Lord of the Wolfyn by Jessica Andersen – a review
Since we are featuring Jessica Andersen through to next week, we thought we would repeat this review of her book Lord of the Wolfyn. This was part of the Royal House of Shadows series, which 3 other authors took part of. Enjoy!
Jessica Andersen’s “Lord of the Wolfyn”, is the third of four books in the Royal House of Shadows series. As I have mentioned previously, each book of this series has somewhat of a take off on fairytale themes. “Lord of the Wolfyn” uses Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf as it’s theme.
Dayn is the third sibling, who was magically swept away, when his parents, the King and Queen of Elden were dying. Dayn ends up in the Wolfyn realm, which also has connections to the human realm. When Dayn realizes where he is, his immediate thought is to get back to Elden, to help his parents, who were under attack, when he was swept away. But before he could do anything, he heard his father mind speak to him. The instructions from his father were that he had to wait for a guide to come to him to lead him back to Elden. Only when the guide comes, will he be able to return to Elden, and at that point, he had 4 days to get back to get back, or he and all of his family will die.
20 years later, Dayn is still in the Wolfyn realm, waiting for his guide. He has learned to live with the other Wolfyns, and has made some friends. Wolfyns in the human world are known as werewolves. But he still has the intense need for revenge against the blood sorcerer for the murder of his parents, and possibly his brothers and sister. Dayn has not seen or heard from any of them in 20 years.
Reda Weston is a cop in present day human realm, who has been having a tough time recovering from the death of her partner. She blames herself for freezing, when he was shot and killed. With her confidence gone, she becomes attached to a fairytale book that belonged to her when she was a child. The book was a version of Red Riding Hood and when she finds this special book, Reda sees in the book about the woodsman that she has been dreaming about. It was Reda’s mother who taught her about magic, and fairytales, before she died. The book and any discussions of magic was taken away from her by her father after the mother died. But now Reda begins to have dreams about her Woodsman and the Big Bad Wolf. When she chants a spell taught her by her mother many years ago, Reda is magically swept away to the Wolfyn realm, where she sees the woodsman of her dreams.
Dayn immediately knows Reda is his guide. However, Reda does not believe this is real, and thinks she is hallucinating, and must be dreaming. It takes Dayn some time and danger ahead of them to convince her otherwise. First they must fight the wolfyns to escape and head on to Elden, as Reda must be the one to lead him. The trip traveling back was exciting, and when Reda finally comes to realization that this is real, which did take a bit too long, she begins to take control and help Dayn. Throughout they face much danger, and the sexual tension between them was dynamic. The end was intense, both taking turns saving each other from a creature or a witch, and the black unicorn at the end was a nice touch.
I enjoyed this story very much, and I am a big Jessica Anderson fan. Though perhaps I would have shortened Reda stubborn blindness to where she was, I just loved the way Andersen portrayed their romance.
Reviewed by Barb
