ARC Review: "Shadow of Reality" by Şevval Sağır (Legend of Caldorin #1) ★★★★

ARC Review: Shadow of Reality by Şevval Sağır

An incredible Fantasy story filled with magic, mayhem, riddles, political intrigue, secrets, betrayals and plot twists. I couldn’t put it down!

She could have been the Fair Lady. Or born of a curse. Or the daughter of the Fallen Prince. The wingless fairy. But Isolde was my hope. Now a fair lady, beyond today she would be the queen of hope. My queen. The woman who made me choose to live the moment she first arrived. To live for her.

[Contains some spoilers]

PLOT SUMMARY
In the land of Khyron, Isolde of Rindek is a cursed wingless Elys fairy. Her father Prince Hyper tried to overthrow the corrupt King Thaddeus but was unsuccessful and exiled to the Rindek Islands. Her mother Lady Niri, ruler of the Marin fairies, died when she was a child. There are 5 types of fairies: Elys, Ignis, Lumi, Terran and Marin (spirit, fire, light, forest and water respectively). The Ignis fairies are going extinct as any Ignis child is slaughtered. Isolde manages to avoid some of this by smuggling mothers and children onto boats headed to the island of Sepulkrin.

Isolde is summoned to the Kingdom of Thalnia by a letter from Victor her childhood friend who disappeared to Sepulkrin to improve life there. Seemingly a changed man, now a ruthless leader with dark powers and the ability to read minds, Isolde is to act as a neutral party. She does at first, getting to know Prince Percival a kind light fairy. But there is more to him than meets the eye (quite literally, if you know you know).

Caught in a web of lies, discovering many secrets about her family and Thalnia, as well as ending up competing in deadly tournaments, Isolde must confront many things especially her confused feelings for Victor, before it is too late.

OVERALL OPINIONS
I applaud Şevval Sağır for this wonderfully well-put-together story with phenomenal world-building, characters and plot. Such things are not easy to do, and I commend her for her efforts with this.

I got a lot of vibes from other series of books such as Ingo (particularly the arc with Isolde and her mother) Throne of Glass, A Court of Thorns and Roses (the fact that they are fae as well as the politics and trials), and The Hunger Games (the tournament and arena trials) with a touch of The Witcher (monsters) and Shadow and Bone (Victor and his shadowy powers). If you are a fan of any or all of these stories, this ought to be up your street!

Overall, this was a wonderful read and I look forward to the sequel.

<< Positives >>
🠚 I really enjoyed the arena scene onwards, I was completely hooked and eager to turn the page. The devastation of Isolde having to fight her friend Percival after all they have been through was captured excellently. And those plot twists at the end! Oh my goodness they came one after another and they were amazing! I cannot believe I have to wait for the sequel haha.
🠚 The different types of fairies all have clever and fitting names: Elys (spirit, like Elysium the afterlife for souls), Ignis (fire), Lumi (light), Terra (forest), Marin (water). These are all after Latin words which correspond appropriately.
🠚 The descriptions were beautiful. Take this example: My mind was playing games with me. It was shuffling the pieces of our friendship and putting them in the wrong order.
Or this one: I was a helpless man and she was the most beautiful treasure of the sea.
My favourite is this one: "You are the most beautiful dream a nightmare can have, Isolde. If they drowned me in all the dreams in the universe, I would still wake up in yours. I would fall into yours."
🠚 The complexity and tension of the relationship between Isolde and Victor was great, childhood friends reunited and much changed. I am a fan of the enemies-to-lovers trope and this did not disappoint in that regard. I did feel there was too much push and pull going on that it became too predictable. I think the only thing I would have liked was for the first time they see each other again to have been expanded upon: going through the physical descriptions and how Isolde is feeling. It just delves into it and there was no mystery or anything.
🠚 The humour when it was there was brilliant!
🠚 Isolde’s character is great! She is not obnoxious but flawed and we see her progress and strength as the story goes on. Victor is incredible, he is so protective.
🠚 I adored that the chapter header images were a bow for Isolde and a phoenix for Victor (very significant to both, especially considering the arena at the end).
🠚 The book cover is gorgeous!

