Hi all! Sorry for my relative silence across media recently, I’m having a hard time getting anything done that’s not work and sleep related. Also I am on a Northeast road trip for the next two weeks but I’ll be back towards the end of the month
I finished Loves of Shadow and Power and really want to thank the author for the early copy! I love anything orange so I’m super happy to have these in print!
One fun note is that Edith will be joining me on the blog next week for the Sunday Brunch Series!
Here is my review for book one in the series!
Bookish Quick Facts:
- Title: Loves of Shadow and Power
- Series: The Immortal Beings #2 (duology)
- Author: Edith Pawlicki
- Publisher & Release: Self, 09/14/21
- Length: 393
- Rate & Recommend: 🍁🍁🍁🍁 for Asian based mythology and character driven adult fantasy
Here is the book blurb:
Are the worst demons within or without?
Finally in the Underworld, Jin must find the black peony – and survive the immortal creatures that hunger for her.
Xiao would prefer ravenous immortal creatures to his parents. Imprisoned and continuously drained of power, Xiao is spiralling into addiction and despair…
Nanami doesn’t know Xiao is drinking again. She just knows she needs to save the man she loves, even if it means getting help from an old foe. And if no one believes she can handle the powers she is challenging, well, Nanami has always defied expectations.
Speaking of expectations, Bai is shocked by the power that mortal worship grants the gods. Humbled by a confrontation with them, he must reinvent himself if he wants to claim the place next to Jin.
Separated by circumstance, the four friends must fight gods, monsters, and even themselves to come together again. But if they find each other, will they have changed too much to reunite?
I think the biggest difference in the second novel was the pacing and style. She went for longer chapters and more breaks, with a mini cliffhanger style that I learned is called Xianxia. It helped the pacing a lot and made the book hard to put down.
I went pretty deep into the world building in my review for book one. The main addition to LoSaP was the Underworld, which I think was also my favorite part. Meeting many of the Immortal Creatures was another high point since the author is skilled at creating lush visual images of places and animals. I liked that Jin had to reason with them and trust her judgement as well as her power.
The characters learned (mostly) to love and trust in themselves in book one, and now they have to get over initial misconceptions and changing world views to see if they can truly love each other and embrace their roles as responsible deities.
Does deification change them? How do prayers even work? Where does this immense amount of power fit into the grand scheme of things? Bai and Cheng had me laughing trying to figure these things out.
Theme wise there was self reflection, cause & effect, consequences, and lots of coming of age in this one. Friendship and sacrifice, justice and judgement, plus natural vs found family and breaking ties
You all know I’m a sucker for a found family. There was a bit of a morality nosedive towards the end that I would have really appreciated if I wasn’t half brain dead.
I just docked a star for some repetitive language and other small things, nothing serious at all.
Overall: a satisfying conclusion to the duology. Definitely recommend this series for fans of Asian based mythology & fantasy, lush descriptions, character driven coming of age stories and lore.
Stay tuned on the 19th for the author interview!
OneReadingNurse.com 