Review: Beyond the Shadows by Jess Granger

Published Date: May 4th, 2010
Finished Date: June 10th, 2011
Publishers: Berkeley Trade
Format: Paperback
Pages: 320
Series: Realms Beyond

Blurb from Goodreads: Commander Yara must return home quickly and claim the Azralen throne to prevent war, but the only ship available belongs to the rebel Cyn, an Earthlen trader with no regard for authority- especially hers. Manipulating Yara onto his ship, Cyn has to keep her from Azra long enough to ignite the revolution. But when he awakens a vibrant and feeling woman beneath that icy exterior, he gets more than he bargained for: love. ---------------------------------------------------------------------

My Review: In a world where the female population ruled,

Yara was all set and ready to ascend the throne. Cyn has gathered and amassed an entire nation ready to rebel against the Grand Sister, the Matriach, and the Elite.

When Cyn "kidnaps" Yara, she was forced to see the ugly side of her beloved Azra; Being sold to the flesh traders and all that. And when it was time to choose sides, she chose him, and conveniently for the greater good of Azra.

Yara's journey towards the great realization that not every part of Azra was ruled as justly and orderly as she was taught in Training was fraught with a lot of doubts, but there was the humor bits that leveled the seriousness. All those snark comments from the cold Yara was funny in a serious way, haha, if that even makes sense. She is a good fighter, and she lives up to her regal bloodline of Yarine the Just(if i remember her name correctly..which i dont think i did..oh well). But under all that, she is rather naive and soft(in a good way), which made her rely on Cyn a lot in the outside world(universe in this case) and ultimately falling in love with him in the end.

Cyn is a headstrong, INCREDIBLY witty, protective, selfless, heartwarming, loving, brainy man. He is awesome. He leads the rebellion like a true leader, he talks like a charmer, he loves so swoon-worthy-ly, and yeah the list goes on.

The Grand Sister(or the Grand Bitch, as Cyn calls her), was plenty wicked. I mean, this is one of those books where they portray the real ugliness of the baddies of humankind with less reservations. And her ending was WOO! COOL! READ THAT PART!! She had more than what..20 knives thrown into her!

The ending was kind of weird..but still very satisfactory. It ended without the war that seemed so inevitable. The final fight was wicked, i totally loved it. It lasted long enough for my violent side to be sated enough:)

Overall: The fighting bits were vivid, suspenseful and i totally fell in love with both of them when they fought. The lovey dovey part wasn't overly mushy and excessive.

.:THIS IS A BOOK TOTALLY WORTH READING:.

My Rating: