shadow and crystal thorns by kay l moody

i received a copy of the book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

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star rating

★★★★

fae of bitter thorn review links

anyway, i’m a huge fan of kay l moody’s books. you can read my reviews of her fae of bitter thorn series: review of book 1, review of books 2&3, review of book 4.

flame and crystal thorns review

so apparently i never reviewed the first book (flame and crystal thorns). i thought i had. i guess it’s just one of those monday’s.

here’s a copy and paste from goodreads:

star rating

★★★★

boy was this book an exciting one! i loved being back in faerie and seeing some of my old favourite characters once again. (although I wished some of them played bigger roles).

The biggest struggle for me was reading in the perspective of chloe. The last time we saw her, she was a little girl. Now she’s a young woman. It took a little getting used to, but once I did, it was amazing. Chloe goes through many struggles and changes throughout the book, mostly in how she perceived herself – which I find very important.
It was nice seeing quintus again, however he isn’t how I remembered him (and I mean this in the nicest way). It was nice giving him more depth.

The plot was engaging and very fast paced. Everything happened so quickly, I was sad to see it end! I definitely can’t wait for the next book in the series. I can see myself loving this even more than the fae of bitter thorn.

shadow and crystal thorns review

star rating

★★★★

first things first. this book features a dragon!! an actual dragon!! we have all these fantasy books, but hardly any of them include the amazing creatures. i thoroughly enjoyed reading about it in shadow and crystal thorns. i also really enjoyed learning about it and it’s personality!

anway, dragon aside, it was nice to be back in the world of faerie! flame and crystal thorn was released earlier this year, and i really enjoyed it. admittedly, i struggled reading shadow and crystal thorns thanks to a stupid reading slump. but it still turned out to be a great book regardless.

one thing i really love about kay l moody’s writing is her supportive love interests. they support the main characters through everything, and always remain faithful. i love how quinus has evolved over the course of these two books, from the immature fae he previously was. he’s a strong willed man who knows how to protect what he loves.

unfortunately, i found myself growing irritated with chloe during this book. i don’t know if it was because of the slump, but i found her whiny and annoying. no other reviews seem to mention this, so i’m assuming it was my impatience due to this slump.

i also had a hard time trusting ludo and mishti. at first, i loved mishti, but for some reason (ahem, slump?) i struggled to like her in this book. and ludo just rubbed me the wrong way.

i loved how kay has included a disabled main character and their struggles with coming to terms with their newfound disability. i also really enjoyed how they weren’t cured by faerie magic and instead have to find ways to live with it, like any normal person would.

anyway, i guess i should mention that god damned plot twist at the end!! kay!! why would you!!! i have to wait???? send help? please?

while this isn’t my favourite book written by this author, she still remains one of my favourite authors. i’ll read anything kay l moody writes.

buy your copy now!

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