The fate of the world rests on eighteen-year-old Catherine Pierce's shoulders--and that's just one of her problems. She is a black beast, a shape-shifter with witch blood, with powers she's only just beginning to understand. She's also slowly falling for Prince Riordan, the dangerous witch whose touch sets her on fire.
Phineas Riordan is the heir to his father's throne, but claiming it is a path rife with treason and treachery. A small faction of his people plan to force him to abdicate. Others plan to use him as a pawn. If they find out what he's been doing with Catherine Pierce, they'll kill them both. Finn needs his people's help to destroy the evil that threatens them all, but his court is a viper's nest of secrets and lies and perfectly capable of finding out the one thing he must desperately hide.
Helping them are Cassandra Tyler and David Tran, and the reluctant ex-Slayer, Angel Ramirez. David and Angel both want revenge against the beings who ruined their lives. Cassandra just wants to survive. She thinks she's finally figured out what the prophecy means, but the price may be too high...
The Shadow Thane has risen, he will stop at nothing to ensure their demise. As the circle closes, Catherine, Finn, Cassandra, David, and Angel will face darkness, magic, dragons, and maybe even death. If one of them fails, all of them will fall.
Nenia Campbell is a dark romance author who lives in San Francisco, California. When she's not writing, or reading, she can be found roaming the city or curled up with her void cat. She collects romance novels older than she is and loves a villain with flair.
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DISCLAIMER: The author is my friend, but I paid for this book with actual money. Our friendship doesn't affect my rating.
REVIEW
It took my longer to read this book than it normally would have, because I'm still in summer brain but virtual school has started, and I'm like WHAT IS HAPPENING. But I finally finished and now... the series is complete in the most perfect way!
I feel like this series grew with each book, becoming richer and more complex. Here, all the threads finally get tied up.
I'm not generally a fantasy fan, and urban fantasy even less so, but this book does things the way I like. There's plenty of action while still paying attention to the characters, and characters are always a huge factor in me enjoying a book. That's where fantasy usually falls short for me. But in the Shadow Thane series, I love all the main characters almost as if they were my own. I even got fanfiction ideas! I've also made fanart, with another drawing upcoming when I can find the time to sit down and finish it. What can I say, I just feel really strongly about the bad guy all of a sudden, okay?
This was a strong ending to the series, and I can't wait for Campbell's next release.
Masterful! This author's imagination is something else. The detail, the creativity, just... how?
This series has been such a treat. It features not just one kind of supernatural entity, but a handful. Each has their own unique strengths and weaknesses, and even within the various groups there are differences in strengths and levels of power. As if that wasn't enough, the author took it a step further and created a whole additional world for the characters to discover, primarily through their dreams and nightmares.
That said, at the end of the day, this is the love story of the two main characters. Although, that is hard to see earlier in the series when they had a rabid and homicidal hatred for one another. And don't I just love a good enemies-to-lovers story with some, at times, toxic elements... swoon.
This has been a memorable and thrilling series. I'm sad to see it end. And if the author ever wanted to take pity on us and grace us with, say, perhaps a novella about Cheshire/Ala? I would tear through that thing. They (Cheshire/Ala was referred to as "they/them" throughout) were a great character- intriguing, dark, and unpredictable. A deviant. A liar. I'm a fan of this author's characters in general, but something about them in particular really sparked my interest.
Definitely recommended for fans of paranormal/fantasy romance, and even those who don't typically dabble in those genres (like me) but love a good story nonetheless.
Loved this series so much what a fantastic conclusion. Loved Finn and Catherine as main characters. Finn is still a great anti hero. My favourite kind!
My last book for 2023 and it is very fitting that it was the last of this series which has gotten better and better with every instalment. Honestly i dont really have any complaints about this. There’s minor editing things but nothing that you can really complain about given this is an indie.
I loved the writing - it was so beautiful and compelling, the characters all grew beautifully as did the relationship dynamics. Catherine and Finn are so fucking precious! I love them and would happily read anything about them. The plot wrapped up wonderfully, the action was riveting, the spice exciting. A truly great conclusion to a really interesting and unique series.
Loved the last installment and now I am sad that I have no more books to read like this one. I will have to mope around the internet finding books to fill the time until I get more books to read like Nenia's, lol.
Again, I have to say. Neina is probably 1 of only the 2 or 3 authors that manage to keep the characters true to themselves while still undergoing development. It's one of the reasons I love her writing style.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I'm gonna be honest. If I didn't love this series, the characters, and the author so much, I'd probably give this book 2-3 stars. It desperately needs a re-edit. The amount of errors was glaring at the end, like whoa. I think it was a 3-4 star book, till about 71% in. Then... it got weird. Not sure exactly how to describe where and in what way it went wrong. Anti-climactic? Disappointing? Dunno how I expected things to go, but it wasn't like that. Gotta ruminate more on how to describe what irked me, I guess.
That being said, there where parts of this book that were truly effing awesome. There was one quote about Finn and his smile, when they were in the box store, that was truly inspired. I mean lol, worth reading the book just for that mental picture. Actually, a lot of the dialogue was great, and imagery rich, up to 71%.
All in all, it was a sexy and tasty treat, and totally fed my Finn (and Catherine) obsession. Anyone who loves this series, read this book, it's definitely worth it, despite my own issues with it.
I absolutely loved this series and am so glad, but sad, to have come to the conclusion of it. Very satisfying ending, and I loved seeing how much Catherine and Finn both grew (as well as the other secondary characters) throughout the duration of the series. I also loved that Finn was essentially still himself throughout all the books even as he changed in subtle ways.