ARC Review: Shadow's Lyric (Crossing Daggers #1) by C. A. Worley

Title: Shadow’s Lyric

          Series: Crossing Daggers 1

Author: C. A. Worley

Release Date: June 1, 2020

Published By: Self

Category: Fantasy – Futuristic – Demons – Devils – Paranormal – Romance

Type: Digital – Paperback

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C. A. Worley Website

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Blurb: 

It began with a blood oath.
It ended in bloodshed.

When twenty-one-year-old Lyric is told by her father, Gabrian, she will be crossing into the Otherland as payment for a favor he owes the Shadow Lord, she thinks her life is over. In truth, it is just beginning. Years of training as a soldier and an uncanny ability to learn pretty much anything give Lyric the tools she needs to survive her new reality—and it totally helps that her new lord and master is sex incarnate.

Draven has long awaited Lyric’s arrival, and not just because he needs her to track a powerful weapon stolen by an unknown adversary. He believes he has everything firmly in hand, despite the subterfuge he foolishly agreed to some twenty years back. When Draven’s enemies and lies of omission both threaten the fragile bond he and Lyric are forming, he refuses to allow anything to stand in the way, not even the razor-sharp blade of Lyric’s favorite sword.

WARNING: This novel contains tons of bad language, the occasional smackdown, and a good deal of inappropriate humor--sometimes all at once.

 By reading any further, you are stating that you are at least 18 years of age.

If you are under the age of 18, please exit this site.

Favorite Lines:

When she contemplated climbing me like a tree, I knew there was no way I’d allow a floor to separate us, not when I was barely tolerating our clothes keeping us apart. Then she went and pulled a weapon on Phalen, the most skilled warrior I had. She was lucky I didn’t have her stripped naked and chained to my bed right now.  ~  Draven

Was throat punching one’s partner during sex frowned upon in the Otherland?  ~  Lyric

“I’ve never thought of any female as mine,” he continued, “not until you. This isn’t a game to me. This isn’t scratching an itch. I intend to claim you in every way a male can claim a female.”  ~  Draven

I glared at Draven. I wasn’t too keen on taking orders from him ever again. Except in bed. Shut up slutsoul!  ~  Lyric

Vocabulary Word:

Acerbically

adjective

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acer·​bic | \ ə-ˈsər-bik  , a- \

Definition of acerbic

: sharply or bitingly critical, sarcastic, or ironic in temper, mood, or toneacerbic commentaryan acerbic reviewer

Excerpt:

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Review: 

Lyric is one helluva badass thanks to her father’s relentless training. A honed weapon, reliant on no one but herself. Not one prone to showing or even having any emotions, her father made sure that she was battle-ready. He was beyond hard on her, oftentimes inflicting the lessons and the pain that went with them himself. He promised a weapon and a weapon he will deliver in the form of Lyric. But despite the difficult conditions she grew up in, Lyric has maintained a fire inside her, and equaling her mad weapons skills is her penchant for snark. In fact, her mind often conjures up some of the most inappropriate images and she isn’t always able to keep her mouth from spewing out her thoughts. Complicating matters is Draven’s ability to read her thoughts. Crap. Given the way her mind darts off in several directions simultaneously, he’s constantly treated to one heck a show. But being from completely different worlds, he doesn’t always understand her references. One thing she absolutely cannot hide is her fierce attraction to Draven. And what the heck is that all about anyway? He’s supposed to be a feared being capable of all manners of evil – yet she experiences none of that with him. The more time she spends with Draven, the more she realizes that she’s never been enlightened about the truth of anything. And it figures that Draven is unable to give her certain details; literally because of a fricking blood oath made when she was an infant. Of all the asinine things. Struggling to wrap her head around the truth as it reveals itself, Lyric is forced to quickly decide how she will process the information. She might have been badass to begin with, but her potential now is beyond anything she ever thought possible. First things first though – she must recover the missing weapon then deal with this tangible attraction between her and Draven. Anything beyond that will be dealt with as it comes. 

Draven has been waiting for Lyric for a very long time. He’s been patient until this past year. Upping his time frame for her arrival when a precious weapon goes missing, he is filled with a deep need to claim Lyric in every way possible as soon as she steps into his realm. Her new home. And he’s never letting her go. But she isn’t yet aware of that fact. However, he has the upper hand because he knows the truth of everything while Lyric is only getting bits and pieces at a time. Had he understood what kind of hell this gag order within the blood oath would be, he would have never agreed to the damned conditions. But there are loopholes to be found if one knows where to look. He wants to tell Lyric everything but realizes that she will need time to assimilate her truth and the lie that is the life she’s led up to this point. But no matter what it takes, Draven will help her along and bring her round to his side of things. He may be feared by all, but patience is how he plans to win Lyric over. He knew she was magnificent, but once he had her in front of him, he realized just how insignificant a word magnificent was for her. Lyric was everything he could have ever wanted, everything he never knew he wanted or needed, and the best damn thing that ever happened to him whether he deserved such good fortune or not. Yeah, he really has no other option but to coax her along and help her to see just how perfect they are for one another. Because his future was nothing without her.

