you.
But you also know what he can’t.
As for Mircea…it’s a love/hate relationship. You’ve no doubt he loves Dory; he sacrificed much to obtain the means to save her life. But as always, there is a price to pay whenever he helps and unfortunately, Dory always seem to be the one who pays it. He’s a meddlesome dad who happens to be immortal. OY VEY. The real treat though, as always, was the time spent with Louis-Cesere. A Disney-esque prince (Dory’s own words) who is strong, intelligent, battle fierce and deeply in love with her and she can’t seem to accept it or understand why. But she is beginning to. There are some gauntlets they have to run and some issues that must be dealt with eventually but in the end, love triumphs and alls well that ends well.
“…when you’re part of someone else, you don’t get to make that call,” I told him quietly.
And then felt like cursing, because the damned man still didn’t get it.
I could see it in those shimmering blue eyes: confusion, awkwardness, more than a little fear. He, who wasn’t afraid of anything, was afraid of this. Of me. Of being sent away.
And there was one really good way to solve that problem, wasn’t there?
I felt my fangs pop. “I’m proprietorial about my things,” I snarled and bit him.
Grade: B
August 4, 2018
49 points/100 (2.5 stars/5).
Dorina was recently appointed to the Vampire Senate, but some enterprising vampires figure that if they can kill her before she is inducted in, they can take her place. Also, her troll friends have her going off all over the place looking for a relative that was taken by slavers. Also, her roomate Claire's father in law to be is hanging around, looking for Claire's help in something that you just know is going to be no good.
Compared to Fury's Kiss, this book felt like it had an identity crisis. Wasn't quite certain what it wanted to be most of the time, didn't quite know what it wanted to do, wasn't certain how to really do what it did know it wanted to do. Kind of like Dory in this book. It was a confusing array of scenes that you know had to be tied together somehow, but it never really said, and surprise it was all tied together at the end...somehow.
This was like the polar opposite of Fury's Kiss. It was frantic, having to be in every place at once, but it knew where it was going. In Shadow's Bane, I had to struggle midway through the book to even recall what the book was about, and I didn't have it quite right midway through the book. I had a few minor points wrong. I feel like at the halfway point, most of the story should have been revealed by then.
This book was filled with a confusing array of fight scenes. Most of the time they start without warning, which I suppose makes sense..except when they're actually going to a fight. They also always seem to end the same way: with Dory unconscious. I didn't actually count how many times Dory ended up unconscious but it is way, way, WAY overused. It felt at one point that the only way Chance could figure out how to end a scene was to knock Dory unconscious. This was after Fury's Kiss where the same tactic was used.
Complicating the already confusing fight scenes was that every time Dorina was knocked unconscious, we'd be treated to another scene from Mircea back when Dory was a child. It was especially confusing because they were only snippets of scenes at times, bits and pieces tied together with a string. Half the time they were preceded by and succeeded by fight scenes of Dory's while she is knocked unconscious. The parts told a short story in itself. Yet, it is littered across the book in such a way that you know it is important to the story, but by the time the next part shows up you've half forgotten the first part. This is because nothing important happened in each section on itself, it is only the whole, the end of it all, that is actually important. The rest makes no impression.
The whole plot line was so needlessly bloated and overcomplicated. At least 3 or 4 of the fight scenes could have been cut out entirely, or extremely pared down. It got repetitive, because the same things seemed to happen every time. When we get to the end of the book, we find out that the whole plot has been complicated to hell and back, and I'm not exactly certain why. Sure, she ties together the entire book, which you knew she was going to end up doing anyway because there are a lot of random scenes tossed in here and there. She had to tie it all together to make it function as a book. Yet, the way they are tied together breaks Occam's Razor in every way possible. If there were zebras in this book, it would even manage to break the old axim "if you hear hoofbeats, think horses not zebras".
Shadow's Bane also breaks my coincidence meter. Too much of the plot relies on coincidence for me to accept. At one point in the book, Dory leaves her house to go driving because something upsets her. She ends up going to a bar, where she finds some crucial clue to the whole trafficking problem, that she never would have gotten had she not went there. She only went there because of coincidence and being upset. No one would have called her there, otherwise. No one would have alerted her to why other elements of their task force were there after she got there. Like this isn't just a minor clue. The entire end of this book hinges on that scene. That isn't the only one, just the most major.
There is a minor plotline, where Dory is afraid that Dorina will take her over permanently. This is the only depth in the entire book, and I quite liked this plotline. It is too bad that so much is relegated to the side. Dorina pops up quite often in this book, all over the place, seemingly randomly. At first it was very confusing, because this hadn't happened before. For the first half of the book, I was still getting used to it. It was jarring and it didn't seem to fit until much later in the book, just like the Mircea flashbacks.
The whole book felt like snapshots that were constantly getting interrupted by each other. Everything kept getting in the way of something else. Mircea flashbacks interrupting fight scenes. Dorina slipping away from Dory while other things are going on, mostly fight scenes as well. Conversations getting interrupted by bad guys. Conversations that they have to have ending up coming up during other important scenes, like when they're in the middle of the fight. Honestly, this mostly just felt like one long fight scene that kept getting interrupted by plot. Yet, somehow we still got told a bedtime story.
