Lord of the Wolfyn by Jessica Anderson – Review
Publication date: 18 October 2011 by Harlequin Nocturne
ISBN 10/13: 0373618700 | 9780373618705
Category: Adult Paranormal Romance
Keywords: Paranormal, romance, vampires, weres, revenge
Format: Mass market paperback, eBook (e-ARC received from Netgalley for review)
Lord of the Wolfyn is the third book in the Royal Book of Shadows series and continues with the sage of the heirs of the royal family of Elden and their quest to find vengeance for their family and save their kingdom from the evil Blood sorcerer. Dayn, the second prince of Elden, finds himself in the Wolfyn realm after he’s cast from his home by his parents’ warped deathbed spell. The Woflyn realm is a realm with both magic and technology, with features of both the human realm and the kingdom realm. There, Dayn learns to live with the wolfyn (werewolves to us humans) and wait for the guide that his father said would lead him back to Elden to defeat the Blood Sorcerer.
Meanwhile, former cop Reda is recovering from a robbery that left her partner dead. With shattered self confidence, Reda is trying to put together the pieces of her life when she is drawn to a fairy tale book from her childhood that was lost a long time ago. The book brings her face to face with her greatest fear as well as her greatest desire. Chanting an old spell, Reda is transported to the wolfyn realm and to Dayn, the woodsman from her book. Now Reda must find the strength to accept her fate and lead Dayn back to Elden to reclaim his birthright.
Thuy’s review:
Lord of the Wolfyn is another fun installment in the Royal Book of Shadows series. While this wasn’t my favorite book in the series, I enjoyed Jessica Anderson’s writing and had a hard time putting it down. Like the other books in the series, Lord of the Wolfyn is a retelling of a classic fairy tale. This one is based on Red Riding Hood and is probably the most literal, as the fairy tale book actually plays in role in the plot. The book is what draws Reda into the wolfyn realm and foretells her journey with Dayn.
Dayn is probably the least alpha of the males we’ve seen so far in this series. That’s not a bad thing – it’s actually kind of refreshing. There’s a lot of chest beating in romance novels and it is nice to have a hero who doesn’t say “mine” all the time and proclaim eternal love after five minutes (not that there’s anything wrong with that). After the trauma of her partner’s death, Reda has become very withdrawn and unsure of herself. Dayn is very careful of her feelings and tries to protect her. However, he’s torn between his obligation to his family and his feelings for Reda. This leads him to do a lot of back and forth with pushing her away for her own good and the good of his mission but also clinging to her because he loves her. It gets a little frustrating because he can’t seem to make up his mind.
Unfortunately I didn’t care much for Reda. She seems to be very emotionally unstable at the beginning of the book. I do feel for her. She blames herself for her partner’s death and hasn’t been able to forgive herself. When she meets Dayn, she convinces herself that she’s in a dream and goes along with it trying to wake herself up. Once she figures out it’s not a dream she has to deal this weird fixation and fear she has of being brainwashed. She’s very wary of the wolfyn because, in her book, they are portrayed as being able to enthrall women to do their sexual bidding. When she finds out that Dayn can become one of them, she freaks out and accuses him of entrancing her. She second guesses her own feelings and assumes the worst about every situation. She does eventually herself together becomes a pretty badass warrior, but it takes her awhile to get there.
I thought the back story about Reda’s mother was really interesting but, unfortunately, the story doesn’t delve too far into what happened to her. I am not sure if we’ll come back to it but I hope we do. Since this is the last book before the end of the series, there’s a lot of buildup in this one and it ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. The time difference is as confusing as ever and I have no idea where Dayn’s timeline is in comparison to his siblings. Perhaps I should make a chart.
This is my first Jessica Anderson book and I liked her writing style. The story was fast paced and flowed nicely. And even though I didn’t fall in love with the characters I was thoroughly sucked into the story. This has been a fun series so far just because it’s introduced me to several new authors. The next book is the one I’ve been waiting for, though, because I love Nalini Singh. I am excited to see how this series wraps up!
Visit the author online at www.jessicaandersen.com or visit the website for Royal House of Shadows here.