The Shadow Queen & Shalador’s Lady – a Combined Review

As we continue with our feature on Anne Bishop, we will stay in the world of Black Jewels. The combined review of The Shadow Queen and Shalador’s Lady picks up some time after the trilogy ended, and focuses on a new heroine and hero.  However, do not be mislead, you will continue to see Jaenelle, Daemon, Lucivar and Saetan play a big role in these two books.  These two books are excellent additions to the Black Jewels series.  Especially Shalador’s Lady, which is exceptional. 

The Shadow Queen

The Shadow Queen continues in the world Anne Bishop created in the Black Jewels trilogy, but introduces new characters, a new heroine; this becomes her story, which will be followed by Shalador’s Lady.  The Shadow Queen introduces us to Cassidy, the heroine in this story, and we also get to continue to enjoy seeing Jaenelle, Saetan, Daemon and Lucivar again.  Anne Bishop, as I have said before has an uncanny ability to create great new characters, and she does not disappoint in The Shadow Queen.  Cassidy, a former Queen, who lost her court, due to her not being pretty enough, to another prettier Queen, was asked by Jaenelle to go to Terreille, and become Queen to a territory (Dena Nehele) that needed help to rebuild.  Despite her lack of confidence, Cassidy agrees to help for a minimum of a year.  She is accompanied by Vae, a female kindred dog.  Lol  Vae is one little bitch lady, and handles all the men very well. Lol  cutely done. 

Some of the characters we meet are Theran Greyhaven, who is the one who asked the SaDiablo family for help; Gray (Jared Blaed Greyhaven), Theran’s cousin, who is mentally unstable due to being tortured as a young boy; Randon (Warlord), and Shira (Black Widow witch).   I did not like Theran, as he was ill mannered, and did not care much for Cassidy, as she wasn’t pretty enough for him.  But I loved Gray, loved how he comes out of his shell to eventually and shyly love Cassie.   Great story leading to a romance for the future, and Gray’s possible emergence as a Warlord.  Cassidy, having learned how a Queen should act from her days with the coven, and the protocol (which Vae is an expert in) that is  required, eventually earns the respect of those she has chosen as her first court, as well as the landen people (non blood).  She, if given the chance will make a great Queen.   But again, there is Theran, who makes her life difficult, though he is not evil.  In fact, this is an easy book to read, as we see very little evil. 

The love story between Jaenelle and Dameon continues, and Lucivar Yaslana continues to be to me……………’sigh’…need I say more. 

The ending of The Shadow Queen was nice, but was left somewhat open, as when Cassidy was finally going to meet the lower territory Queens to work with her, you never got to see that.  In this case, Bishop showed she was trying to leave it open for the next book.  I enjoyed this book, the stories with Cassidy and the stories back home in Kaeleer with the SaDiablo family (whom I will never have enough of), made it fun. 

Shalador’s Lady
I loved this book, and I would have to rate this book close to Heir to the Shadows, and Queen of the Darkness (book 2 & 3 of Black Jewels trilogy).  Anne Bishop continues to amaze me what a great storyteller she is.  As I have said before, her characterizations are wonderful, and you truly do get to know most of the main characters.  At the start of the Black Jewels trilogy, I fell in love with Jaenelle, Saetan, Lucivar, Daemon and Surreal.  Over time, Bishop has brought in different characters to lead the new stories, and yet she amazingly continues to allow us to see our much loved favorites continually in these stories, without interfering with the current storyline. 

Shalador’s Lady was such a fun book, with many of the characters (Cassie, Gray, Ranon, Talon, Shira, Theran) whom you met in The Shadow Queen, but this book was far better. The villain in this book, is not dark, but petty, selfish, pretty young girl (Kermilla), who thought only of herself and used her feminine wiles to get her way.  In fact the entire book was not dark at all. Cassie is again the heroine, who had to fight her lack of confidence and felt threatened by the pretty Kermilla, and of course the stubborn and stupid Theran (who refused to see Cassie as the good Queen, but only saw the pretty Kermilla).  The story endears you to Cassie, as she tries to win the trust of her court, warlords, witches, villages, by helping them rebuild from the destruction (that took place in the early Black Jewels trilogy.  It’s a good story of friendship, trust, and love.  Gray (Jared Blaed) turned out to be a great hero, and Cassie’s true love.  Excellent romance. 

But two things separated this book from the two earlier ones leading to this (The Invisible Ring and The Shadow Queen).  The continued presence of the SaDiablo family was very much a part of this story, though in the background, but still a large part of it, as they too tried to help (quietly), Cassie, Gray and the others. Seeing them, and many of the older characters such as Karla, Morghann, Sabrina, Tersa, Khary, Aaron intermix throughout the story was fun and enjoyable.  There were some great moments throughout;

• Gray becoming so close to the SaDiablo family, especially Uncle Saetan  🙂
• The wonderful sweet romance between Gray, who came out of his shell to become a strong Warlord, and Cassie, who was a great character and a wonderful Queen.
• The former members of Jaenelle’s court meeting to discuss Kermilla, and how to help Cassie, without her knowing.
• The Scelties….12 of them coming to live in Cassie’s town..to help.  Awesome, fun and hilarious.  I love the Scelties, this is what made this book so much fun. 
• Ladvarian, Kaelas and Jaal coming to visit Theran and Kermilla…to let them know that if she tries to hurt one of the kindred again they will come hunt her down.   Such a cool moment.  Lol especially with Kermilla thinking she was getting a Sceltie for herself and my Ladvarian snarled at her….lol
• Vae standing next Cassie defending her…when Cassie dropped her club and almost hit Vae in the head….poor Vae…just kept staring at the club…it was so funny.  I couldn’t stop laughing….oh well I guess you have had to have read it.   
• Khollie (the shy Sceltie) who almost got killed…sad..then tearful when he got better.
• Darkmist…whoa what an awesome power  (especially in a kindred dog)
• The strong, hard Warlords, who lost so much to the evil Queens in the past, coming to love Cassie.  Bishop did this so well.
• Jaenelle’s message to Theran near the end to accept his last chance. Lol
• Saeten and Janelle –  sweet revenge near the end

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.  I did not want it to end.  Anne Bishop did a great job bringing back old friends and having them come together throughout the story with many of the new characters and not one bit of darkness.  Not that Kermilla wasn’t a good villain, she was, and you would like to kill her, but she wasn’t evil in the sense of those bitches in the earlier three books. I am sad that there is only one book left (twilights dawn), and they are short stories.   I will terribly miss the SaDiablo family, and their wonderful kindred friends.

Reviewed by Barb

The Reading Cafe has a discovered a wonderful artist, who has agreed to allow us to post her wonderful artwork on many of the Black Jewels characters. Over the next few days, we will be adding Chanandra’s work to some of our reviews.   Thank you, Chanandra for your fabulous work, which in itself is a tribute to Anne Bishop.

Cassidy, by Chanandra

You can find all of Chanandra’s art on DeviantART