Lord of Shadows (Heirs of Kilronan Trilogy, #2)

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Lord of Shadows (Heirs of Kilronan Trilogy #2)

by Alix Rickloff (Goodreads Author)

3.35 of 5 stars 3.35 · rating details · 37 ratings · 16 reviews

Rickloff delivers the second book in the Heirs of Kilronan series featuring characters from a mysterious Irish family with roots going back to King Arthur.

Who is working the demon arts...

Was it her murdered father? Her fugitive brother? It has been seven years since Lady Sabrina Douglas cloistered herself with the Sisters of High Danu, but the questions remain. She is Othe...more

Paperback, 377 pages

Published June 28th 2011 by Pocket Books

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Romance In Ireland & Irish Hero(in)es

225th out of 232 books — 35 voters

Historical Paranormal Romance

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Jul 15, 2012 Laura the Highland Hussy added it

Shelves: d-n-f

Wow, as you may have noticed, I didn't rate this book. As of now, it's maybe a 2 star book, but here, around the 100 page mark, I just can't force myself to finish it. And as I didn't make it to even a third of the way, I didn't want to rate it-although I can tell that it isn't for me.

I have DNF'd about 8 books total in the past 4 years. That's not very many for someone who read about 200 books last year. My point is just that I don't take a DNF lightly.

This book is a case of the editor needs to...more

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Jul 25, 2011 April rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-romance-ireland, paranormal

RATING:$>%)LORD OF SHADOWS by Alix Rickloff is an exciting historical romance with paranormal elements set in 1815 Ireland. It is Book 2 in "Heirs of Kilronan",but can be read as a stand alone. See Book 1 "Earl of Darkness". This is the story of the Douglas family,which where a mysterious Irish clan who can trace their roots back to King Arthur. "Lord of Shadows", is the story of Lady Sabrina Douglas and Daigh MacLir. Lady Sabrina has retreated to a sancturary to become a Sister of High Danu,...more RATING:$>%)LORD OF SHADOWS by Alix Rickloff is an exciting historical romance with paranormal elements set in 1815 Ireland. It is Book 2 in "Heirs of Kilronan",but can be read as a stand alone. See Book 1 "Earl of Darkness". This is the story of the Douglas family,which where a mysterious Irish clan who can trace their roots back to King Arthur. "Lord of Shadows", is the story of Lady Sabrina Douglas and Daigh MacLir. Lady Sabrina has retreated to a sancturary to become a Sister of High Danu,women devoted to the contemplative life of the underworld.She is also a healer,an Other,Which is a mixture of Fey and mortal. She is surrounded by questions of her murdered father and one brother who is a fugitive throught to be dead.Her eldest brother is the sexy Earl of Darkness.Sabrina encounters a mysterious man with a body full of scars,no memory of his past on the beach,Daigh MacLir. They are drawn to inexplicably drawn to each other. Daigh is filled with rage and inhuman abilities and senses Sabrina will be the one to save him. Sabrina is overwhelmed with images of a past life with Daigh.Together Daigh and Sabrina face danger,evil,and Sabrina learns that Daigh has tried to kill her family,and was summoned to find the ancient king.While darkness pulls Daigh,Sabrina draws him into the light.Sabrina's is not only Daigh's last hope,she is his heart and soul. While darkness draws them into danger,the power of love may be able to save them both. This is a powerful story of the power of love and the forces of good vs evil. A must read and a keeper. Lord of Shadows is sure to draw any paranormal,historical,mysteries of life and romance readers. With a touch of suspense,mystery,romance,sweet sensuality,darkness,tortured soul,and the power of love who can resist this powerful story of the struggle between love and hate,light and darkness.This book was received for the purpose of review from the publisher.Details can be found at Pocket Books,an imprint of Simon &Schuster and My Book Addiction Reviews. (less)

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Jul 05, 2011 Nikki Brandyberry rated it 3 of 5 stars

Lord Of Shadows was a book I thought could have been so much more then what I was actually given. I enjoyed parts of it but felt there was less romance and more mystery then what would normally be considered a paranormal romance. The parts where Daigh and Sabrina are together I enjoyed. I thought them as a couple really worked and the interactions between them were really good. It was everything else that had me puzzled. First I couldn’t even begin to pronounce the names of everything in this bo...more

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Sep 08, 2011 Kristina rated it 2 of 5 stars

I don't know...i have a hard time with books that are set so far back in time. i'm not sure if it's because of the wording or just that i can't ever seem to immerse myself in the world since it is past not future. maybe i'm closed minded who knows...
Sabrina is a dynamic character. She is full of inner turmoil and doubt. She wants to get over her past but she just can't seem to do it. Enter Daigh(not his real name though)....He is just as confused as Sabrina and they set off on their own journey...more

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Jul 13, 2011 WildAboutBones rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read4bbpr-review

This second novel in the Heirs of Kilronan Trilogy is a wonderful paranormal romance with a good story line that combines magic, fey/human halflings, the fey, an interesting twist on the zombie theme and the legend of High King Arthur.

