Review: The Shift of the Tide by Jeffe Kennedy (@mlsimmons, @jeffekennedy)

Posted October 8, 2017 by Melanie in Fantasy, Fantasy romance, Melanie, Reviews / 25 Comments

The Shift of the Tide by Jeffe Kennedy
Series: The Uncharted Realms #3, The Twelve Kingdoms #6
Published by Indie
Published on: August 29, 2017
Genres: Fantasy, Fantasy Romance
Pages: 400
Format: eARC
Source: Author

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A QUICKSILVER HEART

Released from the grip of a tyrant, the Twelve Kingdoms have thrown all that touch them into chaos. As the borders open, new enemies emerge to vie for their hard-won power—and old deceptions crumble under the strain…

The most talented shapeshifter of her generation, Zynda has one love in her life: freedom. The open air above her, the water before her, the sun on her skin or wings or fur—their sensual glories more than make up for her loneliness. She serves the High Queen’s company well, but she can’t trust her allies with her secrets, or the secrets of her people. Best that she should keep her distance, alone.

Except wherever she escapes, Marskal, the Queen’s quiet lieutenant, seems to find her. Solid, stubborn, and disciplined, he’s no more fluid than rock. Yet he knows what she likes, what thrills and unnerves her, when she’s hiding something. His lithe warrior’s body promises pleasure she has gone too long without. But no matter how careful, how tender, how incendiary he is, only Zynda can know the sacrifice she must make for her people’s future—and the time is drawing near…

If you’ve been following my reviews of this series, you know how much I love this series. I think this one is one of my favorites (I might say that about each of them, but I mean it this time, I swear). Zynda is a character who has had a large role in the Uncharted Realms series (she was part of the original three Twelve Kingdoms books, but not as the major character in the last two books). Now she is finally getting her own book.

Zynda was a woman who kept her own council for the most part. I believe that she made friends with both Dafne and Jepp, but she always kept a part of herself away from others. I always kind of saw that she kept a piece of herself, but I don’t know that I realized exactly how much she kept apart (makes me want to reread the first two books to see if i see it now). While the Tala, species that she is a part of, is a secretive lot and I think that is why I didn’t really think much about it. Well, in this book, we learn that is much more than that.

Zynda is wanting to protect the Tala. They are dying out and have been for a while now. Each generation has more difficulty having children. Zynda thinks that is she takes the Final Form she will be able to save them. She has a lot of forms (she really won’t give a number, but it is a lot, more than double digits). She loves to spend time in these forms. You can frequently find her flying through the skies or swimming with dolphins in the oceans. Now she wants to become more, a dragon. She is hoping to take this form, but it is a Final Form and we all know what “final” means. So you can see where this would make you not want to make any tight bonds.

Marskal is the leader of the Queen Ursula’s Hawks, her personal army. He, too, has been a minor character that has taken a larger role in the later books. He has been charged with protecting Zynda, which she doesn’t take too kindly too. She is constantly running off to swim or fly away without telling anyone what is going on. Marskal takes his role very seriously. He tries his best not to let her out of his site, but she doesn’t make it easy, but he is always waiting for her. He seems to know when she’s gone swimming and knows exactly where she will come back to shore.

This was another great story in this series. There is the romance, which is difficult, but very well written. There is also the conflict that Zynda, Dafne, Jepp, Ursula and all the characters we’ve come to love, have to fight outside of the romance. There are people attacking Annfwn and with some pretty ugly stuff. It is the characters that really make me love this series. Kennedy writes such interesting characters that feel so real. I really care about what happens to them.

I would not recommending starting with this book. At minimum, I would recommend that you start with the first book in the Uncharted Realms series, The Pages of the Mind. If you’re willing, I would recommend that you start with the first book in the Twelve Kingdoms, The Mark of the Tala. While you can follow along with just reading Uncharted Realms, you miss out of the joy of the first three books.

The Twelve Kingdoms Series
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Melanie Simmons

I’m Melanie and I live in Ohio. I have two horses and a dog. I’m an animal lover, avid book reader and audiobook listener. I like to live vicariously through fictional characters. I enjoy reading and listening to mostly fictional books in the paranormal genre, including Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance and Horror. My favorite paranormal creatures are shifters, doesn’t matter the flavor.