Quite some time ago, I received an audio code for a copy of Sloane Murphy‘s The Shadow Queen (narrated by Jeannie Sheneman). Unfortunately, I started a university program shortly after that and ended up with very little time to listen to audiobooks. So, it’s been sitting in the cloud since then. I finally got to listen to it.
Once upon a time, there was a princess who lived amongst the shadows and monsters…
Pampered and coddled, Morganna didn’t know any different, until her father took the person who mattered most away from her.
The brutal lesson taught her the truth. Nothing in her world is given. If you want it, you have to take it.
What she wants now is revenge and she will take the thing that matters most to her father.
She will claim The Shadow Realm… and it will be hers.
Meh, I thought this was mediocre, but it basically skirts by as fine. I have no desire to continue the series, but I didn’t dislike the book enough to DNF. So…I guess it is what it is. It felt like it was written with a lot of tropes, but not much of an apparent plot until right at the end.
The reader barely gets to know anyone. The character descriptions are very shallow. This is made worse by the fact that just about the time you get used to one mate, he gets left behind while the FMC goes off with the next. It felt abrupt and a bit like a betrayal. And I did not find the pseudo-noncon humiliation kink/trope to be a positive replacement. I could have done without that entirely. I suppose that leaves room for character development and growth on the part of mate number two. But since I won’t be around for it, the whole thing just left a bitter taste.
I found the descriptions of the FMC really inconsistent. She’ll threaten to kick someone’s ass, but she’s so weak and untrained. She talks like such a badass, but she’s so sheltered and untried. She’s so powerful, but completely unaware of what she’s capable of, and is chronically underestimated. She’s a princess, but not like other royals or girls. (She actually uses the phrase “I’m not like other girls” about herself, even.) This last one begs the question: if she’s raised in the same environment as everyone else, how did she and her brother miraculously turn out to be different?
Lastly, let’s talk about the “Fucks.” Look, I curse like a sailor and fully understand that a well-placed “fuck” can be very effective. So, I am not being prudish when I say this. But the word is 
used far, far, far too frequently in this book. It is so often unnecessary in the sentence that it clutters the dialogue, and, worse, makes all the characters sound the same because they all sprinkle it liberally in their speech in precisely the same way. Eventually, it just started to grate on my nerves.
Look, I’m not saying this was a bad book. It’s readable, and the narrator did a fine job. But I am saying it didn’t do anything for me. I just got to the end and was annoyed with it.
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