It was also a terribly hard book for me to read. Why? First, Rickloff has created a world that has a lot of terminology that is not explained until later in the story — in many cases, not for 30 or 90+ pages later. A quick solution would have been to provide a glo...more This second novel in the Heirs of Kilronan Trilogy is a wonderful paranormal romance with a good story line that combines magic, fey/human halflings, the fey, an interesting twist on the zombie theme and the legend of High King Arthur.

It was also a terribly hard book for me to read. Why? First, Rickloff has created a world that has a lot of terminology that is not explained until later in the story — in many cases, not for 30 or 90+ pages later. A quick solution would have been to provide a glossary at the beginning of the story a la Kresley Cole with her Immortals After Dark series and many other authors. Perhaps had I read the first book in the series, I would have known the terms but since this book successfully reads as a stand alone, one would not necessarily know there was a prequel to this book.

Secondly, the author's writing style is a little different in that much of the book is full of descriptive sentence fragments. It makes for a somewhat choppy read. And there is a small scene on page 21 which I feel should have been placed on page 17 before the reader's introduction to the main villain instead of afterwards.

However, the sexual chemistry between the male and female lead characters nearly jumps off the page. Since the virgin has to seduce the male lead into taking the action they both long for, there aren't many actual sex scenes but lots of steamy near misses as he falls back on his conscience. There are a couple of scenes where one of the male villains attempts to sexually assault the male lead and forces kisses on him. There is also a scene where it is so vaguely implied that this same villain actually succeeds in the sexual assault while the male lead is unconscious but I'm not exactly sure if this is what the scene was about or not.

Rickloff does a very good job of making this a historical piece which highlights the slang, mode of dress and transportation as well as the treatment of females in 16th century Ireland without the history overshadowing the story and/or the characters.

So even though it took me about a quarter of the book, approximately 100 pages, to get into the story and I struggled a little with the writing style, I still thoroughly enjoyed the plot and the characters. I do recommend this to paranormal romance, historical romance and urban fantasy fans who aren't afraid of a reading challenge for the reward of a good story.

Warning Spoiler Alert!!!
It does have a HEA ending.
(less)

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Aug 21, 2011 Pat rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: romance, i-am-so-glad-that-is-over, adult, paranormal, series

Nice cover, great synopsis and I was excited when I won it as part of a goodreads giveaway. But so not a book I'm proud to have in my library. That's really unfortunate because there's an intriguing & mysterious conspiracy wrapped inside this psuedo romance novel. Although this was marked as a romance I felt there was more mystery and more paranormal elements than romance. Actually there are probably multiple mysteries - one being how did the plot get so mired? The basics of English Composit...more

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Sep 14, 2012 Nathalia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads, favorites

I won this book through a Goodreads giveaway.

At first I was a bit hesitant to begin reading due to the amount of negative reviews. However, after reading the first page, I just couldn't put the book down. If you like Paranormal Romance that focuses more on romance than plot, then this book isn't for you. It's very rare to find a Paranormal Romance book that actually takes its time to develop a strong story with strong characterization; the author used enough romance to successfully balance the t...more

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Aug 28, 2011 Kat rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical, paranormal, review, romance, read-2011

My review cross-posted from Joyfully Reviewed: http://www.joyfullyreviewed.com/new-r...

Part Fey, part human, Lady Sabrina Douglas is Other and has never really known what it is to belong. The closest she’s gotten has been in the seven years since her father’s murder that she has spent cloistered among the Sisters of the High Danu. She finds contentment in using her powers to heal, but that calm is shattered when she heals a man who was discovered half-drowned. Daigh MacLir doesn’t know who he is...more My review cross-posted from Joyfully Reviewed: http://www.joyfullyreviewed.com/new-r...

