Shadow Hand
by Anne Elisabeth Stengl
Pub Date04 Mar 2014
Bethany House |Bethany House Publishers
Christian| Sci Fi & Fantasy


Netgalley and Bethany House Publishers have provided me with a copy of Shadow Hand for review:

Lady Daylily is betrothed to the Prince of Southlands at her father's request. It's not the handsome and dispossessed Lionheart she loves, but his cousin, the awkward and foolish Prince Foxbrush. Her only desire is to disappear from living memory as her wedding day dawns, so she flees into the Wilderlands.



In order to rescue Daylily, Foxbrush plunges into a new world of magic and peril in which vicious Faerie beasts hold sway and a lethal parasite infests the land.



It is a world that seems hauntingly familiar.

I give Shadow Hands five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

I had a hard time with this one. I really do not like poetry or lyrical prose with little content. I realize that the reviews on this book are spectacular. Many young girls say it is life changing. But I do not understand why.

There’s no there here
I was expecting more from Bethany—solidly Christian allegory and edifying. Sad to say, those days seem to be gone. The vague hints at spiritual reality in this flowery book are absolutely dominated by the nasties and evil. Spiritual good and power are completely separated from the characters. The Lord is reduced to vague actions and puzzling references.

Now, I know that coming in on the sixth book of the series is problematic. However, if there were any virtue to this story it was all used up in the first five books. I found no pretext of a happily ever after. There was really no hope. There is no Paraclete, no rebirth, no comfort.

It’s a dark book—nearly depressing. The books in this series are commonly called lovely. I obviously do not agree.

2 stars and minimal Christian content
It doesn’t come close to recent works like The Staff & The Sword trilogy by Patrick W. Carr. It can’t even be compared to Legends of Astarkand by Krystine Kercher. Maybe it comes closer to Alice in Wonderland. Ms. Stengl has found an audience and I wish her well. I just wish she’d add some content to her fantasies. This was all flowery fluff with tinges of horror.

I got a review copy from Bethany

Due to formatting errors, I was unable to review this title.