This was an excellent short story with a second, unnecessary story-line added to it like stuffing to make it into a full length novel. Which disappointed me because I adore 'what came next' novels, and this book is a look at what happens in the land of Dena Nehele after the Black Jewels Trilogy.

The story sets out to be the anti-fantasy Romance with a less-than-gorgeous Queen and a surly, uneducated Prince who has spent so much time fighting for the freedom of his people he hasn't a clue what to do with peace. I was really interested in the fallout you can see here from the end of the main trilogy - after the evil infecting the Blood was removed, and all the Blood touched by it, things didn't go well in the lands they'd possessed. The non-Blood landens revolted, innocent Blood were slaughtered, landens were slaughtered in return, and come the end of the revolt there are no adult Queens to form a government around, and the only capable males had spent their entire lives hating Queens and refusing to serve. Into this comes the Shadow Queen, a lightly Jeweled Queen from the Shadow Realm who accepts a contract to form a court and teach the locals what having a real Court means.

I really liked this set up - what Janelle did in the Trilogy wasn't a magic wand that ended all problems. It was a fire that burned out an infection and cauterized the wound but left deep, deep scars. And I liked the chance to see what life was like for the everyday Jeweled Blood, ones who didn't have the power to smash whole nations to paste.

Sadly, Bishop added an entire plot around Sadi and family (did the editor feel folks didn't want to read a Blood novel without one?) and it feels like filler. It feels shoehorned in. It distracts from the real story. And having such powerful characters lurk in the background, it is impossible to maintain the tension of story. Because at any moment Lucivar or Saetan could snap their fingers and solve any problems the Queen might have.

After all that, the book ends abruptly, and without any real sense of climax or denouement. Kept to a short story about just Dena Nehele this would have been fabulous. As it was - just ok.