Spoiler:
Honestly, I feel disappointed in this one. I feel sorry for those who have been waiting for this book since 2012. I only read the series for the first time last year, it wasn't as much of a wait for me. Yet, it was still disappointing.
Find my reviews for more books in this series and more at Keikii Eats Books.
Dorina was recently appointed to the Vampire Senate, but some enterprising vampires figure that if they can kill her before she is inducted in, they can take her place. Also, her troll friends have her going off all over the place looking for a relative that was taken by slavers. Also, her roomate Claire's father in law to be is hanging around, looking for Claire's help in something that you just know is going to be no good.
Compared to Fury's Kiss, this book felt like it had an identity crisis. Wasn't quite certain what it wanted to be most of the time, didn't quite know what it wanted to do, wasn't certain how to really do what it did know it wanted to do. Kind of like Dory in this book. It was a confusing array of scenes that you know had to be tied together somehow, but it never really said, and surprise it was all tied together at the end...somehow.
This was like the polar opposite of Fury's Kiss. It was frantic, having to be in every place at once, but it knew where it was going. In Shadow's Bane, I had to struggle midway through the book to even recall what the book was about, and I didn't have it quite right midway through the book. I had a few minor points wrong. I feel like at the halfway point, most of the story should have been revealed by then.
This book was filled with a confusing array of fight scenes. Most of the time they start without warning, which I suppose makes sense..except when they're actually going to a fight. They also always seem to end the same way: with Dory unconscious. I didn't actually count how many times Dory ended up unconscious but it is way, way, WAY overused. It felt at one point that the only way Chance could figure out how to end a scene was to knock Dory unconscious. This was after Fury's Kiss where the same tactic was used.
Complicating the already confusing fight scenes was that every time Dorina was knocked unconscious, we'd be treated to another scene from Mircea back when Dory was a child. It was especially confusing because they were only snippets of scenes at times, bits and pieces tied together with a string. Half the time they were preceded by and succeeded by fight scenes of Dory's while she is knocked unconscious. The parts told a short story in itself. Yet, it is littered across the book in such a way that you know it is important to the story, but by the time the next part shows up you've half forgotten the first part. This is because nothing important happened in each section on itself, it is only the whole, the end of it all, that is actually important. The rest makes no impression.
The whole plot line was so needlessly bloated and overcomplicated. At least 3 or 4 of the fight scenes could have been cut out entirely, or extremely pared down. It got repetitive, because the same things seemed to happen every time. When we get to the end of the book, we find out that the whole plot has been complicated to hell and back, and I'm not exactly certain why. Sure, she ties together the entire book, which you knew she was going to end up doing anyway because there are a lot of random scenes tossed in here and there. She had to tie it all together to make it function as a book. Yet, the way they are tied together breaks Occam's Razor in every way possible. If there were zebras in this book, it would even manage to break the old axim "if you hear hoofbeats, think horses not zebras".
Shadow's Bane also breaks my coincidence meter. Too much of the plot relies on coincidence for me to accept. At one point in the book, Dory leaves her house to go driving because something upsets her. She ends up going to a bar, where she finds some crucial clue to the whole trafficking problem, that she never would have gotten had she not went there. She only went there because of coincidence and being upset. No one would have called her there, otherwise. No one would have alerted her to why other elements of their task force were there after she got there. Like this isn't just a minor clue. The entire end of this book hinges on that scene. That isn't the only one, just the most major.
There is a minor plotline, where Dory is afraid that Dorina will take her over permanently. This is the only depth in the entire book, and I quite liked this plotline. It is too bad that so much is relegated to the side. Dorina pops up quite often in this book, all over the place, seemingly randomly. At first it was very confusing, because this hadn't happened before. For the first half of the book, I was still getting used to it. It was jarring and it didn't seem to fit until much later in the book, just like the Mircea flashbacks.
The whole book felt like snapshots that were constantly getting interrupted by each other. Everything kept getting in the way of something else. Mircea flashbacks interrupting fight scenes. Dorina slipping away from Dory while other things are going on, mostly fight scenes as well. Conversations getting interrupted by bad guys. Conversations that they have to have ending up coming up during other important scenes, like when they're in the middle of the fight. Honestly, this mostly just felt like one long fight scene that kept getting interrupted by plot. Yet, somehow we still got told a bedtime story.
Spoiler:
Honestly, I feel disappointed in this one. I feel sorry for those who have been waiting for this book since 2012. I only read the series for the first time last year, it wasn't as much of a wait for me. Yet, it was still disappointing.
Find my reviews for more books in this series and more at Keikii Eats Books.
September 4, 2018
Karen Chance used to be one of my favourite authors, I loved the first five Cassandra Palmer books, but then it all started to go wrong. The author started writing books as though she was producing screenplays for Hollywood blockbuster action movies. It seemed to be the case of forget the story just look at the action, no matter how irrelevant !!
I have waited six long years since the last Dorina Basarab novel and during that time I have just hoped that these books weren’t going to go the same way as the Cassandra Palmer series. Unfortunately this book starts with a massive chaotic fight that just goes on and on. In fact the book is full of ridiculous fights that always seem to end with Dory unconscious.
