Radiant Shadows - Becca In A Book

Summary

In the fourth installment of the Wicked Lovely series, everything is left unsettled from the last book and no one is happy. This book focuses on the side characters Ani and Devlin. Ani is half-human and half-faery struggling to learn her role in the Dark Court. Devlin is the muscle of the High Court who is also struggling between the wants of his two creators. What will happen when they meet for the second time?

My Thoughts

This installment of the Wicked Lovely series was a refreshing distraction from the heartbreaking situation readers were left in from the last book. I like getting to know these side characters that I didn’t really think about before.

I just adore Ani. I thought she was an extremely interesting character that added a softer side to the Dark Court that we haven’t really seen. Ani has joined the Dark Court as a Hound, but she doesn’t know her true place. She also is half-human so a lot of the characters don’t take her seriously or they think she is too weak. The fact that she is half-human also gives her the potential to save the Dark Court from their problems left from the second installment. I really liked getting to know her and getting to know the Hounds through her.

Devlin was also a great character. He has such an eternal struggle with trying to be good for his sister/creator, the queen of the High Court and to please his other sister/creator Bananargh. He also wants Ani and to be his own person so I felt that pull through him and I felt so bad for him. He was not what I was expecting when he was first introduced, but he had such a sweet soul that deeply contrasted with his tough guy exterior. I didn’t understand his dynamic with the sisters though or how he was created so I was a little confused about that.

Rae was a weird move on the author’s part. I didn’t understand her role in the novel and I thought she wasn’t necessary. I understand that she was a dreamwalker and she had the ability to connect Ani and Devlin through their dreams, but I didn’t understand her relationship with Devlin or with Ani. In the beginning I thought Rae and Devlin were like brother and sister; however, they changed at the very end and I was so confused. Why did Devlin decide to have a relationship with Ani when he already was with Rae? So I vote for Rae to be removed from the story.

Sorcha also is sooooooo annoying. I cannot handle her selfishness and how she is desperate for Seth. Her weird fascination with him is so gross and I just thought it wasn’t love, it was obsession. I also thought that she treated Devlin extremely poorly and she was a terrible queen. I am so happy Devlin stood up to his power hungry sister and I was clapping when he did it!

I enjoyed the relationship between Ani and Devlin. They complement each other in a lot of ways and I was happy when they got together, but I wish the plot was a little more complete. I thought there wasn’t enough time for their relationship to truly develop and it was kind of disappointing. He all of the sudden is obsessed with her and she is intrigued by him. I had to read back to try to find out when exactly that happened, but there was nothing to answer my questions.

Ani’s dreams were also really interesting and added an interesting element to the overall plot. I loved the fact that her dreams basically came to life and formed their new court, but again, not a lot of explanation. I also really liked Ani’s steed, Barry, and found the steeds such a cool part of the faery world that we didn’t get to see before. I would love to have one for myself! Imagine your car changing into whatever car you want! So genius and such an escape of true fantasy.

I did like the book, but I thought it was missing a lot of information and character development between the relationships. The ending was an interesting twist and I can’t wait to see how it will affect the last installment of the series.