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."

Top Ten Tuesday #5: Top Ten Books I've Read This Year

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/meme created by The Broke and the Bookish.

Lists, lists, lists. Before I start listing, I want to apologize for not blogging a lot recently. I'm currently in the middle of redoing my room so my blogging space is an absolute mess and everything is everywhere. I can't think in this madness! But my new closet is put together and semi-organized now. I just need to clean... a lot. Enough about that though. I've only read 23 books so far this year which make me horribly behind on my 70 book challenge for the year. Most of them I've talked about in previous blogs and slightly less than half of them consisted of me marathoning through all the Percy Jackson books. But without, further ado:

Top Ten Books I've Read This Year

(in the order that I read them)

 

1. Champion by Marie Lu - This was my favorite of the Legend Trilogy. After Allegiant, I was kind of afraid that this would follow the same disappointing path but I was wrong. I really liked how this ended. I won't go into details because that would involve spoilers but I really liked it.

 

2. Skyraiders by Brandon Mull - I've never a Brandon Mull book before but I got this as an ARC from work so I figured I'd read it. Skyraiders is a middle grade book set in an alternate universe. It starts out with Cole and his friends going trick-or-treating. One of the houses they go to has completely set up a haunted house attraction. Once inside however, Cole's friends get kidnapped by slave collectors from another world and whisked into a portal. Cole, who only barely escaped getting taken himself, goes after them to a world called the Outskirts. The Outskirts is made up of five kingdoms all set within a realm somewhere between reality and imagination. It's up to Cole and a mysterious girl, Mira, to save his friends and find a way home - if that's even possible. I really liked the world building in this even though I thought it was a little on the lengthy side for no real reason.

 

3. Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu - I've definitely mentioned this book before but I really enjoyed it. It's the perfect mix of hope, melancholy, and childhood innocence.

 

4. Forsaken Dreamscape by Lani Lenore - Dark!Peter Pan! I love this trilogy. Lani Lenore needs to be a household name. She's an indie author who I've been following ever since she only did fanfiction. This is the second book in her original retelling of Peter Pan and it's amazing. I can't wait for the third to come out.

 

5. Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan - This is the book that hooked me into the Percy Jackson series. I was a little iffy about The Lightning Thief and The Sea of Monsters. Initially, I thought they were too kid-ish for me. It's a toss up between this one and The Last Olympian for my favorite of this series. Plus, Nico was introduced in this one. Cute little Nico.

 

6. The House of Hades by Rick Riordan - This book. This. Book. I just can't with the feels all over the place. Tartarus and Nico and Percabeth4Life! (Even though Percy is totally my fictional boyfriend.) Gah! October needs to be now just so I can know what happens next!

 

Out of curiosity, has anyone read the Carter Kane? I'm thinking of reading them but somehow I can't see them living up to Percy.

  

7. Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson - This has to be at least the third time I'm gushing about Tiger Lily here. Anderson's words are just so pretty. If this book were a painting, it would be in the Louvre.

 

8. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green - I have mixed feelings about this one but I truly did enjoy it. I thought it was a good story - not entirely worthy of the insane hype that it's caused - but good nonetheless.

 

9. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell - I want to hug this book. It's just so cute!

 

10. Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira - As much as this reminded me of Perks of Being a Wallflower, there were some seriously great quotes in here. I took pictures of my favorites before I actually just broke down and bought the book.  

 

 

That's it for now! Have you read any of these? What were your favorite books that you've read so far?

Forsaken Dreamscape Review

Forsaken Dreamscape by Lani Lenore

Published: February 11, 2014 

Synopsis: Four years have passed since Wren returned from Nevermor and so far Rifter has not come back for her. Believed to be a mad murderess, Wren has been locked away in an asylum for crimes she knows she is innocent of. The day comes when Rifter finally returns for her. However, Wren quickly learns that everything, including Rifter himself, has all changed because of the corruption that's befallen Nevermor. Wren sets out on a journey through the darkened lands to find the separated Wolf Pack and reunite them with their leader and save Nevermor. However, Wren discovers that nothing she trusted to be true is as it really seems.  

My rating: 5/5 stars

First off, before I get into this review, a slight bit of history first: I first discovered Lani Lenore's writing sometime around 2001 or 2002ish when her stories were posted on FanFiction.net and FictionPress. I had accounts on both that I'm sure are still there with all of the awful writing that I produced as a twelve year old. I'm pretty sure that it was Neverland: The Forsaken Dreamscape that first introduced me to Ms. Lenore's writing. As huge fan of all things Peter Pan, a dark fairytale version of the story that I love was insanely compelling and I was not disappointed. I went on to read everything I could from Ms. Lenore and even went out of my way to find and play American McGee's Alice so I could better understand her story, Behind Sanity. Years later when I found out Neverland was in the works to be rewritten and published as an original trilogy, I could not have been more excited both for a new Neverland story and for Lani Lenore as an author. She truly is an inspiration for all of us tiny aspiring authors out there.

It's been about a year since I read the first book in the Nevermor trilogy so going into this second part, my facts were a little fuzzy. But, that certainly did not stop me from thoroughly enjoying this second book. I had read this book in its original fan fiction form about two or three times already. However, after having already fallen in love with the way Lani Lenore formed each individual character coupled with the beautiful world she created in the first book, Forsaken Dreamscape suddenly took on much more depth than it had as simply a fan fiction of Peter Pan.

Nevermor was a land of beauty, adventure, and dreams in the first book and now, four years later, Wren returns to find it has become a darkened, corrupted place of nightmares. It's a place where she can't trust anyone not even Rifter for whom she still has strong feelings. Although this book is definitely a lot darker than the first book, there was so much excitement and thrill that it was hard to put down.

My favorite part of this book was the characters. A lot of books that I've read recently have characters that are similar to one and other and don't have distinct voices. However, in Forsaken Dreamscape, each character has their own unique personality and voice that separates them from each other and I love how they interact together. Every character is fleshed out as individuals so well, each with their own story and agenda that by the time you've reached the end of the book, they've all poked their way one by one into your heart and settled in for the long run.

I really, truly cannot wait for the last book of the trilogy especially after that cliffhanger ending. In the meantime, I definitely intend on purchasing physical copies of both these books to add to my shelves (and reread a bunch of times). Why is 2015 so far away?!