The first story of the Shadow-war from AJ Brown

I often read non-fiction books on the commute to work (audio books), and until this year rarely reviewed them on Woehammer. But this year I’ve decided to include more non-Warhammer books on the basis that if I find a topic interesting, our readers may do so as well.

From the Book

Callum Wray and his lovers have survived the Vampire War and finally get to live life. That is until events begin to take on a dark edge and spiral. Soon the darkest parts of the Shadow World are coming for the four and it seems the dead do not stay dead. An Urban Fantasy Romance with a polyamorous foursome (Two guys two girls).Magic, Vampires and shapeshifters. Action, humour and spice. There are some scenes which may be triggering.

Review

This is not like my usual reading, with me not really knowing which tags to apply, so I think I’ll call it Urban Fantasy. Despite this and the risk of reading self-published books I enjoyed reading this!

Callum, Catherine, Hannah & Luke are in a group polyamorous relationship… and they happen to be mages and werewolves. In a USA where Vampires and Werewolves are fighting a Shadow War in the background of usual society.

The writing style and approach is not a method I’ve read often as its first person, but rotating through (mostly) the 4 main protagonists. It is mostly done by chapter, with it being very clear who is the narrator in each chapter. This makes it easy to follow and there’s no ambiguity about who is talking or thinking which is great… the reader also gets to delve into the minds of the four main characters as they try to stop Vampires and other makes from bringing the Shadow War into the public domain.

As a self published book there are a few errors which have crept in, but nothing that prevented me rattling through the chapters, although unfortunately the first few chapters have a few more mistakes than later chapters… so if you read this stick with it! Hopefully AJ Brown can get an editor in the future if this does well.

Overall I would recommend this but (perhaps strangely) not to my regular followers… this is definitely different! But sometimes that is a good thing. Read the content warnings before you buy – the book does include some romance and Public Displays of Affection, but I didn’t think it was gratuitous or over-done… this is not a romance novel though!

AJ Brown has released a new book recently in the same world and I’ll try to get to it next year so keep an eye out on my reviews for that.

Verdict

Not the usual fare for Declan (or Eeyore) and a bit of a departure from Woehammer… but it’s got wizards, werewolves and vampires so I’m calling it at least adjacent. I enjoyed the book, it was fun and full of interesting backstory hooks that we are given a glance at, but which we’ll hopefully get more from in the future. Read the content warnings, and it you think it may be for you grab a copy!

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— Declan & Eeyore