There were a few bits that I liked, for example I have always liked Dory’s relationship with Claire, but overall this wasn’t worth the six year wait.
I realise everybody has different tastes and I can well understand how some people will enjoy this book, but I don’t really understand how anybody who liked the first few Dorina books, could think this was anything but a massive disappointment.
I have waited six long years since the last Dorina Basarab novel and during that time I have just hoped that these books weren’t going to go the same way as the Cassandra Palmer series. Unfortunately this book starts with a massive chaotic fight that just goes on and on. In fact the book is full of ridiculous fights that always seem to end with Dory unconscious.
There were a few bits that I liked, for example I have always liked Dory’s relationship with Claire, but overall this wasn’t worth the six year wait.
I realise everybody has different tastes and I can well understand how some people will enjoy this book, but I don’t really understand how anybody who liked the first few Dorina books, could think this was anything but a massive disappointment.
September 3, 2018
I’m exhausted. After reading the action packed SHADOW’S BANE I need a long hot shower, a truck of food and a week to recover. You barely get a second to breath in this book before you are plunged straight into the next chaotic and fast moving battle. Which, is pretty standard for a Karen Chance book, what most authors will do in a few books Chance crams into a hundred pages.
It’s been a 6 years since a full length novel has come out in the Dorina Basarab series and so when I picked this book up I admittedly was a little fuzzy on previous events. In fact, I still can’t remember many details, but as I got further into the book the big ticket plot points started coming back to me. Unfortunately this did mean that I spent the first portion of the book slightly confused, which wasn’t helped by the chaos of catastrophes that Chance likes to throw into her books.
But the aforementioned chaos is part of the reason I like Chance’s book and this series. It is a fast paced, action packed series of fights and skulduggery that doesn’t give you much time to do anything but hang on and enjoy the ride. However, this is as much a curse as it is a blessing. There were points in the book where, and maybe I am just being dim, I was confused about what exactly was happening and why. I eventually caught on but some parts of the book may have benefited from slowing down and being more concise.
However, I did have a lot of fun reading this. One of the highlights were the flashbacks to Mircea’s POV during his time in Venice when he was a baby vamp and struggling to take care of a young Dory. Mircea is a fascinating character who is also prominent in the Cassie Palmer series so I always enjoy learning more about him. The Cassie Palmer series runs parallel to this series and features a lot of the same character, so you should definitely pick up if you haven’t already.
What I also enjoyed about this book was the continuing exploration of the dynamic between Dory and Dorina. They both share the same body and now the mental wall is down between them Dory is faced with the dear that Dorina will take over. Dorina is afraid she will be walled off again, doomed to watch life but never able to live it. Then there is also a dash of romance as we see the relationship progress between Louis-Cesare and Dory.
I really enjoyed this book and hopefully won’t have to wait another 6 years for the next book in the series. If you like your urban fantasy fast paced with some humour and a bit of romance thrown in, then you need to pick up Karen Chance.
It’s been a 6 years since a full length novel has come out in the Dorina Basarab series and so when I picked this book up I admittedly was a little fuzzy on previous events. In fact, I still can’t remember many details, but as I got further into the book the big ticket plot points started coming back to me. Unfortunately this did mean that I spent the first portion of the book slightly confused, which wasn’t helped by the chaos of catastrophes that Chance likes to throw into her books.
But the aforementioned chaos is part of the reason I like Chance’s book and this series. It is a fast paced, action packed series of fights and skulduggery that doesn’t give you much time to do anything but hang on and enjoy the ride. However, this is as much a curse as it is a blessing. There were points in the book where, and maybe I am just being dim, I was confused about what exactly was happening and why. I eventually caught on but some parts of the book may have benefited from slowing down and being more concise.
However, I did have a lot of fun reading this. One of the highlights were the flashbacks to Mircea’s POV during his time in Venice when he was a baby vamp and struggling to take care of a young Dory. Mircea is a fascinating character who is also prominent in the Cassie Palmer series so I always enjoy learning more about him. The Cassie Palmer series runs parallel to this series and features a lot of the same character, so you should definitely pick up if you haven’t already.
What I also enjoyed about this book was the continuing exploration of the dynamic between Dory and Dorina. They both share the same body and now the mental wall is down between them Dory is faced with the dear that Dorina will take over. Dorina is afraid she will be walled off again, doomed to watch life but never able to live it. Then there is also a dash of romance as we see the relationship progress between Louis-Cesare and Dory.
I really enjoyed this book and hopefully won’t have to wait another 6 years for the next book in the series. If you like your urban fantasy fast paced with some humour and a bit of romance thrown in, then you need to pick up Karen Chance.
March 30, 2024
Qué bueno!. La verdad que el anterior de Cassie y este de Dorina, son los 2 que más me gustaron de ambas sagas hasta ahora. Con el exceso de acción, la celeridad, los velocísimos cambios de escenario (y eso que Dorina no viaja en el tiempo, como Cassie...) que en los principios de la saga pueden abrumar un poco hasta que te acostumbras, se mantienen, pero ladrillo a ladrillo van construyendo un universo (y el mundo paralelo, con sus propias tramas) enlazado con el pasado (también con sus propios problemas) y mezclando las 2 sagas como una trenza, de una forma excelente.
