📘 Shadow Rose 📚 Daughters of Moon and Sun 🖋️ Elsie Quail ➡️ Synopsis 🌞🌞🌞🌙 Firstly, I fell completely in love with this cover. It is just absolutely gorgeous! The premise of the story was also rather compelling and I do love a well-spun fantasy world. The world setting itself is really quite wonderful, especially the contrast between the human world vs. the Afterlife. The details of magic and different creatures to the compellingly dark dungeons where the Lady of Darkness was being kept prisoner kept me riveted. I also love a good quest for which these 3 friends set off to right a wrong. Unfortunately, I wasn't too keen on these characters. Maybe, it was my expectations... I somehow wanted Maeva to be just like Mia from The Nevernight Chronicles. Okay, not exactly but bad ass because, at the start of the book, that's what she kind of sounds like. However, she wasn't, exactly... She and her friends cried quite a lot in the book. I don't know why I mind so much when my tears are pretty much on tap but it bothered me. Her interaction with her bff & love interest was also really awkward which is in one way understandable BUT I kind of found the first time they actually got it together so very truly awkward or just really weird (in terms of setting than sexual content). But then again, it could just be me. This book is obviously not for children and these characters are also not children but yet, they also stamped their feet a number of times! I honestly can't remember the last time I stamped my feet because I'm upset, can you? Overall, lovely setting, really promising story arc but I was just unable to empathise with these characters. Thanks to the author for gifting me with an eARC copy of the book. All thoughts are my own. ⚠️ implied rape, implied domestic violence, death of a child. 🏷 #ShadowRose #ElsieQuail #DaughtersOfMoonAndSun #fantasy #lgbtqia #ff #indieauthor #independentauthor #bookstalife #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #ausbookstagrammer #booklover #booksta #igreads #lovetoread #eclecticreader #bookishfeatures #aussiebookstagrammers #readersofinstagram #bookreview #fantasybooks #bookphoto #bookish #booklife #booksofinstagram #eclecticreader https://www.instagram.com/p/CmKXXXmyPkO/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=