Reviewed by Jen

As much as I’ve enjoyed this series –and I still do– this was probably the weakest installment for me at this point. This was primarily for two reasons: the hero and the heroine.

Wait. Wait. Stay with me. Let’s talk about the heroine first. This is Zynda’s book. She’s the Tala cousin to Ursula, Andi, and Ami. (If you don’t know who those women are, now seems like a good time to direct you to start this series at the beginning. I can’t imagine this sixth installment would be a satisfying standalone.) Anyway, Zynda has always been a character who has played her cards close to the vest, and in this book, her secrets are finally revealed. She is looking to meet up with the dragon freed in Dafne’s book in order to learn how to shift into a dragon herself. She believes this Final Form will give her the ability to guide her people into better fertility and healthier babies. [Read more…]

Reviewed by Jen

I have to say that I was very curious about what kind of heroine Jepp was going to be. One of Queen Ursula’s Hawks, she has been part of the Twelve Kingdoms since the very beginning. The only thing we really knew about her was that she was a great scout out and really, really enjoyed having sex. Unfortunately for her, she jumped into bed with Harlan’s brother, Prince Kral, without understanding the consequences. In the Dasnarian culture, there is no such thing as a one night stand. Either you become a man’s wife, his concubine, or his bed slave; Jepp has no interest in being any of those things. Therefore, it was totally awkward when Kral found her in bed with another guy. Even more awkward than that, was when she was tapped to go back to his home country with him to be a spy for Ursula.

All of that is backstory. This book follows Jepp as she and Kral sail into Dasnaria and attempt to navigate this society that oppresses women in ways Jepp has never even imagined. For goodness sake’s, this culture doesn’t even let women wear shoes. And Jepp is this fiercely independent, firecracker of a woman. She is a fish out of water in every way possible. [Read more…]

Reviewed by Jen

Oh wow. Jeffe Kennedy really takes it to the next level with this third book in her Twelve Kingdoms series. I didn’t realize that I needed Ursula’s book until I started reading it and I’ve got to tell you, this book is not for the faint of heart.

So far, we’ve only seen Ursula through the eyes of her younger sisters. We know she is strong and powerful, almost masculine. The heir to their father’s throne, she leads armies, she eschews relationships, and she demonstrates unwavering loyalty to the king. All of those things are true, but what we could never see through the first person POVs of Amelia and Andromeda is that her power and strength have come at a very steep price.

The King has grown wilder and more power hungry with each book. Or maybe, it would be more accurate to say, it’s become more obvious with each book. What’s also obvious now is that the journey each sister has taken has been in tandem with each identifying with one of the three goddesses. As they each come into their power, they come closer to balancing the gifts each goddess represents. Ursula is the sword. [Read more…]

Reviewed by Jen

It was the love story between Ami and Ash that made me jump in to the backlist of this series. They were the couple featured in the anthology Amid the Winter Snow, set much later in the series. I was so taken with them and with the world building in that novella that I went back to start the series from the beginning. Overall, I found the book captivating and I read it all in one sitting much like the first in the series. It wasn’t exactly like I expected, though.

Obviously, the novella meant massive spoilers. I feel like I would have enjoyed the surprises of this book much more if I didn’t know what was going to happen. That is not the book’s fault, so I won’t complain about that, but I will give my small gripe that I wish there was more time devoted to the romance that made me read the series in the first place. I understand it; there are reasons it takes so long for the love story to get off the ground, but that doesn’t change the fact that I wanted more of it… and much like book one, this ended too abruptly for my taste. Even though the larger arc will continue in the next book, this romance won’t. [Read more…]

Reviewed by Jen

I was turned on to this series with the novella Jeffe Kennedy included in the Amid the Winter Snow anthology. It was good enough that I needed to go check out the back list in The Twelve Kingdoms and I was not disappointed. This was a good fantasy romance that reads quickly and easily enough that I devoured it all in one sitting.

Princess Andromeda is the middle daughter sandwiched between two other princesses who seem far more remarkable. Her older sister is strong and powerful, the heir apparent to their father’s kingdom. Her younger sister is an unparalleled beauty. Andi, meanwhile, tends to fade into invisibility. That is, until she meets Rayfe. [Read more…]