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A review by jacqueline1989
Born of Silence by Sherrilyn Kenyon
5.0
Ho. Ly. Shit!
Question: What is the hardest thing to do on planet Earth?
Answer: Reviewing the best damn novel written in the entire history of mankind.
Trust me y'all this ain't easy, but here goes nothing...
Born of Silence by Sherrilyn Kenyon, a science fiction paranormal fantasy romance, with crying. Lots and lots of crying. That is, my crying.
Why my crying? Well, because Good Book Noise, that's why.
These 614 pages are gonna make you care SO damn hard about Zarya and Darling, AKA pretty much the best fake-people ever.
Our girl Zarya has had a shit life; her dad got murdered when she was 18, she's a traitor's kid, she was raised on hell's backstreets. She's a tough-as-nails badass and, oh yeah, a resistance leader trying to take down the head-honcho baddies.
Can you guess I love her hard?
Then there's Darling Cruel, AKA Kere, AKA Sex-On-A-Stick who is a Princey McPrinceface while ACTUALLY working to take down his corrupt in power family 'cause they suck. Lo and behold, his secret identity as an incognito good guy was HELLA damn fun, and HELLA damn exciting.
Book sounds pretty rad, right? Well, it's radder than rad, because it's literally everything. It's a romance, it's a political intrigue, it's also a survival story and on and on I could go, where I'll stop...here. I'll stop here.
Our story goes to all the dark spots; torture, abuse, rape, and politics. We delve so hard into political and family drama so real, it makes Game of Thrones look like a sitcom.
And, Zarya? She flat out rocks...buuuuuut despite that rockage, this book ain't hers. Darling's the one overcoming the ouchey-wouchey brutal past, so it's definitely more his story than hers. Still, our girl DOES manage to get in one hell of a character arc.
I mean, spoiler alert but not really; the book opens with her and Darling already doing the boinking and heart eyes!
Yeah. You read right.
You're probably like, "WHAT THE HELL JACQUELINE?!"...but dude! Not really a spoiler, yes really well done and a REALLY REALLY unique premise. I mean, when our heroine hasn't even seen her guy's face nor has the 411 on who he be despite willing to like, die for him?
YOU TALK ABOUT DRAMATIC AND INTERESTING INTERNAL CONFLICT AND PLOT SHENANIGANS!
Trust you're gonna love the story, and trust that you're gonna love the leads, but ALSO trust that the secondary characters are gonna own your ass, too! They're rocking the personality and diversity and awesome and I hearted them so freakin' hard.
This plot has about a million things feeding it and never once does it get crowded or chaotic. Everything gets handled with care. Rape, war, torture, child abuse, friendship, Agape love, homosexuality, the list don't quit.
But of all super-duper fun-parts in Born of Silence, Darling's spin was my absolute fav! Here we've got an uber-straight, uber-alpha who embraced with open arms the "he-likes-the-peen" rumors because...well, because reasons and spoilers. Thing is, in the hands of the wrong author, this could have been fifteen levels of unbelievable or offensive, but nope; not here.
Throw in Maris, the badass BFF who happens to be gay, and his adorable heartwarming smexy m/m romance...And to the naysayers let me just say you can fuck right off.
I want ALL of the humans to read this beautiful, powerful story, 'cause dammit it's gonna have your catnip in it somewhere.
Smexy romance and hot sex scenes? Angsty melodrama and heartbreak? Political intrigue and complex world building? Epic space battles and badass fight scenes?
Gut-busting comedy and hilarious characters? Dark characters with sinister backstories? Complex world-building...wait, make that inter-planetary building...with a character pool in the realm of thousands?
Scifi tech and space ships that leave you drooling? A book with a high body count and a higher rate of explosions-per-chapter?
CUE ALL THE CHECKS!
When a book can go from:
...To...
...Back to...
...WELL THEN CUE ALL OF MY FEELS, OKAY?!
I fell so hard in fluffy-love with this book that I now want its logo permanently inked onto my skin. Trust me, friend; good book is good.
At the end of the day the takeaway, the review, and every single one of my sentiments can be summed up as follows:
Yep.
That about does it.
(If you like my writing voice or you think I’m funny...[or you really just wanna laugh at a fangirl for fangirling]...then SHAMELESS YOUTUBE CHANNEL PLUG IS SHAMELESS! I review romance novels and Asian dramas, so that is a thing and now you know.)
Fangirl Musings: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6fO1lNf1L-iHUINRIUtE_g/videos
Question: What is the hardest thing to do on planet Earth?
Answer: Reviewing the best damn novel written in the entire history of mankind.
Trust me y'all this ain't easy, but here goes nothing...
Born of Silence by Sherrilyn Kenyon, a science fiction paranormal fantasy romance, with crying. Lots and lots of crying. That is, my crying.
Why my crying? Well, because Good Book Noise, that's why.