La merienda final que se pegó la dragona me encantó🤣🤣🤣 (y eso que antes era vegetariana😂). Me apeteció aplaudir y todo.
Cada vez me gusta más. Autores en GL Bis
La merienda final que se pegó la dragona me encantó🤣🤣🤣 (y eso que antes era vegetariana😂). Me apeteció aplaudir y todo.
Cada vez me gusta más. Autores en GL Bis
July 18, 2018
3.5 stars
Dory is back, and her life is as hectic and dangerous as ever. The main story arc is interwoven with that of the Cassie Palmer books. The vampires and fey are gearing up for war while there is associated infighting and backstabbing within each group. As a dhampir, Dory has never been part of any of the supernatural worlds, but because she is useful, the vampire consul has made her a senator. Of course that comes with the task of finding out who has been trafficking dark fey and what’s been happening to them, who has been conspiring to assassinate the consul, all while assorted vampires are out to kill her for her senate seat and the barrier between Dory the sort-of human and Dorina her vampire half is dissolving.
If that sounds confusing and exhausting, it’s because it is. It’s been six years since the last Dory book came out, but Chance does an admirable job of revisiting the main backstory and characters so you don’t need to reread the previous books to get caught up. Unfortunately, there were other frustrating aspects to the story.
The book has numerous action scenes, all of which move at a frenetic pace. It was difficult for me in most of them to keep track of what was happening, with whom, and who was on what side. While this may have mirrored Dory’s mental state, some of the events made little sense even in retrospect. In addition, nearly every fight ended in the middle with Dory unconscious, later waking up and having to be told what had happened in the interim. It would have been nice for at least some, if not most, of those fights for Dory to have been awake through the whole thing. While some of the confusing aspects of the battles (and who was involved) were clarified at the end, it didn’t mitigate the frustration of reading through them first.
That said, there were aspects of the book that were very satisfying. Dory is changing from an angry loner into someone with a lot of important relationships. We got Dory with Louis-Cesare, with her roommate Claire and the rest of their crazy household, with the trolls and light fey and, most importantly, with her “twin” Dorina. These, as well as finally getting to see Dory again, make this a must-read for fans of the series. I really hope we won’t have to wait another six years for the next one.
Dory is back, and her life is as hectic and dangerous as ever. The main story arc is interwoven with that of the Cassie Palmer books. The vampires and fey are gearing up for war while there is associated infighting and backstabbing within each group. As a dhampir, Dory has never been part of any of the supernatural worlds, but because she is useful, the vampire consul has made her a senator. Of course that comes with the task of finding out who has been trafficking dark fey and what’s been happening to them, who has been conspiring to assassinate the consul, all while assorted vampires are out to kill her for her senate seat and the barrier between Dory the sort-of human and Dorina her vampire half is dissolving.
If that sounds confusing and exhausting, it’s because it is. It’s been six years since the last Dory book came out, but Chance does an admirable job of revisiting the main backstory and characters so you don’t need to reread the previous books to get caught up. Unfortunately, there were other frustrating aspects to the story.
The book has numerous action scenes, all of which move at a frenetic pace. It was difficult for me in most of them to keep track of what was happening, with whom, and who was on what side. While this may have mirrored Dory’s mental state, some of the events made little sense even in retrospect. In addition, nearly every fight ended in the middle with Dory unconscious, later waking up and having to be told what had happened in the interim. It would have been nice for at least some, if not most, of those fights for Dory to have been awake through the whole thing. While some of the confusing aspects of the battles (and who was involved) were clarified at the end, it didn’t mitigate the frustration of reading through them first.
That said, there were aspects of the book that were very satisfying. Dory is changing from an angry loner into someone with a lot of important relationships. We got Dory with Louis-Cesare, with her roommate Claire and the rest of their crazy household, with the trolls and light fey and, most importantly, with her “twin” Dorina. These, as well as finally getting to see Dory again, make this a must-read for fans of the series. I really hope we won’t have to wait another six years for the next one.
May 10, 2021
Returning to this series after a several years hiatus reminds me of how much I adore and missed out on Dory 's life. As the dhampir and threat to all vampires alive, Dory lives through a very rough life. Full disclosure, I read the first two books and I skipped the third book. It is recommended to read this series in order. After reading this book I immediately went out and got the 3rd book and read it. It was glorious.
In Shadow's Bane, it takes place not long after book 3, Fury's Kiss ends. Dory is now in a position of relative power which flummoxes her. Being treated as the unwanted and dirty secret all her life, to suddenly be front and center is a hard adjustment. It isn't that Dory lacks class or social graces. It is that she's never been given a chance to learn them properly and use them. As we learn how she's been brought up and the whys of it, her entire history is suddenly re-written. Whilst she's trying to reconcile her memories and her "other", enemies of her best friend and the Senate push forward.
