I didn't ask to be the Moonborn. I didn't ask for four supernatural heirs to claim me as theirs. And I definitely didn't ask for the Supernatural Council to order my execution.
But here I am anyway.
Three weeks ago, I was nobody—just a broke eighteen-year-old working three jobs to survive. Then my grandmother died, and everything I thought I knew was a lie.
I'm not human. I'm Moonborn—born once a century with the power to absorb and amplify the magic of the four ruling bloodlines. Vampire. Shifter. Fae. Witch. And according to prophecy, I'm supposed to bond with the heirs of all four.
There's just one Every Moonborn who's tried this in the last five hundred years has died screaming.
LYSANDER VALE - Vampire prince, 247 years old, thinks love is weakness. He's also the first person to make me want to break all my rules.
ASHTON WILDE - Alpha werewolf heir whose wolf recognized me as mate the second we touched. Possessive doesn't even begin to cover it.
CASPIAN STORM - Exiled fae prince with a smile that could start wars. He makes me laugh when I want to cry and promises to burn the world down if anyone hurts me.
SALEM FROST - Necromancer who's been watching over me since I was born. His obsession should terrify me. Instead, it makes me feel seen for the first time in my life.
They all want me. They all need me. And if the bond fails, we all die.
Oh, and did I mention someone's trying to assassinate me? Because apparently, the Supernatural Council would rather see me dead than risk another Moonborn going rogue.
I have two weeks to complete a bonding ritual that's killed everyone who's attempted it. Two weeks to choose between safety and destiny. Two weeks before the Blood Moon rises and everything changes forever.
The Council says I'm too dangerous to live.
My mother's ghost says I'm the key to saving our world.
And the four heirs? They say I'm theirs.
All I know is I'm done running. I'm done being afraid. And I'm done letting other people decide my fate.
If the bond wants us? Let it try to take us.
STOLEN SHADOWS is the first book in THE SILVERMOON CHRONICLES, a steamy reverse harem paranormal academy romance series featuring a powerful FMC who doesn't choose, four obsessed supernatural heirs, fated mates, enemies-to-lovers tension, and a slow-burn-to-explosive romance. This is a COMPLETE story with a HFN ending, but the series continues in Book 2: BOUND BY MOONLIGHT.
Why Choose/Reverse Harem, Fated Mates, Paranormal Academy, Enemies to Lovers, Chosen One, Touch Her and Die, Forced Proximity, Magic Training, Blood Moon Ritual, Found Family
Content This book contains explicit sexual content, violence, death of a family member (off-page), and morally gray heroes who would burn the world for the FMC. Intended for readers 18+.
Perfect for fans Zodiac Academy, A Court of Thorns and Roses, Cruel Prince, Fourth Wing (spice), and anyone who's ever screamed "WHY DO I HAVE TO CHOOSE?!" at their Kindle.
This book had potential but the more I read the more annoyed I became. The FMC was so back and forth like I want y’all but I won’t be forced because of the bound but the bound is what’s accelerating the process. She was mad at the MMC with the shadows because he was honest but was ok with Caspian and her grandmother being honest. I completely stopped when everyone was there for the meeting discussing things and the FMC made herself the victim again saying they weren’t considering her and implying the bond was happening without her consent which was complete bull because she had been intimate with everyone but the necromancer and the bond did happen regardless it was just a matter of when unless she ran which she said at the very beginning wasn’t an option. The story is so contradictory and I understand the bad reviews.
The blurb is very intriguing, but misleading in some ways.
"The Council says I'm too dangerous to live. My mother's ghost says I'm the key to saving our world."
All the characters talk about what the Council says but Nova never meets any council members. Her mother's ghost is never mentioned. A lot of the book is Nova telling the heirs she's meant to bond that she's falling in love with them and how it terrifies her because it's happening so quickly. They reassure her and the cycle continues. The characters don't have much chemistry, despite their supposed love for each other. The plot is confusing, haphazard, and underdeveloped. This book should have been a draft that the author could reference for a general direction of the book. No real action takes place until the ending, which is the bonding. The conflict following the bonding is just as underdeveloped and confusing as the plot. I would recommend another book in the place of this one. There are many books with kickass heroines who have to bond with their mates to fulfill their destiny and a prophecy that are leagues better than this one.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I am very sorry to report that this series rapidly descended into disaster. The first half of book 1 I thoroughly enjoyed. It had a quicker pace than I’m used to, but it seemed really well-written. The FMC was really sharp and capable. She didn’t wring her hands and try to escape decision; she acted. And the idea seemed interesting.
