Shadowbound

Shattering of the Nocturnai, Book 2

By: Carrie Summers

Narrated by: Khristine Hvam

Survivor. Sorceress. Rebel.

After the disastrous expedition to the island volcano, Ioene, Lilik is home with a warning. The malevolent tyrant, Mieshk Ulstat, is gathering devastating magical power. Unchecked, Mieshk will obliterate Kiriilti civilization. But when the ruling Trader Council refuses to heed her, Lilik turns to her own kind: the gutterborn.

As Lilik rallies rebels from the slums, she delves into her abilities as a soul priestess through contact with a nightforged dagger. Tyrak, the soul imprisoned within the blade, mistakes Lilik for his love from centuries past. Through their complicated bond, she learns the arts of swordplay and leadership. But when a surprise attack comes from a rogue trader House, she learns the hard truth of war: no plan survives first contact with the enemy.

Warships lay siege to the city. Traders and gutterborn clash in the streets. And with each passing day, the true enemy just grows stronger.

©2017 Carrie Summers (P)2017 Podium Publishing

Simply fantastic

Pulls you in further and further with every word. I love it.

Discovered it because I love the narrator. I took a chance on the author and it paid off big. Story is exceptional and characters are extremely interesting and 4 dimensional.

Great job.

Being gutterborn doesn’t hold Lilik down, she will be heard!

The voice was a bit weird for me at first but after a bit it became pleasant. I love that the narrator has made an effort to give each character an unique voice, be it the tone of voice or a little accent. That makes it easier to follow, and pleasant. Simply put, I love the work of the narrator and will definitely enjoy other audiobooks by read by her.

About the story itself:
I was so sure this book would begin with rallying up some people in Istanik and the troops would set to Ioene and the story would develop there.
In truth, rallying up some people is a hard thing to do, especially if you’re not a Trader but gutterborn like Lilik and even more so when only a small group of people have made it off Ioene without proof of what happened over there.

In this book we experience the struggle for Lilik to be heard by the Trader Counsil, an important feat because that counsil desides whether or not there will be a need for a journey back to Ioene, since Traders control the ships and all.

So Lilik has a big task ahead of her. In the meantime she has to get used to being a celebrity amongst the gutterborn but in the end, she gets to mold that fact to her advantage.

The title makes so much sense after reading a particular part about Lilik noticing a Nightwoven Blade. Through that blade we can understand a bit more what is means for a spirit to be trapped inside an item and what it means to handle a nightwoven blade. I won’t say more so I won’t spoiler anyting but that Shadowbound thing is a great addition to the story.

I loved every second of this book. The only thing I hate was that I had to put it down for month because of a health issue that rendered me unable to read for way too many months. This isn’t the lightest read out there (and therefor I was forced to stop reading this story for way too long because my mind wouldn’t process what I was reading through the pain) but it has become one of my all time favorite epic fantasy stories. These series need to be see, and heard more because Carrie writes some great stories! (Read The Broken Lands first, recommend both these series with a passion)

Dragging on.

The first book was ok. This one just dragging on and on in the end. And the whole love triangle / square thing going on seems really unimaginative and childish.