These 614 pages are gonna make you care SO damn hard about Zarya and Darling, AKA pretty much the best fake-people ever.
Our girl Zarya has had a shit life; her dad got murdered when she was 18, she's a traitor's kid, she was raised on hell's backstreets. She's a tough-as-nails badass and, oh yeah, a resistance leader trying to take down the head-honcho baddies.
Can you guess I love her hard?
Then there's Darling Cruel, AKA Kere, AKA Sex-On-A-Stick who is a Princey McPrinceface while ACTUALLY working to take down his corrupt in power family 'cause they suck. Lo and behold, his secret identity as an incognito good guy was HELLA damn fun, and HELLA damn exciting.
Book sounds pretty rad, right? Well, it's radder than rad, because it's literally everything. It's a romance, it's a political intrigue, it's also a survival story and on and on I could go, where I'll stop...here. I'll stop here.
Our story goes to all the dark spots; torture, abuse, rape, and politics. We delve so hard into political and family drama so real, it makes Game of Thrones look like a sitcom.
And, Zarya? She flat out rocks...buuuuuut despite that rockage, this book ain't hers. Darling's the one overcoming the ouchey-wouchey brutal past, so it's definitely more his story than hers. Still, our girl DOES manage to get in one hell of a character arc.
I mean, spoiler alert but not really; the book opens with her and Darling already doing the boinking and heart eyes!
Yeah. You read right.
You're probably like, "WHAT THE HELL JACQUELINE?!"...but dude! Not really a spoiler, yes really well done and a REALLY REALLY unique premise. I mean, when our heroine hasn't even seen her guy's face nor has the 411 on who he be despite willing to like, die for him?
YOU TALK ABOUT DRAMATIC AND INTERESTING INTERNAL CONFLICT AND PLOT SHENANIGANS!
Trust you're gonna love the story, and trust that you're gonna love the leads, but ALSO trust that the secondary characters are gonna own your ass, too! They're rocking the personality and diversity and awesome and I hearted them so freakin' hard.
This plot has about a million things feeding it and never once does it get crowded or chaotic. Everything gets handled with care. Rape, war, torture, child abuse, friendship, Agape love, homosexuality, the list don't quit.
But of all super-duper fun-parts in Born of Silence, Darling's spin was my absolute fav! Here we've got an uber-straight, uber-alpha who embraced with open arms the "he-likes-the-peen" rumors because...well, because reasons and spoilers. Thing is, in the hands of the wrong author, this could have been fifteen levels of unbelievable or offensive, but nope; not here.
Throw in Maris, the badass BFF who happens to be gay, and his adorable heartwarming smexy m/m romance...And to the naysayers let me just say you can fuck right off.
I want ALL of the humans to read this beautiful, powerful story, 'cause dammit it's gonna have your catnip in it somewhere.
Smexy romance and hot sex scenes? Angsty melodrama and heartbreak? Political intrigue and complex world building? Epic space battles and badass fight scenes?
Gut-busting comedy and hilarious characters? Dark characters with sinister backstories? Complex world-building...wait, make that inter-planetary building...with a character pool in the realm of thousands?
Scifi tech and space ships that leave you drooling? A book with a high body count and a higher rate of explosions-per-chapter?
CUE ALL THE CHECKS!
When a book can go from:
"And neither do you, ciratile. You ever try this shit again with me and mine, and I will rape and plunder the village, and burn the motherfucker to the ground." He looked around at the bodies on the floor. "And as you've seen here today there ain't nothing you bitches can do to stop me. Talk is cheap. Pain is free. And I'm peddling the shit out of it. So you come on and get some.”...“I won't forgive, I won't forget. Let hell open and rain my wrath down on them all. I will not be stopped and I have no mercy left inside me. I am death and I revel in the killings of my enemies. Bring me them all until I'm drunk on their blood.”
...To...
“But sooner or later, no matter who you are, life uses everyone as its whipping boy.”...“The past is history written in stone that can’t be altered. The future is transitory and never guaranteed. Today is the only thing you can change for certain. Have the courage to do so and make the most of it because it could be all you’ll ever have.”
...Back to...
“It's all about perspective, my friend. That and the ability to duck fast when life throws excrement at you."
...WELL THEN CUE ALL OF MY FEELS, OKAY?!
I fell so hard in fluffy-love with this book that I now want its logo permanently inked onto my skin. Trust me, friend; good book is good.
At the end of the day the takeaway, the review, and every single one of my sentiments can be summed up as follows:
Yep.
That about does it.
(If you like my writing voice or you think I’m funny...[or you really just wanna laugh at a fangirl for fangirling]...then SHAMELESS YOUTUBE CHANNEL PLUG IS SHAMELESS! I review romance novels and Asian dramas, so that is a thing and now you know.)
Fangirl Musings: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6fO1lNf1L-iHUINRIUtE_g/videos