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150 pages, Paperback
First published August 23, 2022
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Right or wrong, she wasn't going to be what life kept trying to make her.
Heartless. Bitter. Vindictive.
You won't take my soul. I won't let you..
It was the only thing she had left. They'd stolen everything else from her long ago. Her childhood. Her innocence.
Her sense of fair play.
Her family.
What was left? — Jayne Erixour (p.41)
Warnings: None of note
I'm going to be honest I'm a bit torn on this one. 🤨 I'm giving it 4 because I believe Jayne Erixour and Alexos Hadrian Vicarius Scalera deserved their own full length book. Through Jayne we could have got more detail on the founding of the Sentella, the seedlings of it are here and seen an entirely different race, Hyshian, that makes Desideria's Qillaq look almost egalitarian. In addition, I'm wondering if this is different from the history we've been told about them before. Don't get me wrong this is still a great book, it's Sherri and we finally got a story for Jayne but I was kinda hoping for more when we did get her story. Is that so wrong? 🤔 Especially when you look at what we got for Fain (Born of Betrayal) and Julian/Dagger (Born of Legend) and in the Hunterverse Maxis (Dragonbane) and upcoming Jaden (Shadows Within *epic grabby hands* for that one in particular, 🤩 look I know some of Jaden's story and I need more).
I like Jayne and Hadrian's story. We get to learn Jayne's background, what she wanted to be before she was forced into her life, her life secret (she's a Winged Batur 😲) and what makes her tick. Hadrian is so different to Nero, he feels more like Mari than Nero (not certain where that came from). Hadrian has an entirely different set of strengths than his older brother, his are passive and more defensive. This is the first time we've spent any real time with a Trisani unfortunately there is no real lore introduced, we did, however, get introduced to the Clusas a group of Trisani immune to the mindreading abilities and the concept varying levels of power. We are shown Gauduley "the Trisani term for when one was so attracted to another that they lost control of their power." (p.111). I want to see that played out in all its glory, especially given we know Nero is so powerful.
Through Nero, Hadrian is almost disturbingly well connected. Interestingly Nyk is connected to them both . The plot is not dissimilar to many of the others, there is no damsel in distress but Jayne is not what you expect. The twist she faces is she signed a warrant for a simple retrieval that gets turned into a spill-kill. It was actually quite nice to see the old language back it's been a while since we were using assassin speak, a spill-kill is a kill with torture first. A rarity that Jinx calls out.
Let me add some random quotes and comments.
• Important to the story in a way is Eve of Destruction is Jayne's older sister, older by 7 years. She is already in command of a unit at 21 in the prologue.
• Hadrian's endearment from Jayne is Suāva Trisani for sweetie. I always like knowing what they are, some of them have been fantastic. No one has yet beaten Hauk's for Sumi.
• "Nero know?"
"Above his paygrade."
Syn snorted. "Nothing is above his paygrade where you're concerned. You trying to get us killed?"
"I'm trusting you on this."
That garnered a full laugh. "I don't keep secrets from your brother. I can't."
"Yeah... he's a massive pain in the ass that way. Can you at least avoid him for a bit?"
Syn Scratched at his check. "Can try. But like you, he has a nasty way of tracking me down." — Syn legit can't keep secrets from Nero, it's the telepathy thing. Even if Syn's mind is a lot scrambled when he's sober. This whole book is essentially Hadrian finally proving to Nero that he isn't that toddler Nero saved anymore, he can hold his own. (C.S. Syn and Hadrian, p.53)
• We get to meet another Schvardan (the land-based Phrixians), like Morra from Born of Legend. It was nice to meet Moradcity.
• "No. No! Bad idea. Why would you leave good alcohol to go chasing down someone your brother will find first?"
"Personal satisfaction."
Syn scoffed. "Overrated,"
"The curiosity,"
"Stupid reason." Syn rolled his eyes. "Besides you know what they say."
"Curiosity is the foundation of science?"
Syn let out a pain-filled noise. "Damn you Tris origins. Y'all take the fun out of everything." — Syn and Hadrian are great. This is Syn in his functioning alcoholic stage. The good alcohol is a bottle of Tondarian Fire because only the top shelf when you are this screwed. But one thing that comes out in this is part of the reason for the Trisani holocaust, the others around them wanted to claim their technological advancements. And they are to thank for so many. (C.S. Syn and Hadrian, p.75)
• This has one of the better and simplest explanations of the Tavali I've read. I never knew their origins. But I'm guessing more of that will come out in Born of Trouble, Ryn and Mack's story.
• We've actually met Jayne's son as an adult which I had no idea of. Sway runs as C.I. Syn and Shahara Dagan's son, Devyn Kell's second in command in Born of Ice. Go look up Claire she is a total badass and I remember her.
"Who taught you to drive"
"No one." She shot out the window.
"Are you licensed?"
"Not on this planet."
Awesome. — Hadrian Scalera and Jayne Erixour (p.20)
Read for QBD Reading Challenge 2022. Filling the prompt: "A Book Story You've Always Wanted to Read"
This is cheating a bit given Born of Blood was only published in 2022. Still, part of the advertising for this book was "The story Paladins have been begging for . . .". Paladins are Sherrilyn McQueen's fandom. They have been begging, pleading for Sherri to give us Jayne and Hadrian's story for probably a decade. Jayne is The League fandom's fave badass woman, the original and from a feministic, matriarchal society to book. I am one of those Paladins.
A representative gif:
These are in reference to two queens. Sherri who finally gave us Jayne and Hadrian's story and Jayne herself. The biggest badass in the Sentella, which is saying something given the assassins she runs with.
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