Shadows of the Dark Realm

"Here lies Caelan--couldn't count. Got eaten by a dragon. Ralked it up just like Kade said not to. Well, I showed him, Caelan thought to himself."

You may wonder what flavor of fantasy Shadows of the Dark Realm is. Is it an Arthurian Quest? Portal Fantasy? Monster Hunter? Political Intrigue? You name it, the answer is simply, "Yes".

The tagline of the second book, Reapers of the Dark Realm, is "If Lord of the Rings, The Witcher, Mistborn, and Dungeons & Dragons were mixed together into a cake, it would be a Dark Realm cake." That tagline 100% sums up this series (yes, I've already started the second book).

I started and finished this book in 3 days, which is strange for me to do with a 500+ page book. I usually savor my thick, epic fantasies and spread them out over months, because I don't want them to be over, but I couldn't stop reading this. Part of that is owed to the non-stop action and the fact that there was no safe place for me stop reading. If I had left the book alone for too long, the characters might've actually died before I got back and I couldn't risk losing Caelan, Vale, and Kade.

As a big fan of The Witcher, there are several aspects of this book that I believe will appeal to other Witcher fans, the biggest being Disgraced Knight Vale Lox. He has "Geralt-inspired" written all over him, but he is definitely still his own character with his own quirks and backstory. Vale and Caelan have a "Geralt and Dandelion (Jaskier for those who have only seen the show)" type of friendship that had me laughing out loud.

Fans of epic fantasy filled with monster attacks, incredible battle scenes, and a plot that thickens around every curve, will not be disappointed by this book!

Just as with the previous book that I read by this author, The Outlands, cursing is book unique, which means the characters do curse (often) but they use substitute words that only exist in this story world. There's a glossary in the back of the book that made me laugh because it's almost exclusively a "Curse Word Glossary", though there are some other phrases you need to know. The battle scenes are intense and there is non-stop action, however, the descriptions aren't overly gory or horrific. There's no romance plot in this book, unless you count Caelan's love for antagonizing the others, in which case, the book is filled with it.

Other Trigger/Content Notices:

There are several tragic backstories that would require trigger warnings, though they aren’t graphicly described. The major ones include: loss of a child, loss of a spouse, loss of a parent, slavery, dark magic, mass slaughter, and humans being turned into monsters.

“Take her on your quest, and she will bring you great trouble and pain. Take her not on your quest and you will fail, and the world will fall to shadow.”

It takes a lot to keep me attached to a book when it has no smut in it and this book definitely kept my attention and continued to do so until the very last chapter. I’m gonna just say it because if not I will explode, I really hated Celeste 😂 I’ve said “somebody get rid of her” at least 10 times throughout the book. With that being said my favorite was Caelan, he was not having Celeste’s crap and I was here for it. This is my very first read by Tyler Edwards and I can’t wait to read more of his work. Fantasy lovers, you’re not going to regret following Vale, Caelan, Dante, Azalea and Celeste on their journey.

𝑫𝑰𝑺𝑪𝑳𝑨𝑰𝑴𝑬𝑹: As always, although this is an ARC, my thoughts are my own and this is my honest review. Thank you to Tyler Edwards for the ARC opportunity.

Shadows of the Dark Realm was an enjoyable YA fantasy novel about an unlikely group of heroes bound together by their quest across the realms. All wanting to wish on the darkstone for different reasons , united by the common goal of retrieving it from the dragon realm and the elder dragon Darka Mors.

The good:

• A lot of the characters were great! I enjoyed how different they all were and how it led to a ton of banter and disagreements about basically everything. It helped the reader get to know them each better throughout the book.
• I liked the addition of characters as we went on in the story, they blended into the group and the story really well. Each character was added with purpose and reason, and they added to the plot each in their own way. It never felt like someone was added for fluff, each person had a role to play.
• Celeste. I put this in the ‘good’ category because I hated her with a passion and I wanted to rate the book 1 star just because I hated how whiny and annoying she was, and then I hated her for being a wretch the rest of the book. Clearly that means it was a well written character.
• I liked the different realms and different types of power – it was interesting to see how they interacted during fights and during the voyage.
• I liked the story overall! It was interesting and full of great twists, dangers, adventures, and more.

The meh:

• I struggled to get to know the characters at the beginning – it felt like their moods changed on a whim, and their emotions/mannerisms were not consistent. It got better as we went along, but I think a little more character development or backstory at the beginning would have been helpful.
• I personally didn’t like the replacing cuss words with random words; I know lots of books do it, but the characters spoke well enough that it didn’t make a ton of sense to me. I would have preferred ass, damn, shit, fuck, etc.
• It could have used another round of grammar/copy edits.
• I felt like the ending was a bit quickly wrapped up, and I felt a little underwhelmed. I do think the story leaned heavily on the journey versus the ending, which I really enjoyed, but it did wrap up choppy and quickly.

Overall, Shadows of the Dark Realm by Tyler Edwards was an enjoyable read! I liked it, it kept me intrigued and interested, and I am glad I read it.

*this story was gifted to me in exchange for an honest review. all thoughts are my own.*