I loved the action in this story and how it combines with a bit of mystery. Dory is the ultimate troubleshooter. When she is the one to go to for help, we know that things are pretty bad. Because Dory is not going to use finesse and words to negotiate. She is ruthlessly physical with her body language and I revel in her expressive nonverbal communication. This does not mean Dory is all brawn and no brains. She's the best of both worlds, when she allows herself to be whole. She figures out why fey are missing and better yet, she does something about it. This is why she is a character I love. She lives by a code of conduct and when she sees injustice, she does everything in her power to make it right. She fights the for the underdog. She fights for the ones no one wants to see or cares about. She cares about the ones who are left behind or ignored.
This urban fantasy is recommended to readers who enjoy the darker side of justice.
*provided by NetGalley
In Shadow's Bane, it takes place not long after book 3, Fury's Kiss ends. Dory is now in a position of relative power which flummoxes her. Being treated as the unwanted and dirty secret all her life, to suddenly be front and center is a hard adjustment. It isn't that Dory lacks class or social graces. It is that she's never been given a chance to learn them properly and use them. As we learn how she's been brought up and the whys of it, her entire history is suddenly re-written. Whilst she's trying to reconcile her memories and her "other", enemies of her best friend and the Senate push forward.
I loved the action in this story and how it combines with a bit of mystery. Dory is the ultimate troubleshooter. When she is the one to go to for help, we know that things are pretty bad. Because Dory is not going to use finesse and words to negotiate. She is ruthlessly physical with her body language and I revel in her expressive nonverbal communication. This does not mean Dory is all brawn and no brains. She's the best of both worlds, when she allows herself to be whole. She figures out why fey are missing and better yet, she does something about it. This is why she is a character I love. She lives by a code of conduct and when she sees injustice, she does everything in her power to make it right. She fights the for the underdog. She fights for the ones no one wants to see or cares about. She cares about the ones who are left behind or ignored.
This urban fantasy is recommended to readers who enjoy the darker side of justice.
*provided by NetGalley
August 12, 2018
I am so very disappointed in this book. I abandoned the related Cassie Palmer series a few books ago when the author decided what we needed was non-stop chaotic action scenes. I couldn't keep track of what was going on or, honestly, what I should care. Chance had also decided that it was great writing to have her main character spend chapters upon chapters trying to get something to eat but being thwarted by the aforementioned chaotic action scenes, politics or other nonsense. Thankfully the three Dorina books, while tending toward mild chaos, were still followable and highly entertaining.
After waiting years for the newest book I was very disappointed to find it populated by exactly what had caused me to quit reading Cassie Palmer. And a distinct lack of the interesting side characters. After much anticipation, this book wound up on my did not finish pile.
After waiting years for the newest book I was very disappointed to find it populated by exactly what had caused me to quit reading Cassie Palmer. And a distinct lack of the interesting side characters. After much anticipation, this book wound up on my did not finish pile.
August 8, 2018
*Source* Publisher
*Genre* Urban Fantasy
*Rating* 3.5-4
*Thoughts*
Shadow's Bane is the fourth installment in author Karen Chance's Dorina Basarab series. This is a story that kicks into high gear almost immediately with a flashback to 1458 Venice with Mircea and a much younger Dorina. Readers who have gotten this far in the series know that Mircea is not the best father in the world. In fact, he's kind of an ass, truth be told. I think he actually loves Dorina, but he kinda played God, and now the two parts of Dorina are at war with each other. Also, please do not just skip over these parts of the story as they are definitely part of the larger picture.
*Full Review @ Gizmos Reviews*
http://gizmosreviews.blogspot.com/201...
*Genre* Urban Fantasy
*Rating* 3.5-4
*Thoughts*
Shadow's Bane is the fourth installment in author Karen Chance's Dorina Basarab series. This is a story that kicks into high gear almost immediately with a flashback to 1458 Venice with Mircea and a much younger Dorina. Readers who have gotten this far in the series know that Mircea is not the best father in the world. In fact, he's kind of an ass, truth be told. I think he actually loves Dorina, but he kinda played God, and now the two parts of Dorina are at war with each other. Also, please do not just skip over these parts of the story as they are definitely part of the larger picture.
*Full Review @ Gizmos Reviews*
http://gizmosreviews.blogspot.com/201...
July 1, 2019
Love'd it
August 1, 2018
As one of the series that started me along the Urban Fantasy path, I definitely have a soft spot for the Dorina Basarab (or Midnight's Daughter) as the series is sometimes called. The action, twists, and tougher than anything heroine in the fabulous world the author created once again pulled me in and had me utterly riveted so many times.
Shadow's Bane is the fourth book in a companion series to the author's Cassie Palmer series. Each of these books must be read in order. They can be read without picking up the other series, but they also work even better when read alongside the other series. Definitely not standalones.
And, now, I must confess that this one took a while to wholly grab me. Part of the reason is that I didn't do a re-read of the series leading into this one even though its been a few years since the last books release causing me to be hazy on where we last left things. I remembered enough not to be terribly lost, but yes, I should have done a refresher.
Secondly, the book seemed to be wandering at first and this was a huginormous chunk of a story. It felt loose for a long while as I wondered how all the colorful scenes with Dory and the gang around her was going to fit together. And, besides the shifting present day scenes and prodigious amount of characters, scenes from the past were slipped between the present storyline along with a secondary storyline told by another lead character.
