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A review by bookishhill
Shadow's Claim by Kresley Cole
3.0
2.5/5 ⭐️s
I don’t understand the reason why we paused everything going on in the Lore with the upcoming Accession to introduce an IAD spin-off about the Dacians, but it definitely felt like a fail to me.
This book follows Lothaire’s cousin, Trehan, as he finds his bride and leaves his home behind to fight in a tournament in order to make her his bride. Trehan’s a quintessential Cole hero: brooding, angsty, alpha male, pushes the limits of acceptable when it comes to his devotion to his bride…Nothing we haven’t seen in every single other male lead so far in this series. He wasn’t a BAD character. I just felt like we were being served underheated sloppy leftovers with him.
Trehan’s bride, Bettina, is another matter. I was eager to see her learn to live with her fears after her assault at the beginning of the book, and there were times this was really beautifully done. But any gains that made towards creating a good character were thrown away as it became more and more clear that Bettina is just. so. damn. boring. It shouldn’t take a genius to figure out their heart as long as it takes her, and she was so selfish when it came to what she wanted from others. Caspion should want her the way she wants him. Trehan should deny his basest of urges to make her happy. She wants Trehan AND Caspion, and *inserts whine* “Why can’t either man give her that?!”
By the final battle between Trehan and Caspion, I was actively routing for Trehan to drop Bettina’s ass. I hated that HE was the one apologizing when they reunited.
The main characters were my biggest issue with this book. The plot, while trivial and seemingly irrelevant in the grand scheme of Accession related things, wasn’t HORRIBLE. I think I’ve just become spoiled by Cole in this series, and I wanted to like this so much more than I did.
I don’t understand the reason why we paused everything going on in the Lore with the upcoming Accession to introduce an IAD spin-off about the Dacians, but it definitely felt like a fail to me.
This book follows Lothaire’s cousin, Trehan, as he finds his bride and leaves his home behind to fight in a tournament in order to make her his bride. Trehan’s a quintessential Cole hero: brooding, angsty, alpha male, pushes the limits of acceptable when it comes to his devotion to his bride…Nothing we haven’t seen in every single other male lead so far in this series. He wasn’t a BAD character. I just felt like we were being served underheated sloppy leftovers with him.
Trehan’s bride, Bettina, is another matter. I was eager to see her learn to live with her fears after her assault at the beginning of the book, and there were times this was really beautifully done. But any gains that made towards creating a good character were thrown away as it became more and more clear that Bettina is just. so. damn. boring. It shouldn’t take a genius to figure out their heart as long as it takes her, and she was so selfish when it came to what she wanted from others. Caspion should want her the way she wants him. Trehan should deny his basest of urges to make her happy. She wants Trehan AND Caspion, and *inserts whine* “Why can’t either man give her that?!”
By the final battle between Trehan and Caspion, I was actively routing for Trehan to drop Bettina’s ass. I hated that HE was the one apologizing when they reunited.
The main characters were my biggest issue with this book. The plot, while trivial and seemingly irrelevant in the grand scheme of Accession related things, wasn’t HORRIBLE. I think I’ve just become spoiled by Cole in this series, and I wanted to like this so much more than I did.