The second half of book 1 started to have some random story inconsistencies - seemingly small details that conflicted with one another. The pace also picked up to an absurd speed, rushing through things that should have had consideration. Plot reveals were dropped in a handful of paragraphs, rather than the chapters they should have taken. Rebound from the plot twists were nonexistent. It felt like someone had taken their rough outline and hurriedly written it out, trying to flesh out details as they went, then forgetting they’d already stated one thing and instead writing something conflicting. And to top it all off, there apparently wasn’t editing to try to fix these issues?
Still, I wanted to give this series a shot. I picked up book 2, even though the “Cliffhanger” of Book 1 was jumbled and weird.
Book 2 starts with no mention of Book 1’s “Cliffhanger” chapter, acting like none of that ever happened. The “Big Bad” from Book 1 who we should REALLY hear more about isn’t mentioned at all. And we, once again, have weird plot disparities. Like, they’re all sleeping in the same room because even a trip into the balcony is too much distance, but then later we’re told they’ve been sleeping in separate rooms. Huh?
I really think this may be an AI-written book. I think a human may have written the first half of the first book, then let AI do its thing. I can’t explain the sudden decline in any other way that makes sense. I’m honestly so disappointed - this could have been a cool series. But by Book 2, you’re reading a collection of words that is strung together in an increasingly illogical manner.
Not promising when we could’ve scrapped the first two chapters entirely. I guess it was fine to get some character and world building, but we’re pretty much told what’s happening twice.
Like: this is what’s going to occur, and what she is, and what that means, and what her next days will be like. Then, we’re with her as those things unfold and she’s reading a letter with the same information verbatim and then we’re tediously adhering to the first chapter’s predicted schedule.
We get it. We really do. Leave a little to the imagination. It’s magic, after all.
Then, we’re given all the men’s names and designations, along with descriptions of their personalities. This is from the headmaster, of all people.
I would’ve given up on this mess if they didn’t sound interesting, but let us meet them! Show us! Quit telling us! Goodness gracious.
It’s insta-love, that’s for sure. That’s pretty much the entire plot.
We learn nothing from the classes and meet barely anyone other than the men. She doesn’t even get one of those annoying token best friends.
Classes go on without us. She learns and sees things that she references in past tense. It’s stuff that we’re reading about a magical academy to encounter. Cool stuff. Why weren’t we there? What’s the point? Why are we even here?
I just don’t understand how so much can be missing from the story but we’re carrying on like it’s not. There’s not even a story! I felt like I was losing my mind here.
Spice started and I closed my kindle and went to bed. I just couldn’t. She says she trusts these people but we don’t. We’ve met each guy maybe twice while she’s spent weeks with them. We don’t know them; we have no stakes in this relationship.
I’m inclined to think bits of it are AI with the cadence and familiar statements from similar suspicious books I’ve read lately.
There’s also things like a guy prompting a conversation, she tells him she would rather embrace the temporary safety and discuss it later. In just four sentences, he asks it again, and she immediately answers easily. Hello?
The guy who kissed her first says another one did. It’s not dismissive. The ‘author’ seemed to forget who did it.
She says she’s known the guys for two weeks but then says she was a normal girl in the human world a week ago. Both are spoken on the same day.
The FMC also has the same name and scent as the FMC in Ceecee Crow’s Nightmare Misfit series. I don’t know if there’s plagiarism going on, but they both should’ve copied someone capable of making sense.
Without the spice (That I could’ve done without. It sucked.) the writing leans more YA. The fantastical elements are lackluster and childish; there’s no complicated magic or political system to comprehend or distinguish.
It just is, and it’s not great.
She mentions she’s falling for them 15 times. ‘Bond’ is mentioned 197 times, I kid you not.
They discuss the bonds as a group and, like the rest of it, the conversation amounts to no new information.
The FMC has no flaws that endear her to us other than her unadvised, blind acceptance of love bombing.
It all surmounts to being forced to pick between having an orgy in front of all the peers we’ve never met or being executed in front of them. Tough choice.
Considering the fact that it’s a series, I can assume which fate she chooses.
They practice the premise at length. At the last minute, they have a meeting wherein the FMC asks what’s going to happen. What the actual hell have y’all been practicing, then?
AND! She was all like “I don’t want my first time to be during a ritual” and then there was literally no sex involved. None. What even is this, man.
The “twist” had me put the book down, locate the most potent alcohol in my house, and reluctantly pick the story back up when things like ~sense~ mattered less.