So, it took me a while to get things sorted and figure out what was going one, but then it really got rolling and I was left gasping with amazement and excitement as the plot tightened up and delivered an amazing story. The grand finale had so many twists that I'm still reeling from them.
The heroine has always been a tough gal and something of an island to herself even with the romance with Louis-Cesare, but this book finally plumbed the depths of her and provided delicate introspective moments, explained her history completely, and left her somewhat raw and exposed as she went about her usual try to save the world while nearly getting killed or outclassed in power and strength. Dory's vulnerability was palpable and it made her no less strong than before. I loved how she was written in this one.
Louis-Cesare was as swoon-worthy sexy and incredibly perfect for Dory as ever. He weathered a lot from her and with her in this one. Meanwhile, best bud Claire has her own storm to ride out and she and Dory have each other's backs as always.
The big fun surprise came not from the vamps or the fey- though they were always a fun addition- but from the trolls. I am now officially on team troll. Quirky personalities and just the group you want when you need to go up against a powerful enemy.
And, yes, the villain is amazingly powerful and a more than worthy opponent that is a true and worthy enemy for Dory and the others.
So, while the beginning took me a bit to get into and took a bit to get rolling, the rest more than made up for it in a flash of stunning Urban Fantasy storytelling. I can heartily recommend this series to all who love action packed, twisting plots, colorful characters, and a vivid landscape.
My thanks to Berkley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Shadow's Bane is the fourth book in a companion series to the author's Cassie Palmer series. Each of these books must be read in order. They can be read without picking up the other series, but they also work even better when read alongside the other series. Definitely not standalones.
And, now, I must confess that this one took a while to wholly grab me. Part of the reason is that I didn't do a re-read of the series leading into this one even though its been a few years since the last books release causing me to be hazy on where we last left things. I remembered enough not to be terribly lost, but yes, I should have done a refresher.
Secondly, the book seemed to be wandering at first and this was a huginormous chunk of a story. It felt loose for a long while as I wondered how all the colorful scenes with Dory and the gang around her was going to fit together. And, besides the shifting present day scenes and prodigious amount of characters, scenes from the past were slipped between the present storyline along with a secondary storyline told by another lead character.
So, it took me a while to get things sorted and figure out what was going one, but then it really got rolling and I was left gasping with amazement and excitement as the plot tightened up and delivered an amazing story. The grand finale had so many twists that I'm still reeling from them.
The heroine has always been a tough gal and something of an island to herself even with the romance with Louis-Cesare, but this book finally plumbed the depths of her and provided delicate introspective moments, explained her history completely, and left her somewhat raw and exposed as she went about her usual try to save the world while nearly getting killed or outclassed in power and strength. Dory's vulnerability was palpable and it made her no less strong than before. I loved how she was written in this one.
Louis-Cesare was as swoon-worthy sexy and incredibly perfect for Dory as ever. He weathered a lot from her and with her in this one. Meanwhile, best bud Claire has her own storm to ride out and she and Dory have each other's backs as always.
The big fun surprise came not from the vamps or the fey- though they were always a fun addition- but from the trolls. I am now officially on team troll. Quirky personalities and just the group you want when you need to go up against a powerful enemy.
And, yes, the villain is amazingly powerful and a more than worthy opponent that is a true and worthy enemy for Dory and the others.
So, while the beginning took me a bit to get into and took a bit to get rolling, the rest more than made up for it in a flash of stunning Urban Fantasy storytelling. I can heartily recommend this series to all who love action packed, twisting plots, colorful characters, and a vivid landscape.
My thanks to Berkley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
May 29, 2018
I had some problems sticking with this one, much as I've enjoyed the series. Dory is finally reconciling her two selves, long separated by her father in order to protect her. The book bops back and forth between the present and Mircea's time in 15th century Venice, when he was a new vampire and Dory was a small child. There's the continuing romance with Louis-Cesare, Dory's position as a new Senator, and slavers smuggling and arranging fights between different types of Dark Fey. Overall, a very action packed book! I did enjoy it, much as my concentration seemed to wander, and recommend it without reservation to fans of the series. Much gratitude to NetGalley and Berkeley, who provided the digital ARC in return for an honest opinion.
January 8, 2019
Maybe 4.5 stars
English RTC
Con questo libro ho avuto una relazione un po' complicata, perché da una parte mi è piaciuto tantissimo, mi sono goduta la lettura e ogni singola scena ed era anche meglio di quello che mi aspettavo (e direi che la cosa si può dedurre dal numero elevato di stelline che gli ho dato), ma dall'altra parecchie scelte dell'autrice mi hanno fatto riflettere abbastanza. Non posso dire che fossi in disaccordo con loro, perché durante la lettura tutto acquista un senso e quindi, alla fine, l'autrice ha fatto le scelte giuste, ma diciamo che è stata una cosa un po' difficile.
Ad esempio i capitoli che ci portano indietro nel tempo con la storia (e il POV) di Mircea mi sono piaciuti molto e sono funzionali alla storia, ma avrei preferito leggerne meno in questo libro e magari avere un volume spin-off in cui approfondire il passato di Mircea e magari intermezzarli col presente. Sarebbe stata un'idea molto carina e una cosa gradita (perché un bello spin-off su Mircea non lo rifiuterei proprio! Se poi riesce a infilarci dentro anche Radu e Horatius, beh, chi sono io per lamentarmi, giusto?).
