Blog 39: Born of Shadows

Born of Shadows by Sherrilyn Kenyon was a fun book that took readers into a world of assassins, thieves, political submits, and other evils. Full of rich heroes (in a sense) and some great plot twists.

I’ve becoming a huge Sherrilyn Kenyon fan. She’s got several rich series going on right now. So when one of her books become available to read, I tend to bump it up on my reading list pretty quickly especially if I’m in the mood for something with a supernatural twist.

Born of Shadows is the fourth book of the League Series. In typical fashion of me, I just jumped in and didn’t care that this was my first book that I’ve read in the series. Immediately you are thrown into a complex world where there is a League which enforce the politics for the whole universe and even have their own league of assassins to help insure the order within the different realms. But besides the league assassins there are the group of the Sentella which follow their own rules.

Born of Shadows follows Caillen Dagan (well you quickly learn it’s actually not his name) and Desideria. Caillen goes from common street thug and smuggler to a prince after his arrest for his sister’s smuggling drugs proves he has the same DNA of the royal prince that was kidnapped many years ago. It becomes a culture shock except for the fact that Caillen’s friend Darling knew his whole story. Then there is Desideria from the Quillian empire who is a fierce woman warrior culture. She’s part of her mother’s royal guard. While one a royal summit, the two are brought together when their parent’s lives are threatened by assassins who frame them for their parent’s murder. The league sends out assassins to control the two royal’s apparent murder attempts.

The book is just fun. It pulls together. Some great little scenes that could be surprising although they fit within the universe really well. I was really surprised when Desideria’s mother decided to rouge her nipples while wearing a very skimpy Xena like costume to make it known at the political submit that she wanted to declare war on a neighboring world. It was just funny since all the other politicians were dreading to see what kind out outfit she would be wearing since they thought it would gauche and as the reader, I could understand why. Then there were just other scenes. One of the others was the discussion when they finally professed their love and commitment together. I really enjoyed the exchange since it reminds me of something I would do: 

“No buts, Cai. I can’t stand the though of you being hurt and you’re already wounded. It’s not fair of you to ask me to abstain from the fight when you’re not willing to do the same for me.”

“I really hate it when you make sense.”

She smiled, “I know. I fell the same way about you.”

“So shall we blow this whole thing off and go grab coffee? Or preferably a bed?”

She rolled her eyes at him. “You’re terrible.”

“True.” He took a deep breath. “Okay so we go with Plan B. Both of us get our asses kicked. Then limp to a bed where I kiss your boo-boos and you kiss mine. Yeah. That still works.”

She laughed. “What am I going to do with you?”

“As long as it involves our mutual nakedness, I’m up for it.”

Desideria was a strong fighter and hot tempered but at the same time very naïve and fragile. There were times when she couldn’t do much of anything and other times she was the warrior princess. Then there was Caillen who was the know-it-all in a sense. He called out the Quill queen as trying to set up a fake war to make money. But Caillen was a bit of a clumsy fool who never seemed to think things all the way through. The contradictions between the two actually set up a great little romance which made this reader a tad jealous. They are a cute little couple who help fill each other’s holes and would fight for each other’s survival.

The book did make a few plot twists. Thank the lord it did. There were times I really was getting frustrated since it seemed like it was going to take the easy out for the people behind the assassinations. Then it didn’t take the easy route. Instead it helped to grow even the tertiary characters in the book.