Holy pancakes! This second installment to the Darkest Drae Series by Raye Wagner & Kelly St. Clare was just classic; funny, endearing, action packed and slightly disturbing.

Cannibalism anyone?

I will never be controlled again.

A manipulative dragon shifter. A sexy phaetyn prince. Me? I shouldn’t even exist.

With peace established in Verald, I should be free; Lord Tyrrik is liberated from his blood oath, after all. But the freedom in Verald is an illusion. If I remain, destruction will surely follow.

As soon as I come into my powers, the blood-thirsty emperor of Draecon will know. Even now, he is hunting me.

When a Phaetyn prince arrives promising safety, the solution seems perfect. A little too perfect. But is the objective of our group security or something more? Because everyone is telling me what my goals should be.

Who do you trust when everyone has lied to you?

Should I listen with my head – or my heart?

I might not get a choice.

Goodreads

Author/s: Raye Wagner and Kelly St. Claire

Published Date: 8th February 2018

Genre: YA // Fantasy

Pages: 346 pages

With Verald now a city of peace after the happenings in Blood Oath, loveable Ryn returns to a life of normalcy working at the tavern and pretending her mother hadn’t stabbed herself, her best friend wasn’t beheaded and that Ty and Tyr actually existed, and weren’t just fake personas of the Drae who broke her heart.

Said Drae, Tyrrick broods in a corner after digging himself into a huge secrecy manipulative hole in the first book, and doesn’t put very much effort into winning her back at the beginning of the book since all his efforts are wasted on Ryn since she’s such a stubborn so and so. I love him. He’s completely justified in his protectiveness over Ryn, now that the dragons outta the bag (har har..) about Ryn being a Drae herself!

Correction. A Drae-Phaetyn! I would have liked to learn  more about the hows of this, but perhaps in Book 3 it will be explained more.

Then the tavern gets squished by the dark and handsome Drae + it’s about time that Ryn gets over her denial and continues the adventure – to learn more of her Phaetyn powers, turn into a dragon and ultimately gain allies to destroy the cruel Emperor Draedyn.

“Holy pancakes,” I murmured. I was standing between two huge, onyx-scaled Drae legs.

“Holy pancakes,” I repeated, edging out.

“Please don’t squish me. The community will be devastated.”

We follow her, Tyrrick and Dyter alongside the newly met & incredibly charming – too charming? – Kamoi, Prince of the Phaetyn as they journey to the Zivost Forest where the remaining Phaetyn hide under a barrier that protects them from the evils of the world, being selfish & not helping any of the starving people of the Draeconian Realm.

On the way, Ryn finally becomes the beautiful dragon shifter we knew she would be & hilariously becomes obsessed & protective over all things shiny and gem-like, as dragons are want to do. Honestly, these parts of the book were truly my absolute favourite parts and I sincerely hope in the third book we finally get to see the extent of Tyrrick’s horde of treasure that he’s so casually been saving just for her!

“So shiny. This was my greatest treasure. I’d put it in a great spot. The thought halted me. No, it had to go in a secret spot, somewhere no one would find it. My eyes slid to Tyrrick. Would he try to steal it back? I’d need to be careful. No one stole my horde.”

Tyrrick, this fantastic beast of a Drae finally owns up to his feelings about Ryn and their budding relationship is rocky until Tyrrick gets horribly wounded (terrifying moment! near destroyed my heart!) and Ryn finally finally gets over his deemed betrayal, which I could understand for a short while but seriously, I just wanted this love to finally be free! Which it does, with a steamy kiss at the closing of the book.

As expected, the world building continues gloriously in Shadow Wings, with the introduction of the Zivost Forest and its’ inhabitants, although the Phaetyn are also a people divided & everyone seems to have secrets upon secrets + the aforementioned village that’s gone hunger-crazed and decided it’s perfectly acceptable to eat their women so all in all, this book was dark and brutal but not filled to the brim with torture, which was a nice change of pace.

Shadow Wingsis definitely a must read and a great second book in the Darkest Drae Series; full of love, anguish, blood, secrecy and humour but not in that order.

Have you read this one? Love it or hate it?

You’re more than welcome to check out my book review for Blood Oath, the first book in the Darkest Drae Series here.