Part Fey, part human, Lady Sabrina Douglas is Other and has never really known what it is to belong. The closest she’s gotten has been in the seven years since her father’s murder that she has spent cloistered among the Sisters of the High Danu. She finds contentment in using her powers to heal, but that calm is shattered when she heals a man who was discovered half-drowned. Daigh MacLir doesn’t know who he is or where he came from, but his body is a veritable map of scars that indicate a life not easily lived. As bits and pieces of his past begin to come back to Daigh, Sabrina finds herself drawn into a dangerous situation that makes her question her judgment in falling for Daigh. Will the truth of Daigh’s past reclaim him with a vengeance that will crush any chance he and Sabrina have of a future?

Murder and magic go hand-in-hand in Lord of Shadows, the second book in Alix Rickloff’s Heirs of Kilronan trilogy. Lord of Shadows picks up where the first book, Earl of Darkness, leaves off, so it’s probably best that the trilogy is read in order. It’s now Sabrina Douglas’s turn to be thrust into the middle of a good-versus-evil battle her brother and an evil Other started. I won’t detail the plot, as the twists and turns of Earl of Darkness and Lord of Shadows are what make the books interesting. Suffice it to say that the paranormal world of nineteenth century Ireland Ms. Rickloff has created is fascinating in its detail.

Daigh is a hero that is sure to capture readers’ interest. The torment he has survived tugged on my heartstrings and the way he strives to become a better man absolutely won me over. Ms. Rickloff created a winner of a hero with Daigh. Where Lord of Shadows primarily fell short was, for me, with its heroine. For the majority of the story, Sabrina seems to simply be along for the ride rather than a useful component to the overarching storyline of the Heirs of Kilronan trilogy. Perhaps Ms. Rickloff spoiled me with Cat, the heroine of Earl of Darkness, but I expected Sabrina to be unique. She isn’t, not particularly, which is a disappointment since many of the characters in the series are. But my biggest issue with Sabrina stemmed from her almost arbitrary worship of one of her brothers, Brendan, which was matched only by her distrust of her eldest brother, Aidan. Being that Ms. Rickloff made me fall in love with Aidan in Earl of Darkness (where he was the hero), Sabrina’s snotty attitude toward him was hard to swallow and only served to highlight her immaturity in other areas.

As I previously mentioned, the Heirs of Kilronan trilogy is best read in order, beginning with Earl of Darkness. Though I did enjoy Lord of Shadows, it does suffer from feeling like a bridge book. All the same, the advancement of the overall plot left me satisfied, Daigh was a wonderful hero, and Ms. Rickloff has me on tenterhooks for the final book, Heir of Danger.(less)

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Jul 06, 2011 Crystal ♥ RBtWBC rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: request-publisher

3.5 Stars

In a regency world where others are ostracized and the Fae have fled this realm spurning their magical offspring, an evil force has plans to raise the dead and take back the world for the others.
Daigh MacLir, named by the High Priestess of Danu, washes ashore with no recollections of who he is or how he got there. When he awakes though to the beautiful Lady Sabrina Douglas administrations, he knows he has met her before and feels an instant connection with her. With her help maybe he ca...more 3.5 Stars

In a regency world where others are ostracized and the Fae have fled this realm spurning their magical offspring, an evil force has plans to raise the dead and take back the world for the others.
Daigh MacLir, named by the High Priestess of Danu, washes ashore with no recollections of who he is or how he got there. When he awakes though to the beautiful Lady Sabrina Douglas administrations, he knows he has met her before and feels an instant connection with her. With her help maybe he can find the key to his past and the reason for the scars that riddle his body. But when he realizes that he is not truly alive and was sent on a chilling mission by a monster to uncover the location of an ancient king who could change the world as they know it, he cannot risk having Sabrina near. Will he loose her forever by pushing her away for her own safety? Or will he loose much more than the love of both his lives?

I really wanted to love Lord of Shadows but the story just didn’t capture my attention. I pretty much have the same opinion of it as I did the first novel, Earl of Darkness. You can check out my review of that *here*. As in the first novel, the author uses numerous new terms without providing a glossary or even explaining the meanings when used in the story. This makes it very hard to get into a story when you don’t understand half of what is going on or who/what characters are referring to.The story arc itself is good and had potential, the characters could have really been great but the author’s writing style just did not work for me. Besides the above issues, the writing was overly descriptive and dragged the plot down. There were also numerous sentence fragments keeping the story from flowing smoothly.