It’s so dumb. SO dumb. It genuinely makes no sense.
I can just tell that I’ll remember it weeks from now and get mad all over again.
The story was just giving self-insert, and I would like to be removed.
The last chapter made me wish I never learned how to read while also making me concerned I’d forgotten how. It made no sense. Just a mishmash of crap.
This is yet another instance of me excitedly finding the genre, setting, and premise that I’d asked the universe to deliver, but neglected to clarify that I wanted the book it procured to be good. That’s on me.
The core main characters. They are built really well.
Where the book tries, but doesn't quite succeed.
The world building is interesting, but it felt like the author changed their mind on what they were wanting the story to accomplish. It didn't feel cohesive.
Where this book fails.
The plot itself is very cliche. Normally I would say I like a good cliche, but unfortunately this cliche isn't done well.
Then you have the writing. I won't say it's poor, because there are moments of genius, but there are also the errors.
The opposing force against her changes from the Council in the beginning to The Covenant somewhere toward the end.
There is an error where the author apparently forgot who kissed Nova, the FMC, first. This ruins an entire scene in Chapter 12.
Then there is the choice the author uses to denote a flashback or a written letter. The author choice to use asterisks around them. A very nonsensical and unpleasant choice. It literally left me uncomfortable while reading it. Cringe.
Why choose/ paranormal/ chosen one/ instalove/ fated mates/ enemies to lovers/ age gap/ virgin FMC
Trigger warning: attempted murder/ death of a loved one/ attempted kidnapping
I can’t finish this book. The FMC is meant to be a badass survivor that doesn’t take any crap from anyone but she came across as super unlikable. She was whiny and indecisive. One minute she was fighting the mate bonds and the next she was declaring her love. It was obnoxious.
Age gaps are fine. An 18 year old girl bonding with a 250 year old vampire? No problem. Age gaps where the MMC has been stalking the FMC since she was a baby and expresses romantic feelings when she finally comes of age? Barf.
#DNF
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Amazing Story. YA Fantasy Academy in the real world
I loved this Ya story. It has all the right details which makes the perfect mix of a great story. Romance, magic, tension mixed in with with a good storyline, it will keep you going until the last pages when they go about their bonding ceremony. I am a succa for a good academy story and this one will drag you into their world. It finishes the story and then leaves you on a cliffhanger for the next book in the series. I am starting it already. Dont miss visiting this world and going on this life with Nova and her guys.
The FMC immediately starts falling for the men she's supposed to bond with. There is no "show" as to why she would fall in love with them. She just does, within a week. The writing is immature.
In spite of that, I was prepared to push through and finish the book. Then one of the MMC kisses the FMC, after she vomits. Ewwwww! Nope, I am OUT!
Everything is majorly rushed. There are inconsistencies and there still seems to be no plot. There is also no chemistry between the characters even though she bonded with one of them (it's actually unclear if she did or not and what counts as bonding). I could've written this at the age of 14.
DNF’d at 64%. It was a struggle between the format and then the rush with no real development of the characters. She fell in love with them after a week without actually being around them?!? In all 64% there was the constant mention of the council without any of them showing up despite her being a potential hazard?
If I'm being totally honest, Nova got on every nerve I had. Her character was just inconsistent. Ashton was possessive with no grounds to be. I dunno the whole dynamic and timeline was just off. I scrolled through those awkward "spicy" bits because it just seemed forced and uncomfortable. I don't have any interest in completing the series.
A great start to the series, had me thoroughly enjoying it. However, I’m not sure I would rush to read the next one. Something about the ending didn’t leave me on edge and excited like a normal cliffhanger. Will still read the next one but I’m not rushing for it.
dnf at 35% Insta feelings for all of her bondmates with little or no interaction. Repetitive conversations when they do happen to connect and assumptions based on nothing. It's written as if there are whole pages missing or edited out that would have helped to fill in the gaps.
This story could be good but there isn't enough world building or plot. Im all for a quick romance but there was literally no build up and we didnt get to know the main characters at all.
DNF at 77%. The first half had potential with a FMC who was decisive and stood up for herself. The second part it felt like she just whined about the bond and not having time for decisions.
Sorry… she’s halfway in love with all of them at 35% and she says it’s not the bond? It’s literally been a day since she’s arrived at the academy. Bye.
I was once again pulled in by a good cover and blurb! This was poorly written. I hate everything about this: the insta love, the fast pace, the lack of chemistry, POVs from the MMC's.