E poi c'è il fatto che c'è davero tanta, tantissima carne al fuoco e rischia di diventare troppa. Quando ho iniziato questo libro per un attimo ho creduto che fosse l'ultimo della serie dedicata a Dorina, sia per il tempo che l'autrice ci ha messo a scriverlo (tempo più che giustificato, visto la complessità della storia e del rapporto tra Dory e Dorina) sia per il numero di pagine. Anche perché, con il procedere della storia, diventa sempre più complicato tenere divise le serie di Cassie e di Dorina.
Però questo libro merita davvero tanto. Ma proprio tanto. Ci troviamo dentro tutto quello che potevamo aspettarci dalla Chance: umorismo secco e autoironia a palate, azione a non finire, problemi su problemi ma anche soluzioni e non c'è un attimo di pausa, non si tira il fiato se non a lettura finita (e con un libro di questa lunghezza non è certo una cosa facile!!!). Mi sono divertita tantissimo durante la lettura, perché Dorina è splendida. Ma oltre al ritmo mozzafiato e alla protagonista che mi fa ridere con il suo senso dell'umorismo tutto particolare ci sono state un sacco di altre cose che ho apprezzato. Il rapporto difficile tra Dory e Dorina è stato sviluppato, a mio parere benissimo, e vogliamo parlare di Louis-Cesare????? Mi basta nominarlo e mi vengono gli occhioni a cuoricino!
E poi c'è pure un drago.
English RTC
Con questo libro ho avuto una relazione un po' complicata, perché da una parte mi è piaciuto tantissimo, mi sono goduta la lettura e ogni singola scena ed era anche meglio di quello che mi aspettavo (e direi che la cosa si può dedurre dal numero elevato di stelline che gli ho dato), ma dall'altra parecchie scelte dell'autrice mi hanno fatto riflettere abbastanza. Non posso dire che fossi in disaccordo con loro, perché durante la lettura tutto acquista un senso e quindi, alla fine, l'autrice ha fatto le scelte giuste, ma diciamo che è stata una cosa un po' difficile.
Ad esempio i capitoli che ci portano indietro nel tempo con la storia (e il POV) di Mircea mi sono piaciuti molto e sono funzionali alla storia, ma avrei preferito leggerne meno in questo libro e magari avere un volume spin-off in cui approfondire il passato di Mircea e magari intermezzarli col presente. Sarebbe stata un'idea molto carina e una cosa gradita (perché un bello spin-off su Mircea non lo rifiuterei proprio! Se poi riesce a infilarci dentro anche Radu e Horatius, beh, chi sono io per lamentarmi, giusto?).
E poi c'è il fatto che c'è davero tanta, tantissima carne al fuoco e rischia di diventare troppa. Quando ho iniziato questo libro per un attimo ho creduto che fosse l'ultimo della serie dedicata a Dorina, sia per il tempo che l'autrice ci ha messo a scriverlo (tempo più che giustificato, visto la complessità della storia e del rapporto tra Dory e Dorina) sia per il numero di pagine. Anche perché, con il procedere della storia, diventa sempre più complicato tenere divise le serie di Cassie e di Dorina.
Però questo libro merita davvero tanto. Ma proprio tanto. Ci troviamo dentro tutto quello che potevamo aspettarci dalla Chance: umorismo secco e autoironia a palate, azione a non finire, problemi su problemi ma anche soluzioni e non c'è un attimo di pausa, non si tira il fiato se non a lettura finita (e con un libro di questa lunghezza non è certo una cosa facile!!!). Mi sono divertita tantissimo durante la lettura, perché Dorina è splendida. Ma oltre al ritmo mozzafiato e alla protagonista che mi fa ridere con il suo senso dell'umorismo tutto particolare ci sono state un sacco di altre cose che ho apprezzato. Il rapporto difficile tra Dory e Dorina è stato sviluppato, a mio parere benissimo, e vogliamo parlare di Louis-Cesare????? Mi basta nominarlo e mi vengono gli occhioni a cuoricino!
E poi c'è pure un drago.
September 22, 2019
I give it a 3.5
October 16, 2019
lo he leido pero creo que deberia releerlo unas veces mas porque no entendi bien el drama de los Feys.
February 26, 2019
I ended up rereading the entire series before starting Shadow's Bone and I'm glad I did. On one hand I'm not sure if the series held up as well as when I first read them. On the other hand not rereading them would have made trying to read Shadow's Bone near impossible. I still love the Dorina series but there is a lot going on and Chance will sometimes take several years for a new installment. I ended up skimming a lot of the book from Mircea's POV and as usual I wanted much more Louis-Ceasar. But it was still nice to revisit the series since I waited six years for it to come out.
September 6, 2018
I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
I’m exhausted. After reading the action packed Shadow's Bane I need a long hot shower, a truck of food and a week to recover. You barely get a second to breath in this book before you are plunged straight into the next chaotic and fast moving battle. Which, is pretty standard for a Karen Chance book, what most authors will do in a few books Chance crams into a hundred pages.
