Reviewed by Dan
TITLE: Marked By Shadow
SERIES: Chronicles of an Earned #3
AUTHOR: Meraki P. Lyhne
PUBLISHER: eXtasy Books
LENGTH: 353 Pages
RELEASE DATE: August 19, 2016
BLURB:
Unwittingly, Nathan unlocks a spell and becomes the master of a man enslaved by shadow.
While sorting through an old estate in the basement of an auction house, Nathan finds a gold bracelet with strange markings on it. He recognizes it as an ancient language and reads the inscription out loud. This makes him the master of a man, Lucien, cursed into shadow by the Thule society during WWII. As this whole new world of the paranormal is revealed to Nathan, he finds both love and a fierce loyalty from Lucien, the man now bound to him—a loyalty he is going to need as the men who made Lucien into what he is wants him back. And they are willing to kill anyone who stands in their way.
REVIEW:
I was a little confused when I began reading this one. I was expecting it to begin right after the end of book two, Two Sides of a Coin, but it didn’t. Who was this Nathan guy I wondered? What did this have to do with the story?
Well, I have to tell you, I think this was my favorite of the three books so far! I loved getting to know Nathan and Lucien, as well as the other characters introduced in this one. I also enjoyed learning more about Mr. Henry, who by the end of book two I had thought was an evil doer. Turns out…not so much. I also enjoyed that we got to see Pritchard, outside the role we saw him in during the first two books.
Nathan is a young Assistant Curator at an auction house as well as a national level Taekwondo fighter. One day while sorting some items from an old estate he finds a forearm-long gold bracelet and being a language guru, he sounds out how to say the words on the bracelet. Before he knows what is happening the gold bracelet has ‘melted’ into his arm, becoming a large forearm tattoo. Shortly thereafter he finds out he is now the master of a man from the shadows, named Lucien.
Nathan is drawn into a supernatural world. One he never knew existed amongst our own, but a world that readers of Ms. Lyhne’s books will recognize, or will at least recognize from the side. I was intrigued with these new characters and the entire Order they ended up with. As usual, the author’s ability at world building and character development is excellent. I can’t wait to see where the story goes from here. It appears that this storyline will merge with the previous one, but I’m not sure when or how.
Great job Ms. Lyhne. You will definitely keep me coming back for more! I highly recommend this series. If you haven’t started it yet, I would recommend reading them in order, but that said, this current one is ‘outside’ the first storyline, so you could read 3, 1, 2 if you want to, in my opinion.
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