Shadow Heir by Richelle Mead Review

Wow! Where to start... how about the book description from Goodreads;

Shaman-for-hire Eugenie Markham strives to keep the mortal realm safe from trespassing entities. But as the Thorn Land's prophecy-haunted queen, there's no refuge for her and her soon-to-be-born-children when a mysterious blight begins to devastate the Otherworld...

The spell-driven source of the blight isn't the only challenge to Eugenie's instincts. Fairy king Dorian is sacrificing everything to help, but Eugenie can't trust the synergy drawing them back together. The uneasy truce between her and her shape shifter ex-lover Kiyo is endangered by secrets he can't--or won't--reveal. And as a formidable force rises to also threaten the human world, Eugenie must use her own cursed fate as a weapon--and risk the ultimate sacrifice..

** My Review, May Contain Spoilers**

	I will try to keep spoilers to a minimum but it will be hard, so much happens in this book! Eugenie has a hard time keeping a doctor in the human world because Otherworlders want her Son, the first born Grandson of Storm King, to be killed because of a prophecy. Eugenie is determined to keep her unborn twins safe and goes to extreme measures to obtain that goal. She decides on a safe house that her Step Father finds and spend the lasts months of her pregnancy there. Once her children are born she finds out that the Otherworld is in extreme danger. Eugenie is torn between staying with her newborn children and returning to her lands in the Otherworld. After hard deliberations she chooses to return and leaves her kids in the capable hands of the family she had been living with. What she finds when she returns is devastation. The lands are in a "blight" or perpetual Winter and it has taken it's toll on the people living there. There is a long journey that includes Dorian, Kiyo and loyal subjects from their lands. They are determined to find the source of this problem and get their lands back to normal. Dorian plays a huge part in this book and I fell in love with him! Here's a quote from the book that made me love Dorian more. Dorian and Eugenie are talking about Human methods of birth and she tells him about C-sections. Eugenie says she doesn't want to have a scar and Dorian replies. "Actually, that's the only part I can understand. Why not wear a scar of Motherhood? Better than a tattoo or some other mark of honor. Let the World know what you've achieved." I wish men today could see stretchmarks from this point of view! There are so many twists and turns at the end of this book, I was shocked! I don't know if I could keep the huge secret that's revealed at the end. I wish this wasn't the last book in this series! I highly recommend reading it. Richelle Mead never fails to amaze me with her brilliant writing and I hate to see the end of The Dark Swan Series end.

The first 3 books in the Dark Swan series are:

If you've read this series I would love to hear what you thought!