Heir to the Shadows (The Black Jewels Trilogy) By Anne Bishop

Book Two - Heir To The Shadows
Synopsis Anne Bishop plunged into dark fantasy with her first book, Daughter of the Blood. She described a world where Blood Witches have always ruled, drawing males to their courts through seductive power. An ambitious High Priestess destroys more powerful females before maturity and has enslaved the strongest males, weakening magic and corrupting natural bonds between men and women. Sexual violence permeates Terreille. Jaenelle, born to be Queen, is vulnerable until adulthood. Though guarded by male Warlord Princes, Jaenelle is violated. Daemon, her destined Consort, rescues her but is convinced he attacked her and goes mad.
In Heir to the Shadows, Jaenelle's vampiric, adoptive father, Saetan, and her foster-family of demons shelter her. To restore her memory and emotional balance, they move to Kaeleer, where Jaenelle befriends the kindred--animals with magical and communicative powers--and gathers a circle of young Queens. She also heals Lucivar, Daemon's half-brother, who offers a brother's love and a warrior's fealty. As she recovers strength and memory, Jaenelle resolves to restore Daemon and cleanse Terreille.

Bishop subverts readers' expectations; the "darkest" powers reside in virtuous characters, demons and vampires are kindly, and Jaenelle's adolescence is more comically normal than horrific. Her vibrant characters and descriptions will keep readers hooked, anxiously awaiting what promises to be a riveting conclusion.

My View
Another great instalment of this brilliant trilogy of the three books I think this was my least favourite not that it was bad in any way it certainly wasn't and I'm not sure why I preferred it least of the three, maybe because Daughter of the Blood was such a hard act to follow but, anyway ...

This must of course be read after Daughter of the Blood or else you may get a little confused. We see Jaenelle growing up lot here and definitely see her character advancing and because of the suffering she has endured she has of course, changed quite a bit.

This is one of those books its so hard to write a review if someone reading it (this review that is) hasn't read it (and if you haven't you so must!). It truly is dark fantasy at its best, if anyone knows of any fantasy similar to this plase tell me as I have never read anything else close!