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Loves of Shadow and Power (book review) by Edith Pawlicki

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!

Vows of Gold and Laughter (Book Review) by Edith Pawlicki

Thank you so much to By the Book VBP for having me on the bookstagram tour for Vows of Gold and Laughter! I recently read Edith Pawlicki’s debut novel called Minerva, and was extremely excited to see this second novel! I received a lovely finished paperback in exchange for a bookish feature and honest review!

This is an adult fantasy set in a rich world that focuses on Asian mythology, a whole lot of magic, and realizing one’s self worth despite what fate seems to have to store.

Bookish Quick Facts:

Title: Vows of Gold and Laughter
Series: The Immortal Beings, #1
Author: Edith Pawlicki
Publisher & Release: Indie, 04/02/21
Length: 442 pages
Rate & Recommend: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 yes for adult fans of the genre!

Here is the book blurb from Amazon:

The meeting of four lonely immortals will change them – and the world.

High in the Heavens, an immortal court celebrates the betrothal of Jin, Goddess of Beauty, and Xiao, God of Pleasure. But as soon as the vows are made, the Sun Emperor collapses from a death curse.

Raised away from the Sun Court after her mother’s murder, Jin is called a useless goddess, but she is now the emperor’s only hope. The curse’s cure is locked in the Underworld, and even though the court dismisses him as a hopeless alcoholic, Xiao vows to help his betrothed find the lost key.

They hire a thief who is more interested in stealing the groom than recovering the key, and begin their search at the legendary grave of the Great Warrior – only it turns out he never died. Tens of millennia old, he is a master of everything but his own heart.

Their journey takes them from the icy peaks of the White Mountain and the lush banks of the Kuanbai River to the palace of the Sea Dragon and the halls of the Moon Deer, through court intrigue and bloody battles, power struggles and magical traps. Heaven, Earth, and the Underworld will forever celebrate their triumphs – and mourn their mistakes.

This is an indie novel that really deserves all the hype of a traditionally published piece of work. Pawlicki takes us all over the fictional world, into various palaces and homes of the immortals from the Heavens to the Underworld, on a quest to save a despicable ruler, through two love stories and complicated friendships, as well as on a journey of self-discovery than can only be achieved through learning the truth about the past.

The Worldbuilding is richly described, with colorful palaces and equally colorful immortals. Quite literally because the most powerful gods are colors. We learn the physical lay of the land, the fauna, weather, food, music, and many local and court customs that help flesh out the world. It was definitely a little overwhelming at times but there are diagrams to help remember what is where and who is who.

The Characters: The characters are very much part of the world, as Pawlicki realizes and brings to life a full pantheon of Gods and Goddesses, deities, and immortal beings. There are four main characters who each have their own major flaws to work through, and it is a joy to watch them interact and learn how to work together. The banter is pretty entertaining at times, and other times quite serious. The thief, the warrior, the beauty, and…. well I guess the alcoholic, but he’s really a giant cinnamon roll and pretty powerful in his own right.

I did get absolutely lost in the characters at times though, like without the diagram I would have been lost. This is where I docked a star – I love all four of the main characters but it was kind of hard to figure out who else was going to be important and who to pay attention to. The author absolutely did a stunning job bringing so many characters to life though.

The Magic: Is based on colors, and what colors or essences will respond to each deity. This is pretty cool because it creates a lot of Earth-based magic, building, and transformative abilities which were cool too. There is also darker and shadow magic which I imagine we will see a lot more of in book two.

Themes: I touched on themes up top, but the main one seemed to be realizing your own self value and embracing who you are. Each character had to learn what they were capable of, and even the most accomplished ones still had lots of learning to do. I also docked some points for a recurring ongoing of sexual repression vs expression, and I get it since Xiao was the god of pleasure but don’t really come to fantasy for that discussion. I believe, as well as because of the ages of the characters, that this is why the book was targeted for adult readers. There are also themes of found family, family ties, sacrifice, justice, betrayal, civil war, and everything else you would expect from bickering Gods and Goddesses that are full of personality.

Overall: I definitely recommend this one for anyone interested in mythology, fantasy, asian themes, and anyone that loves a gorgeous cover. Thanks again to By the Book VBP and the author for my copy, all opinions are my own!