Synopsis:

After the events of the Lunar Eclipse, Tory and Darcy must learn to deal with the darkness which shadows their lives.

With a secret binding them to Darius and Orion, they must find a way to all work together for the greater good. But some things are easier said than done…

Review:

After enjoying the last instalment I was really excited to move onto Shadow Princess. This excitement seemed to ebb and flow throughout the book. At times I found myself having to push to get through and then other I found myself in anticipation for what would happen next. 

My expectations after the third instalment were pretty high and although the writing is a bit better (more on that later in my review) there were still times where I struggled with the cringe that seems to be a predominant part of this series. 

I didn’t realise Orion was 26 I thought he was like 20 or something as other characters keep pointing out how young he is to be teaching at the Academy. Then again that would probably mean he’s still studying as I think (I might be wrong) they are there for four years.  I understand that they are both consenting adults but it’s still a bit gross. It’s the student teacher relationship that’s making it so uncomfortable to me. 

The writing would be so much better if it wasn’t trying to appeal to a younger teen audience. No one actually says hashtag out loud and also some of the phrases were things I would have said when I was 13 or maybe even younger. I thought in the last book the writing was much stronger and yes it is better than the first but sadly this instalment took a dip in quality for me. 

I feel like a lot of this book was filler content. So many scenarios were dragged out for way longer than needed, Max pining over Geraldine for example. What I wanted most from this was to see the twins master their magic and order forms but that never really happens. They do get to grips with their orders more but I don’t want to spoil too much on that front. 

What annoyed me most about Shadow Princess was that the threat of the nymphs was added more of a “oh yeah that was happening before wasn’t it” type of situation. They posed a real threat in book two and kind of in book three but they were hardly mentioned at all this time. 

Don’t get me wrong I am enjoying the Zodiac Academy series, I wouldn’t be reading it still if I didn’t but I’d I wish it didn’t try to appeal to a younger audience so much. Especially as it does include a lot of scenes with mature content. When it comes to these scenes the writing is more mature and when certain characters are expressing their feelings for each other the dialogue is actually very poetic and beautiful. It’s just a shame that this doesn’t happen with the rest of the book. 

I will of course be continuing with the series as I am honestly pretty hooked now. Even though he isn’t a good person I really am rooting for Darius and Tory, there’s so much passion there that it’s hard not to really.

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