A Shade of Darkness and Deception

Power and Promise, Book 2

By: Jordan A. Day

Narrated by: Shane East, Nikki Grey

Friendship. Love. Two things Ainsley had found for the first time in her life, only to lose them in the blink of an eye. Betrayed and heartbroken, she must work to overcome the pain of her past. Now trapped in a new kingdom ruled by a king who wants far more from her than he’s leading on, she will have to find the strength to persevere. But as Ainsley becomes more sure of herself and her magical abilities, a force threatens to take away all she’s gained.

With her homeland of Disparya on the brink of war, she must decide what role she wants to play and what she is willing to sacrifice. She must decide whom to trust. However, things aren’t always as they seem…

©2023 Two Geese Publishing (P)2024 Two Geese Publishing

WHEW! *SPOILERS*

Wow. MC is JUST as ridiculous in bk2. It's like I want to reach out and pummel MC because good damn grief. She seems like there is character development but then she backtracks all the way to the beginning and I guess it is just to drag the story out but again, WHEW! It is just overdone in my opinion. Aside from wanting to conjure a dagger to poke her with every time she freaks out, I love the story and all the other characters. It's worth wanting to murder her at every turn!

Evander has my heart

I liked this even more than book one; however, this installment definitely could’ve been shorter.

It was nice to finally see Ainsley step up and accept her powers and responsibilities to her kingdom. Although she still annoyed me at times.

Evander swept me away. He’s now my favorite character in the series. That smart mouth. And the narrator’s voice was 🫠😍👌🏼

Hands down my favorite series

Absolutely loved the duet! I cannot wait until book three comes out on audible. Best series ever

A little better

This book needs to be YA! Take the sex out and then and it’s 100% a YA series. I found the FMC to be extremely immature in the first book and now she has again reverted back to the same bratty behavior at the beginning of this book. She overly victimizes herself, punishing everyone around her for her own choices and then acts out in anger. Constantly and I mean constantly throwing temper tantrums. She uses the “poor me” behavior to gain attention and sympathy from others and it’s just YUCK. I found all of the main characters in the first book to be immature and annoying. They act more like young teens instead of young adults. I kept waiting for the FMC to grow up and start acting her age and taking any sort of responsibility in her life and her choices. Because of her extreme emotional immaturity the decisions she makes only hurts herself and those around her. She is whinny and annoying 99% of the time. I think the author was trying to go for her being “cute” but it utterly failed. This series was also a little too woke for me. Always painting the females as victims and the males as the bad guys. I kept waiting for the story to turn serious even a little and our FMC to finally grow up and master her magic and emotions but every time I think she will, she only disappoints. This book should have been a YA book. Had the author left out the spicy scenes this book would’ve made a lot more sense based off the maturity or lack there of the all the main characters. The female narrator doesn’t help this book either. She is not a good voice actor. She overacts and needs some serious coaching. Narrating books has become a whole new ballgame in the last decade and if you’re not getting coaching and growing you just don’t stand up to your peers. And this narrator shows her lack of experience and or training. I did like the change they made with the MMC narrator but I wished they would’ve also made a change with the FMC narrator. She only made it harder to listen to. For me personally, her acting was like nails on a chalkboard. Especially during “flirting or playful” scenes. It was just so so bad.