Oh, mah gawd! I absolutely adored this book! I seriously did not put it down until it was finished. I was completely captivated from the start and never once lost interest. Not even a little. This book begins strong and never eases up as it progresses. It’s action all the time and the mystery surrounding Draven and Lyric is crazy. As the lies of omission are unraveled and the true character of some people is uncovered, I began to see just how tangled a web Lyric was caught up in. Some people, who I had made my mind up about, ended up having reasons for doing what they did that I didn’t see coming. Reasons that had me quickly backpedaling and reassessing my initial impressions.

Draven – yum – was sex on a stick! I immediately liked him and couldn’t wait for him to be able to come clean about everything with Lyric. His immediate acceptance of Lyric and his fascination rather than irritation at her odd antics won me over immediately. In truth, he seems more entertained by her thoughts and behaviors than annoyed. While he did have to put his foot down in a few instances, his deep love for her was obvious. And Lyric is a gem. This girl could be my best friend. Her snark and sass are off the hook. The most entertaining character I have come by in quite some time, I am hoping to get more time with her as the series progresses. Her wild and chaotic thought process sometimes sends the mind reeling, but never in a bad way. She was always presented as quirky and entertaining. I appreciated this quality because it could have easily crossed the line into aggravation, but Ms. Worley did a fantastic job of balancing Draven’s serious with Lyric’s whimsical. They paired together perfectly. And their chemistry together – yikes! So dang hot! But while I loved this book and eagerly await the next installment, I do have a few questions.

Potential slight spoilers – if you don’t want to know, skip this paragraph! You’ve been warned! I found Draven’s shock at Gabrian’s tactics somewhat contradictory. He mentions at one point that he knew he would be a shitty father, but then says he’s shocked at his lack of affection toward Lyric – or even giving her the slightest thought for a special occasion such as a birthday. Also, what the heck happened when Draven ghosted with Cree? It wasn’t really explained other than the result was one Draven did not wish to repeat. Then nothing. Details. Details would have been nice. And what’s with the giant white head that was coming out of the water? Draven’s instinct was to flee while Lyric felt no danger. So was it some sort of animal? Do animals just come to her to seek her aid? Can she communicate with them? There was only that one instance and then nothing came of it later on. I felt like that could have turned into something much bigger but it came off as a new power and then disappeared. Odd. Then there is the fact that Draven is stupid powerful, yet his abilities are barely touched upon. By his own admission he keeps himself reigned in, but if he let loose, what could he actually do? Does he have any limitations? Would his people fear him more than the fear his reputation provokes now? So many questions! And I do love me some epilogue, especially when it helps to round out the end of the book and add a bit more as to what is going on with the main characters. Bummer that it was completely predictable given the huge flashing sign of a hint provided earlier in the book. That said, I did like the way Ms. Worley went about writing the epilogue even though I already knew what was coming. It was still endearing to read. I wouldn’t call any of those complaints though. Just curiosities left unanswered. What I did take issue with was the junk formatting. It could have been something that happened between downloading from NetGalley to my device, but several of the words were jumbled together which took a slight amount of time to decode. Also, there are two places in which the sentence abruptly cut off. What I believe happened is that the words jumbled and for some reason appeared out of order. If I picked those two paragraphs apart, it made sense when rearranging the words. Hopefully, this was something only I had an issue with. While it slowed my reading progress just a bit, I still remained deeply connected within these pages.

You guys, the snark is on point! For those of you who enjoy paranormal romance with a crazy amount of snark, you’ll instantly love this book. A kick-ass heroine who can give a whooping to anyone without the slightest bit of hesitation. An intriguing hero known as the Shadow Lord – yes, he actually turns into a shadow – how cool would that be? A web of deceit and lies that must be unwound for the truth to be realized. A love so deep it would make anyone envious; crossing time, realms, and species. I came across this book during a book tour and was immediately caught up in the blurbs. If you read my chosen excerpt and highlight and are intrigued at all, then definitely grab up a copy of this book. The blurb doesn’t hint to how fabulous this book truly is, but the snippets I included in my full review will give you a good taste to determine if this book is a good fit for you. Lovers of weirdos who embrace their oddities are sure to enjoy this captivating read set briefly on Earth and then largely within a demon realm. If you aren’t a big fan of fantasy, this just may be the author to bring you over to the dark side. And all my fellow people of snark – you know who you are – you will easily immerse yourself into this sexy romance with little to no effort. One thing I can guarantee – if this writing style is typical for Ms. Worley, I will remain a fan forever.

Kindle version provided by Xpresso Book Tours/Author in exchange for an honest review.