It’s been a 6 years since a full length novel has come out in the Dorina Basarab series and so when I picked this book up I admittedly was a little fuzzy on previous events. In fact, I still can’t remember many details, but as I got further into the book the big ticket plot points started coming back to me. Unfortunately this did mean that I spent the first portion of the book slightly confused. This wasn’t helped by the chaos of catastrophes that Chance likes to throw into her books.
But the aforementioned chaos is part of the reason I like Chance’s book and this series. It is a fast paced, action packed series of fights and skulduggery that doesn’t give you much time to do anything but hang on and enjoy the ride. However, this is as much a curse as it is a blessing. There were points in the book where, and maybe I am just being dim, I was confused about what exactly was happening and why. I eventually caught on but some parts of the book may have benefited from slowing down and being more concise.
However, I did have a lot of fun reading this. One of the highlights were the flashbacks to Mircea’s POV during his time in Venice when he was a baby vamp and struggling to take care of a young Dory. Mircea is a fascinating character who is also prominent in the Cassie Palmer series so I always enjoy learning more about him. The Cassie Palmer series runs parallel to this series and features a lot of the same character, so you should definitely pick up if you haven’t already.
What I also enjoyed about this book was the continuing exploration of the dynamic between Dory and Dorina. They both share the same body and now the mental wall is down between them. Dory is faced with the fear that Dorina will take over. Dorina is afraid she will be walled off again, doomed to watch life but never able to live it. Then there is also a dash of romance as we see the relationship progress between Louis-Cesare and Dory.
I really enjoyed this book and hopefully won’t have to wait another 6 years for the next book in the series. If you like your urban fantasy fast paced with some humour and a bit of romance thrown in, then you need to pick up Karen Chance.
*ARC provided by publisher
Reviewed by Suzanne❤ ♡ Don't want to miss any of our posts? Subscribe to our blog by email! ♡ ❤
April 28, 2018
I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley for an honest review.
WOW!! SHADOW'S BANE is a roller coaster ride of fun and action! There was areas in the book that had me chuckling. A Dhampir usually has a short life, because their Vampire half matures faster than their human half and tries to tear them apart. Her father Mircea had put a mental wall between her two natures to allow her human half to mature. Now the wall is down and the two halves are inhabiting the same body. Dorina- the Vampire half, and Dory- the Human half are co-existing. Dorina usually only comes out when Dory is unconscious. Now it seems they are awake at the same time more often. Dory is now an official Senate member and awaiting the actual ceremony in a week. She is tasked with trying to find the slavers that are stealing the Fey. In this book we will actually get two points of view. One will be from Dory and the other from Dorina. I love this series and recommend it to everyone. I give Shadow's Bane (Dorina Basarab) 5/5 stars.
WOW!! SHADOW'S BANE is a roller coaster ride of fun and action! There was areas in the book that had me chuckling. A Dhampir usually has a short life, because their Vampire half matures faster than their human half and tries to tear them apart. Her father Mircea had put a mental wall between her two natures to allow her human half to mature. Now the wall is down and the two halves are inhabiting the same body. Dorina- the Vampire half, and Dory- the Human half are co-existing. Dorina usually only comes out when Dory is unconscious. Now it seems they are awake at the same time more often. Dory is now an official Senate member and awaiting the actual ceremony in a week. She is tasked with trying to find the slavers that are stealing the Fey. In this book we will actually get two points of view. One will be from Dory and the other from Dorina. I love this series and recommend it to everyone. I give Shadow's Bane (Dorina Basarab) 5/5 stars.
August 16, 2018
What a great installment in this fantastic series. As usual a LOT happens, and at times I did have to reread certain parts to make sure I had everything straight. It hit all my favorite buttons - humor, action, emotion. My only complaint was there is never enough Louis-Cesare for me, but these books, though long, take place over a short amount time (several days) so I know he can't be on scene every minute. But I just love him! Mircea is one of my favorite characters in this world and I love seeing more of him, even if most of it was in the past. A lot of revelations were made on the family history. It was fun to see Radu, Kit, Ray and I love the trolls. The fey guards were a hoot too. So now I have the urge to do a complete Cassie/Dory series reread while I wait for the next Cassie book.
September 5, 2018
I reread the previous Dorina books in preparation for this, and I've really come to love her as one of my favorite characters.
This 4th book continues where the last on left off. Dory keeps growing and improving, her life keeps getting better, and she is essentially pulling herself out of 500 years of depression and isolation. I love the progress with Mircea and her growint relationship her weird collection of friends and family.
It's a very satisfying premise and there is enough conflict to keep it exciting.
The Louis Cesare bits were the best part, as always. They are so cute and deeply in love that it makes me nervous that something will go wrong in the future.
This 4th book continues where the last on left off. Dory keeps growing and improving, her life keeps getting better, and she is essentially pulling herself out of 500 years of depression and isolation. I love the progress with Mircea and her growint relationship her weird collection of friends and family.
It's a very satisfying premise and there is enough conflict to keep it exciting.
The Louis Cesare bits were the best part, as always. They are so cute and deeply in love that it makes me nervous that something will go wrong in the future.
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