Lilibet Bombshell's Reviews > Shadowed Heart

I’ll admit to not being the hugest fan of the first book in this duology (at least I think it’s going to end up staying a duology). I loved the storyline but I wasn’t completely on board with all the monsters present in Fractured Shadows (I’m terrified and grossed out by snakes, if you need a clue) and that affected some of my enjoyment of the book. It’s a little hard to completely enjoy a book where one of the MMCs makes you kind of wanna throw the book out of sheer squick.

I found myself absolutely enchanted by Shadowed Heart. This book was all the storyline and plot I loved from Fractured Shadow, but with more fluff and less squick.

I will go ahead and say, as I do with most of K.A. Knight and Kendra Moreno’s darker co-writes: Please check your TW/CWs. Take care of you.

This book begins almost right where Fractured Shadow left off. You can read these books as standalones, but they are deeply interconnected. I personally don’t recommend reading them as standalones. YMMV. This, of course, means we’re in a very dark and sad place for the FMC of Shadowed Heart, Kai. Kai spent the entirety of Fractured Shadow inside the palace of the evil Gilded King as her sister fought to gain strength and confront the king to rescue her sister. Well, they might have won that battle, but Kai has been through a tremendous amount of trauma and a kingdom in time of transition is always a volatile thing.

Kai finds herself in the Dead Lands, where the monsters dwell. It’s here that she is healed by the first of her eventual mates, and as she spends more time in the now-healing Dead Lands she meets the rest of her mates, learns not all monsters are bad, and grows to love the dark beauty of the place. Then Kai and her mates discover that the Dead Lands are being threatened, and they need to seek her sister’s help to heal the land.

It was really nice to see something sweeter and more subtle from Knight and Moreno. These monsters may be hungry, but they’re conscientious of Kai and her trauma. They nurture her, court her, spend time with her and with each other, and just travel the Dead Lands so we readers can learn to care for the lands as much as the characters do. The spice starts out slow and sweet, but it does grow in heat and intensity so that by the end it’s hitting hard and heavy.

I really loved having the time that can be taken up sometimes by too much spice to get to know more about the MMCs in this book, since they all had interesting backstories. It also allowed for available page space to devote to a few passages from Cora’s (Kai’s sister) POV as the book goes along so we get a peek inside her mind as the plot progresses.

It’s a great read and a great continuation from Fractured Shadow. I highly recommend it.

I was provided a copy of this title by the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you. This review was written without compensation.

File Under: Book Series/Dark Fantasy/Dark Romance/Monster Romance/Spice Level 3/Why Choose Romance