Blood Burdens by Brandy Nacole

By: Anonymous on Monday, April 29, 2013

Title:  Blood Burdens

Author:  Brandy Nacole

Series:  The Shadow World #2

Published:  December 18th 2012

Page Count:  180

Genre:  Young Adult Paranormal

Shelf:  Review Copy

Rating:  ★★★★★

Synopsis from Goodreads:

As someone with four Shadow bloodlines, Racquel is uniquely unwelcome even among her fellow werewolves, shape-shifters, vampires, and witches. Growing up, she was bullied and tormented for being a “hybrid,” a condition frowned upon by Shadow society. After saving her sister and a number of other kidnapped Shadows from a diabolical plot to create a Shadow army, many have found a new respect for Racquel, but she is far from accepted in Shadow society, and the evil is far from over.

To complicate matters, Racquel now finds herself torn between two brothers. Coy is caring and has helped Racquel through her struggles, and Micah, who Racquel has only met once but who is somehow, having dream conversations with him. Racquel becomes torn between following her heart while breaking it at the same time.

In the second installment of the Shadow World series, Racquel and her sister Addie face off with the Shadow leaders against a threat that could bring the world to its knees. Power will be pushed to its limit, hearts will be broken, and some will pay the ultimate price as Racquel and her group of Shadows fight against an ancient evil that is determined to make the earth bleed and Racquel with it.

My Review:

With this installment in her series, Nacole goes further in depth with the histories of each of the races that make their way into her phenomenal story. The mythologies behind each of their belief systems are also thoroughly developed. One thing that I really appreciate about this novel (and the series so far) is that although Nacole walks the standard path with her supernatural creatures and their behaviors, etc. she gives everything just a little bit of a twist to make them her own.

Nacole continues writing in the 1st person, present tense with this novel. The congruency in the writing style makes for a smooth and easy transition between the two novels. It also continues the feeling of urgency that is prevalent throughout this novel. Not only that, but you find yourself immersed in the main character’s feelings with much more understanding of them than you would typically have. It does leave some gaps in the storyline as we can only be with the main character who is telling us the story, but Nacole does a brilliant job of remedying this. We get filled in on the missed action right along with the main character. It allows Nacole to remain fully in the 1st person without having to switch perspectives.

The characters in this novel are quite loveable. You want to see them succeed in all of their endeavours, be it the actual quest that makes up the bulk of the storyline or the smaller (but still) large problems that they encounter personally throughout their journeys. They become even more fully developed throughout this novel, allowing us a deeper look into their histories and a peek into their possible futures. Nacole also introduces us to some new characters in this novel. Because the cast was so well developed in the first installment she has much more leeway for development of these new characters without sacrificing those we’ve already come to love.

On the whole this was a brilliant sequel to Uniquely Unwelcome. Nacole draws you further and further into this world until you don’t want to let go. Luckily we don’t have to. Although this novel has a very solid ending, that does just that, end the story, it is also a new beginning.

Buy your copy online here today!