Tag: The Black Jewels: Trilogy: Daughter of the Blood / Heir to the Shadows / Queen of the Darkness

General

Z is for Zippy Last Lines

Sonia Lal13 Comments

Ten of the zippiest last lines you will ever read! They are all from my favorite books. The Black Jewels trilogy, some from the Vor books by Lois McMaster Bujold and some books by Joey W. Hill. I have read all of these again and again and again.

  1. His heart held on fiercely to Jaenelle‘s soft, sighing caress of his name. Everything has a price. – Daughter of the Blood, book 1 of the Black Jewels trilogy by Anne Bishop
  2. Gathering up his shredded courage, he walked toward the voices, toward the promise. Walked out of the Twisted Kingdom. – Heir to the Shadows, book 2 of the Black Jewels trilogy by Anne Bishop
  3. This time, when she said his name, it sounded like a promise, like a lovely caress. – Queen of Darkness, book 3 of the Black Jewels trilogy by Anne Bishop
  4. It wasn’t your life again you found, going on. It was your life anew. And it wasn’t at all what he’d been expecting. His slow smile deepened. He was beginning to be very curious about his future. – Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold
  5. “Really? You’d – you’d – yes, I’d be interested.” Kostolitz feigned a casual air. “Sure.” He looked suddenly much more cheerful. Miles smiled. – The Warrior’s Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold
  6. “They must be rounding up the strays for dinner. Shall we go in, milady?” – A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold.
  7. Miles settled back with slitted eyes, and watched the shining circle spin like planets. – Cetaganda by Lois McMaster Bujold.
  8. In that moment, he knew any words of his would honor the truth as much as those flowery sonnets. “I think we did that.”  – Vampire Trinity by Joey W. Hill
  9. Strong, sexy exterior and steel core, with a generous, shy heart that was all his. Forever. His family. – Rough Canvas by Joey W. Hill
  10. He grinned, caught her lips in a kiss, swung her up in his arms. “Try it, sugar. Just try it.” – Natural Law by Joey W. Hill

The End

What are some of your favorite last lines?

fantasy · General · reading

Teaser Tuesday: Kaeleer’s Heart

Sonia Lal37 Comments

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I was rereading this yesterday.

My Teasers:

Moon’s blood only throws my offstride three days out of a month. A cock makes a man potentially stupid at any hour of the of any day.

– Kaeleer’s Heart by Anne Bishop

Book Review · fantasy · reading

Book Review: Twilight’s Dawn

Sonia Lal1 Comment

Twilight’s Dawn is the latest in the black jewels series. Twilight’s Dawn is not stand alone,  but I don’t think it was supposed to be. It is an anthology and it has four stories: Winsol Gifts, Shades of Honor, Family and The High Lord’s Daughter. Fair warning, there are lots of spoilers.

They are all good, but Shades of Honor is probably my favorite. For one thing, it answers the question raised in another Black Jewels book: what did Falonar do? Well, it turns out Falonar is a perfect ass. He’s not totally without honor (if he was, Janelle would’ve known) but he has a very different interpretation of honor from Lucivar. I think Lucivar should have killed him, but the death Daemon gave him is probably better. Lucivar would’ve given him a cleaner death. Second, I really loved Rainier here. He enters a new phase of his life. I, personally, would love to see a whole novel about him. Third, I liked the glimpse into Eyrien society.

The High Lord’s Daughter probably caused the most furor in the blog-sphere. I don’t get it. I really don’t get why people are upset. Jaenelle dies. But she was always going to die. And she was going to die before her first century, because (1) she is from the short-lived races and (2) the short-lived races die before their 100th birthday. That was stated from the first, and Anne Bishop is too good a writer to finagle a way around her own words.

Another reason a lot of people got upset is that Surreal married Daemon. This surprised me, but I went with it. Okay, so she’s not the great love of Daemon’s life, but Jaenelle is dead and he deserves better than to be alone. Surreal deserves better than to be alone, too, and most men are wary of being with her forever and ever (because is a mixture of long and short lived races, and she said no man wants that for his children).

The best thing about this story is their daughter, Jaenelle Saetien, and the fact that she is also dreams made flesh.

Plus, the black jewels books are not romances and I can’t say I ever really expected a happy ever after for the characters.

Winsol Gifts is a sweet story, but a little disappointing. Best part is when Daemon realizes Tersa is both his and Lucivar’s mother. It is worth reading for that alone. But the ending is disappointing because it seems incomplete. I mean, Daemon gets a present from his father and can’t open it because it is locked and he doesn’t have the key. I really want to know: what present did Daemon get? It’s driving me crazy.

Family is good, too. Mostly because Jaenelle goes back to being a Queen.

A lot of people think this is the last book in the series, but I disagree. There are decades between Family and The High Lord’s Daughter. There have to be lots of stories in that time period. And there is Rainer. He lives and dies and that story hasn’t been told, either. Besides, as important as Jaenelle as to this series, there are other characters (The Invisible Ring doesn’t include Jaenelle at all!) Ms. Bishop can write stories about any of them.

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fantasy · reading

Book Blogger Hop: One Day in a Fictional World

Sonia Lal14 Comments

Just discovered this blog hop over at crazy-for-books. Looks interesting enough to participate despite the Friday flash fiction thing today. You gotta answer a question:

“If you were given the chance to spend one day in a fictional world (from a book), which book would it be from and what would that place be?”

For me, there is no question. I would love love LOVE to live in the Black Jewels world by Anne Bishop. I want to live in Jaenelle’s world.  It is so interesting! Magical jewels, demons, flying people, unicorns, talking animals – who can resist?

Plus, the chance to visit with Daemon Sadi? He has to be the hottest, sexiest hero every written.

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