I did like each of the main characters though; I was intrigued by Lazuarus/Daigh in the first novel and found his background and current situation fascinating. He was well developed with many dimensions, and I became invested in his plot to figure out his past and future. He is dark, sexy, protective, mysterious and scarred inside and out. Him and Sabrina were a good fit and they balanced each other very well. Their relationship developed at a good pace and it was rife with twists and turns, trust, betrayal and passion.
Sabrina herself was well written, as Aidan, the Lord of Kilronan’s younger sister though I never quite understood the animosity she had towards her eldest brother and her assumptions where him and his wife Cat were concerned. However, I did like her commitment to Daigh from the start, she didn’t fully trust Daigh but she stuck by him through thick and thin.
There were a few specific scenes where we saw glimpses of Daigh's past that confused me and I wasn’t happy with the explanation given for these occurrences. It just seemed thrown together and I was still left confused.
Though Maelodor, the villain, finally confronts the characters and we see just how evil and twisted he is. He is a truly creepy character that made my skin crawl; or maybe it was the snake!

Lord of Shadows can be read as a standalone but when Sabrina’s brothers’ show up a few scenes might confuse because they refer to incidents that happened in Earl of Darkness, I do recommend reading both novels in order if you would like the full story. Despite the number of faults I would still consider this a good book, if you have the patience for it. As in the first novel, this is a difficult read but the idea of the plot itself and the characters are creative and totally unique. And I do so love the cover, Paul Marron *dreamy sigh* That and the character of Daigh added the extra 1/2 for me making my rating a 3.5. (less)

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Sep 20, 2011 Nocturne Romance Reads rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical

"Lord of Shadows is a story with a mystery, magic, and love. It is fast-paced, full of dark magic, and mystery! I would suggest reading the first Heir of Kilronan book, Earl of Darkness to have a better understanding of the magic and mystery. I can hardly wait for the next book to see what will happen to the Douglas clan!"

This sounds promising! See what else April has to say about this book on out website! http://www.nocturnereads.com/Lord-of-...

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Apr 04, 2012 Michelle rated it 3 of 5 stars

I’m pretty conflicted about how I feel about this story and I think it’s because of my expectations coming in. I was expecting more of a cross between a historical romance with some paranormal elements thrown in but it was just not that to me. Because the book was not what I was expecting I felt let down. I also picked up this series on the second book, not the first, so I was a little confused about the world I found myself in. I really enjoyed the interactions between Daigh and Sabrina and I f...more

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Jun 10, 2011 Blythe Barnhill rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: review-books

I thought I would never finish this book. It's virtually unreadable. The author is a huge fan of sentence fragments (paragraphs full, in rapid succession), italicized, incomprehensible names that I couldn't bother to keep straight, and choppy, awkward transitions. I never would have finished it had I not been reading it for review.

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Aug 13, 2011 Houston rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

This paranormal romance is sure to hold your attention from beginning to end. "Lord of Shadows" is book two in Alix Rickloff's "Heirs of Kilronan" series. After reading this book it made me want to go back and read the first in the series. There is a lot of mystery surrounding the characters in the story and it makes you want to know as much as you can about their lives. Just when you think you've learned something monumental, something else lies waiting in the wings yet to be discovered.

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Oct 15, 2011 Leslie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ebook-nook, supernatural-romance, historical-romance-paranormal

This is the 2nd in a series. Loved this book. Loved the combination of historical and supernatural elements. And the inclusion of Arthurian legend is also great. The author creates such imagery with her writing, which is very different. The two main characters were very interesting and the twists and turns of their story kept me guessing. This can be read without reading the first. The love story is there and it is strong, but the storyline of rogue mage trying to take over the world by bringing...more

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Mar 02, 2013 Jayne rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was a good story. Long. The author is very descriptive, almost to the point of distraction. Characters were well thought out and I did think the story was interesting. However it was a hard book to get through. Still it left me wondering about the next one in the series and how it will all end.

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Oct 16, 2011 Jerri Giammarino marked it as to-read

I must say that I really liked this book. It was very different from the other books that I have read. It was not all about romance and love, it was about time travel and powers. I really enjoyed reading this book. Thanks

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Shelves: alix-rickloff

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About Alix Rickloff

A writer of historical-paranormal romance, ALIX RICKLOFF blends her lifelong love of Austen and Tolkein to create a compelling world of magic and enchantment set during the British Regency period. Her books have been described as “sexy and intense”, “exciting and spellbinding” and “a universe you won’t ever wish to leave”.

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Books by Alix Rickloff

Earl of Darkness (Heirs of Kilronan Trilogy, #1)

Heir of Danger (Heirs of Kilronan Trilogy, #3)

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Lord of Shadows (Heirs of Kilronan Trilogy #2)

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