Shadow in the Empire of Light by Jane Routley
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
A magical novel of intrigue, mystery and family drama from the award-winning author of Aramaya and Fire Angels!
Shine’s life is usually dull: an orphan without magic in a family of powerful mages, she’s left to run the family estate with only an eccentric aunt and telepathic cat for company.
Shine’s life is usually dull: an orphan without magic in a family of powerful mages, she’s left to run the family estate with only an eccentric aunt and telepathic cat for company.
But when the family descend on the house for the annual Fertility Festival, Shine is plunged into intrigue; stolen letters, a fugitive spy and family drama mix with an unexpected murder, and Shine is forced to decide both her loyalties and future...
Thank you to NetGalley and Rebellion Publishing for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
This book has a telepathic cat therefore it is awesome - ‘nuff said!
Thanks for reading - follow me on instagram...
OK just kidding here’s my review:
This book has a telepathic cat therefore it is awesome - ‘nuff said!
Thanks for reading - follow me on instagram...
OK just kidding here’s my review:
Overall Thoughts
I enjoyed this book but it definitely didn’t blow me away. It was slow to start as we’re getting to know all the characters, but it picked up about halfway and the plot ended up being quite fun. There’s a lot of family members who all have amazing light-themed names like Illuminant, Sparklea, and Splendance. I found myself referring to the family tree at the beginning of the book pretty often. The family drama gets pretty ridiculous, but there are some interesting side characters that I enjoyed.
I thought the world-building was pretty unique. Routley has created a matriarchal society ruled by female mages, where the mundane (non-magical) peasants are basically slaves. Their whole culture revolves around getting pregnant although they are not particularly fertile, so there are lots of sexual references (and scenes, as well as reference to sexual abuse) including sex between first cousins. Yep. They’re all doing it. With their cousins. All the time. Bit weird, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Anyway, our main character Shine is a mundane, from a noble family, so while she is above the servants, she is not treated well by the family, most of whom are greedy, power-hungry a-holes. On top of being a mundane, Shine’s father was a Ghost, one of the foreign Outlanders, whose society more closely resembles modern Western society. As a result, Shine has paler skin compared to her family, and tries to darken it with cosmetics, to try and fit in. Her mother disappeared when she was a baby, and so she has been relegated to care for the family’s country estate with her wayward aunt (exiled for her radical political views on mundane rights). Shine wants to travel the world, or attend university, but with no money of her own and her mother gone, she is at the mercy of her money-grabbing family. She tries to do the right thing, but feels trapped by her situation.
The plot intrigued me, with a stowaway illegal ghost, a stolen letter, a spy, and a murder all jumbled in with the family’s ambitious plots and grudges. Shine gets mixed in with it all, which ends up being pretty dangerous for her as she has no way to defend herself against the crazy mages, other than getting friendly mages to protect her. It’s not an action-packed book but there’s a few mage fights, and I was amazed at how often they end up hiding under the bed!
The writing style is quite different as well. I think the almost posh nature of the language used really suits the setting. The insults they use, like 'slime rat' and 'ride rat' are super cute.
I liked Shine, and even a couple of the mages turned out to be all right. There’s a few other interesting side characters who I’d like to see again, and I’m keen to see what Shine’s next adventure will be.
My Rant
Anyway, our main character Shine is a mundane, from a noble family, so while she is above the servants, she is not treated well by the family, most of whom are greedy, power-hungry a-holes. On top of being a mundane, Shine’s father was a Ghost, one of the foreign Outlanders, whose society more closely resembles modern Western society. As a result, Shine has paler skin compared to her family, and tries to darken it with cosmetics, to try and fit in. Her mother disappeared when she was a baby, and so she has been relegated to care for the family’s country estate with her wayward aunt (exiled for her radical political views on mundane rights). Shine wants to travel the world, or attend university, but with no money of her own and her mother gone, she is at the mercy of her money-grabbing family. She tries to do the right thing, but feels trapped by her situation.
The plot intrigued me, with a stowaway illegal ghost, a stolen letter, a spy, and a murder all jumbled in with the family’s ambitious plots and grudges. Shine gets mixed in with it all, which ends up being pretty dangerous for her as she has no way to defend herself against the crazy mages, other than getting friendly mages to protect her. It’s not an action-packed book but there’s a few mage fights, and I was amazed at how often they end up hiding under the bed!
The writing style is quite different as well. I think the almost posh nature of the language used really suits the setting. The insults they use, like 'slime rat' and 'ride rat' are super cute.
I liked Shine, and even a couple of the mages turned out to be all right. There’s a few other interesting side characters who I’d like to see again, and I’m keen to see what Shine’s next adventure will be.
Happy reading!
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If you enjoyed this review you can follow me on Instagram @iwishiownedabookstore and add me on Goodreads 💗
*Links to Amazon and Book Depository are affiliate links and I may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases. Please consider turning off your ad-blocker for this site to see some book recs below. Thank you for your support!
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