I’ve been waiting to read the next installment in the Realms of the Blood by Anne Bishop since I finished the last book, The Shadow Queen.
We’re returning to Anne Bishop’s compelling fantasy realms where the Blood rule. Queens are the hearts of the land and the caretakers of the people. Warlord Princes are the passionately violent and violently passionate guardians of the women in their lives. Warlords, Black Widow witches, Priestesses and other castes balance out this societal hierarchy in a detailed and complex structure.
Somehow Anne Bishop makes this world and all its complexity fascinating, enchanting and a touch erotic. There’s no tedium of details, no skimming of pages to get to the next major plot point. Oh no, when I read her work, I drink in every word and love every minute of it.
There’s some great continuation here of Cassidy and Gray’s story together. But a lot of this is written from Ranon’s point of view, and I really got to like him as a key character. Theran, and his behavior towards Cassidy as well as his decision to turn to someone else, reminded me a lot of my ex-husband. In fact, odd as it seemed, in the darkest parts of my depression over the last couple of days, this book helped me climb up out of it.
Besides, Anne Bishop has some very important characters in her books about the Blood. In her world, there are Scelties; and in my house, there is a Sheltie. Same pronunciation, same little brown and white dog.
I do have signed copies of Anne Bishop’s books and I hope to meet her someday. You never know, it might happen. In the meantime, I’m just very happy that she loves Scelties too.
