Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an Arc.
I didn't finish this book. Just didn't like it. I found the main character kind of many and a bit immature.
The description sounded as if it might be good but it wasn't for me.
It is confusing in parts and some of the comments from characters made me feel uncomfortable.

The premises of this book were interesting, but the execution failed. This author's writing just isn't for me. Inconsistent pacing, too many pop culture references, and the storytelling was overall simply juvenile. I sadly had to DNF it :/

I had to DNF it because of the writing quirks that made it a difficult read. So many words in all caps in the narration, exclamation points and even a “!?” that I’m pretty sure is only allowed in comic books. The first line of the first chapter is : “WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!” It’s supposedly an adult novel, but the style was just too juvenile, and not in a purposeful and masterful way.
The Black Shards starts with a ten pages long prologue made up of a bedtime story guilty of my most immersion breaking trope I keep seeing in modern fantasy; using names from established mythologies and cultures in a weird mish mash. We have Lilith, Sobek and Ariadne, all names coming from three different cultures.
After that, it’s just exposition dumps in quirky writing that just do not feel appropriate for that type of novel. Would probably benefit from a huge structure rework.

Thank you NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for the ARC!

Unfortunately, like the previous book in the series, the premise sounded promising and interesting. However after reading for a while, the beginning was all infodump once again, along with some confusing perspectives into play. The pacing was also all over the place as the previous book and had the same problems of not being able to distinguish when things were taking place.

Thank you to Netgalley, BooksGoSocial, and Jad Phillip for the arc, but unfortunately The Black Shards was not for me. I struggled to get into the book, and ultimately ended up DNFing.

Unfortunately, just like the first book, I didn’t enjoy this one either.

The protagonist, Clara, is portrayed as strong-willed and determined, which I usually appreciate. However, her internal dialogue often felt off-putting and out of character for a woman of her supposed strength. The way she put down other women and reacted to male attractiveness was awkward and cringeworthy. Some of her thoughts seemed unnatural, as if they were thrown in just to create forced humor or "relatable" moments. Additionally, the use of derogatory language in certain scenes felt unnecessary and didn’t add any depth to the plot or character development. Instead, it seemed like an attempt to make the story feel darker or edgier, but it missed the mark entirely.

Another thing that really pulled me out of the story was the excessive pop culture references—particularly to music and TV shows. These didn’t enhance the narrative; rather, they felt like shortcuts in place of genuine scene-setting or emotional development. Instead of immersing me in the world, they made the book feel dated and reliant on external context rather than its own storytelling.

Structurally, the pacing was inconsistent. Some sections dragged on with excessive historical exposition that didn’t seem necessary, while other moments—especially important plot developments—felt rushed and underexplored. The connections to the first book were also confusing at times, making it difficult to follow certain interactions and plot points without having a strong recollection of the previous installment. Despite the attempt to build a fascinating world of gods, magic, and shifting allegiances, the execution left much to be desired.

Overall, this book had an interesting premise but failed to deliver in a way that kept me engaged. The combination of awkward dialogue, unnecessary edginess, and choppy storytelling made it a frustrating read. Thats why I'm giving it 1 ⭐.

Unfortunately this book was not really for me.

The FMC, Clara, was strong willed and stuck to her guns which normally is an undeniable strength. But then at the same time her internal dialogue did not reflect ANY woman of her caliber in a number of places: putting other women down, describing a male character's attractiveness, and telling herself "down Clara" was pretty cringy. There were also a few moments where derogatory language was used in places where it was completely unnecessary : the whole scene did nothing to advance the plot or build the character. It seemed only to be there to give an air of "edginess" but completely fell short.

The one, maybe petty, thing that I could not stand was the current pop culture references to music, TV shows, and music. Not only was it not at all needed, it was as if describing the scene/feeling was too hard so a reference to a song was inserted instead.

While the plot is something I would normally go nuts for the storytelling was not for me. Drawn out and also abrupt is how I would explain how the chapters were set up. While the history lessons dragged on for no apparent reason, other conclusions and scenes seemed to be cut extremely short leaving me wanting a lot more. There were moments and characters that were clearly references to the 1st installment that ended up making some scenes confusing. I would not describe this as a stand alone novel as a number of chapters and scenarios went straight over my head.

The story had this secretive underworld filled with magic and gods and maybe heros maybe villians and betrayal but also maybe loyalty. The story itself was very intriguing. It's a well thought out fantasy plot that unfortunately fell short in it's execution, in my opinion.

This book was extremely hard to get into. There’s pages and pages of monologue and heavy world building with no breaks. The story is hard to follow and there’s a large info dump of characters and names all within the first chapter alone. Unfortunately, this book has scrambled my head and is too difficult for me to follow so I’ve had to mark it as a did not finish.

As this is a low rating I will not be publishing a review of this on my platform.

Thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for an ARC of The Black Shards. Unfortunately, I dnf’d this book at the 12% mark.

I usually try to give myself either 50 pages or 25% of a book before I give up on it, but this was truly awful. I was somewhat interested in the prologue, a recounting of a myth that turned out to be a bedtime story, even though it had a lot of infodumping to it. However, the first chapter contained even MORE infodumping (including the POV character creating a new definition for the word ‘solitude’), followed by multiple instances of fatphobia, homophobia, and being really fetishistic over a Black woman. No thank you, return to sender.

If I could give this 0 stars, I absolutely would.

An amazing continuation of the story and journey we started on volume I. The story is captivating and it hooks you to the events and characters. I cannot wait for the volume III to be out.