Book Review | Shadow Sun by Lani Lenore

Shadow Sun by Lani Lenore
Published:  November 3, 2015
Format: Kindle eReader
Synopsis from Goodreads: The final book in the Nevermor trilogy, a dark fantasy based on the legend of Peter Pan.

As it began, so shall it end.

Time has passed since the Rifter went into the sun, and while Wren has missed him terribly, she does not doubt that he will come back. She has tried to shadow her grief as she travels across Nevermor with what is left of the Wolf Pack, attempting to heal the land and restore it to its former state. But that task is made more difficult by plummeting temperatures, and the fact that the sun seems to be slipping farther away.

When a different sort of darkness comes over the land, Wren discovers that not only may she be looking to preserve the world for Rifter’s return, but she may have to save it from him as well.

Shadow Sun is the epic finale to the Nevermor trilogy, a dark fantasy based on Peter Pan.
My Rating:

First off, thank you time a hundred to Lani Lenore for providing me with an eARC of her book in exchange for an honest review. I feel like I've been waiting for this book for the longest time. Forsaken Dreamscape was one of the first books I reviewed after I started my blog so I was so excited to have gotten an early look as the final book!

 

Shadow Sun starts off where Forsaken Dreamscape ended - the demon has been killed and Rifter went into the sun. Wren and the Wolf Pack are going from place to place using Wren's powers to try to heal the land. Even though the healing seemed to be working at first, now it's barely staying through the night. Though Wren still has full belief in Rifter's return, the Pack is torn between love of their world and varying degrees of contempt for what Rifter has let it become. The beautiful Nevermor that the trilogy began with is no more. It's no longer a sanctuary for dreamers with fairies and mermaids and magic. The land has been corrupted and nightmares have taken over in the demon's wake. Nevermor is changing without the Rifter to guide it and it slowly becomes colder and colder. Meanwhile, though it's true that Rifter survived going into the sun, he has to piece together his memory of who is he and how he got there. But, without Whisper to protect him from the pain of his past, Rifter has to survive reliving it alone. 

 

The book is written in third person but it shifts view points a few times. Mostly, the writing follows Wren and is written from her perspective. Every few chapters follows Rifter as he travels through the Shadow Downs trying to regain his memory. Towards the middle of the book, every member of the Wolf Pack gets a couple of chapters that detail their particular emotions and how they're handling the changes in their world. Just as with any book that skips around with points of view, I was interested in some of them much more than the others. But the writing itself is so descriptive and engaging that even the parts that were less interesting were actually really interesting.

"The snow would not speak, content to cover her up and send her to death without a word."

Really, guys, that is a freaking beautiful sentence. Don't even try to argue against it. 

The plot and the writing and the world building were completely on point in this book just as they have been in the past two books. However, I felt like there was less focus on the characters this time around which is weird because practically every character got a chapter dedicated to them. One of the things I enjoyed most about the first two books is the way the characters interacted with each other. I remember Finn being hilariously charming and Toss being all kinds of adorable. In my review for Forsaken Dreamscape I mentioned that each character had a very distinct personality and the banter between them all was my favorite part. This time around, I feel like a little of that was lost in favor of everything that needed to happen to get to the conclusion. At the same time, given everything that had happened, it makes sense that they'd be a little less chatty - I just sort of missed that part.

Without getting spoilery, Wren and the Rifter were the characters that had the most character development. We got to learn Rifter's backstory before he came to Nevermor and it was heartbreaking. Like, oh man though - those feels. They were not okay. No wonder Whisper kept them from his all this time. Wren's development was the most surprising though. Though she still loves Rifter and still believes in him, she had to face what her world had become and learn to accept it. I also loved that she stopped being so much of a damsel in distress and learned to fight for herself.

Obviously as this is the final book, SOOO many things happened that were crazy but obviously spoilers. Don't click unless you've finished Shadow Sun:

- Oh my gosh... Wren can't have children? She's Wendy! The mother of the Lost Boys! Learning that was so sad and her jealousy and anger at Calico when she found out Calico was pregnant made it ever worse. Also, WREN HAS POWERS?! I had a feeling something like that was going to happen but for her to be able to control the land almost just as powerfully as Rifter could was maybe the coolest thing that happened.

- I'm not going to lie, I'm sort of confused about the thing that fell from the sky. What was it? It wasn't Rifter like they thought unless it was Rifter falling from the sun and into the Shadow Downs but I don't think that was it. 

- Rifter's memories... oh my gosh. We already knew that the Scourge was the Rifter's nightmare incarnated but to learn that the nightmare came from his horrible father who killed him was heartbreaking. Also, discovering that he believed he failed Wren just like he failed to save Cait from his father was horrible - especially since Wren was there beside him to watch it all with him but because she was a dream walker in the Shadow Downs, he couldn't see her. 

- Max comes back! All through the second book, I was wondering what became of Max after Wren said goodbye to him to be adopted. But he comes back and he's finally able to protect Wren the way he wanted to in the first book. After he saves Wren from the ghost of the fallen, I hope he continues to remember his sister and his life before being adopted.

- After Rifter pulled out his heart and returned to Nevermor to actually become the Scourge, I still believed Wren would be able to save him. I was really, really, really hoping Wren would be able to save him and they'd be able to have some kind of happy life together. Not the one Wren saw in the fountain, but something just happy together. But no because Lani Lenore stories always mess with my emotions! The ending though was really interesting. It was sort of like an it-was-all-a-dream kind of ending but at the same time it wasn't because Nevermor is made of dreams and is for dreamers so it was all still true but at the same time it hadn't happened yet.

Seriously, guys, if you haven't read anything yet by Lani Lenore, you have to check her out. She's a wonderful indie author. She's been around for a long time now as a writer on sites like FictionPress.com, FanFiction.net, and more recently Wattpad. She's come such a long way since I first read her writing on those sites. Many of her books are available to download or purchase in paperback. You can read more about her and her Nevermor trilogy on her blog, Project Nevermor.

"Every boy must grow up to be a man, but what sort he will become is not entirely up to him."