Shadow’s Bane is the fourth novel in the Dorina Basarab series, but don’t miss out on the novellas and shorts in between. SB picks up with Dory still battling her vampire half Dorina for control. All while attempting to find Olga’s nephew who’s been grabbed by slavers and navigate her first romantic relationship with Louis-Cesar.

Dory is not used to being vulnerable, both with LC and Dorina. She’s also not used to be relied on. Now that she’s a senator and has taken Ray as her “child” she has a whole family to take care of — in addition to Claire, Stinky and the trolls. That means that she can’t just shoot everyone, now she has the weigh her safety and that of all the people she’s surrounded herself with. And that comes with a fear of losing those she loves. After 500 years it’s like she’s finally getting a chance to live. Well, if people would stop trying to kill her.

I love Dory. She is one of my most favorite characters ever. She never gives up and even when you think she’s unable to keep on fighting she’ll surprise you. She also has a lot of love to give, more than I even thought possible in earlier books. And she’s an ass kicker with a snarky mouth to boot. It’s amazing how many times I’ve doubled over laughing at her while she’s in the middle of battle. Whew! And what amazing battles those are because Karen Chance is the master of fight scenes. There’s always so much happening at once and you’re just on the edge of your seat waiting to see how it’ll all shake out. These books are so addictive and I can’t wait to see how Dory takes to all her new responsibilities. ( )

Another fantastic read in the Dory series. Just when I think things can’t get any more exciting, it kicks up yet another level. I love this set of characters, especially Dory, as her attitude is so relatable. An epic read that I would recommend to anyone. Full of twists and turns, adventure, laughs, fantastic ideas and characters etc, this wonderfully described story will have you enthralled from start to finish. ( )

Wow, a lot got revealed in this one. I loved it; possibly favorite in the series with the romance angst gone, lots of action and reveals without all the weird time travel stuff. The flashbacks even worked.

Dory and Dorina are more distinct beings than ever. With all the reveals, maybe this is the final book of the series? I hope not because there is clearly still more to the story despite the resolutions and reveals. ( )

This is the fourth book in the Dorina Basarab series. It’s been six years (yes *six* years) since the last book in this series. I love this series so much more than Chance’s Cassie Palmer series (which I stopped reading after the third book). I was a bit nervous to pick this book up because of the huge time lag between books, but it used to be one of my favorite UF series so I decided to take a risk. It ended up being good...not great...but good. It was also very, very long and it felt long.

Chance does a pretty good job of re-introducing characters and providing background for those who don’t have the time or inclination to re-read the first three books in the series. I was still a bit lost in the politics and I think some nuances of the story were lost on me because I just couldn’t remember the full background and all the characters after six years. I mean really, if you are going to take six years to write the next book in a series you would think you could take some time to recap the “story thus far” at the beginning of the book or something.

My biggest issue with this book was the number and length of the fight scenes. I know, I know...I love fight scenes in my book and these were decently written ones. They were just soooo long and sooo frequent that they really interrupted the flow of the story. Chance could have gotten the same impact with shorter fight scenes that didn’t completely disrupt the story flow. I also got really sick of Dory getting knocked out and waking up somewhere else...that happened probably six or seven times in this book and got really old.

I kept forgetting the main storyline because of the fight scenes. This led to the story having a very disjointed flow. It was almost like the story, fight scenes, and relationship scenes between Dory and Louis-Cesare were separate… they really didn’t flow well and felt very choppy. Additionally, vast portions of the book follow Mircea and his past. I could have done without these long chapters told from Mircea’s POV; they didn’t add a ton to the story and the elements they did bring to the story could have been handled in a much more concise way.

Despite all the complaining above I did end up enjoying the book. I love these characters and the intriguing world they live in. I really enjoyed some of the developments in here. I love the scenes between Dory and Louis-Cesare and wish we had gotten more of that to balance all the random fighting. Chance’s writing style is easy to read and (for the most part) engaging.

Overall this was a good addition to the Dorina Basarab series. I really enjoyed re-entering this world and some of the developments around the characters here. The book should have been edited better and was kind of a mess. The story didn’t flow well and the lengthy/numerous fight scenes kept derailing things completely. The parts of the book from Mircea’s POV should have been left out completely; they didn’t really add much.

So, should you read this? If you are a huge Basarab fan like I am...yes! there is some really good stuff in here. However, be prepared for a lengthy slog...this book was seriously long and poorly paced. ( )