<< Negatives >>
🠚The plot was a little confusing at first so I didn’t get into the story as well as I’d have liked. I got invested about halfway onwards.
🠚 I would have loved for there to have been a map. There were so many realms and kingdoms mentioned that I would have liked something to help me visualise this. 🠚 The formatting of the letters (the letters from Victor to Isolde were aligned on the right, Isolde’s letter to Victor were aligned left, when she doesn’t hear from him they are centred). It was an interesting idea, but I felt it was too inconsistent and they all should’ve been aligned as normal. Also, though I loved the concept of the letters and their continuation throughout the novel up until the end, I thought that it did not add much to the plot. Something that confused me about the letters at first was that they were addressed to Ruby though this was cleared up once it was established this was a nickname Victor gave Isolde. Isolde’s letters by the time it gets to Victor not responding felt too desperate for my liking.
🠚 I felt a similar thing about the quotes at the start of each chapter, usually from parents. I felt it didn’t add much to the plot or explain anything, but again I liked the idea of them.
🠚 Some more minor issues concerned the formatting and some typos. Some conversations were formatted so that two people said things in the same paragraph and it sometimes confused me to the extent I didn’t know who was speaking. Typos are perfectly okay (so a misspelling of “duve” instead of “duvet” or a missing quotation mark) but some things brought me out of the immersion because it would be the wrong use of pronoun or repetition of words: such as “The king did not seem offended or offended” from page 78.

CHARACTERS
-ˋˏ ꒰ Isolde꒱ ˎˊ-
↳ Isolde’s character is great! She is not obnoxious but flawed and we see her progress and strength as the story goes on.

-ˋˏ ꒰ Victor꒱ ˎˊ-
↳ Victor is incredible, he is so protective and amusing. I love the plot twist at the end where he is also a phoenix and he therefore never left her side. That was very endearing. I love their lavender dreams too.

-ˋˏ ꒰ Other characters꒱ ˎˊ-
↳ Oli is adorable and hilarious, I loved every moment when he was there. I loved his side-plot and the fact he gets reunited with his wife. That was heartwarming! 🠚 I feel so sorry for Percival. He always tries to do his best, it's heartbreaking to see the man he becomes by the end of the story.

FAV QUOTES
• Maybe I was right in my anger, yes, but so was he. We were not strong, especially not against the king. It was just the two of us. A defeated prince and his curse born daughter.
• We had inherited nothing of my mother's light. Only darkness. Even blue would have been gray to us.
• It was as if I deserved only him in this world. He was the darkness and I was not worthy of the light, so I was afraid that if I gave him up, I would not be able to exist anywhere.
• It was like drowning in a presence that had been away for years. It was the kind of torture that made it hard to leave. I wanted her to be safe, with me or not. I just wanted her to keep laughing.
• “You know why I'm here. You know what I want. You will even give it to me with your own hands. Because instead of being trapped in the brutality of my punishment, I became the brutality itself. I learned to master it.”
• Who could say that years had passed and we had become two different people. But he still looked at me the same. The same way Victor looked at Isolde.
• Ruby is durable, strong. Kings, sultans wear red. It represented victory. That's why Isolde was a ruby. It was what she deserved. My ruby is fearless. Born of a curse, it is nature's love for courage and victory. The red hidden in those black pupils that no one sees. Her fear is hers and her courage is hers
• Only I hear her silence, only I listen to her, let the whole world bury itself in screams. She laughs. I listen to her anger, let her yell at me. Let her make trouble, tear everything to pieces, I rebuild it with my hands. She is silent but I don't forget her, I see her. I see her desire and fear in her eyes, not in her lips. I become her wings, I'm even willing to burn if she wants to fly to the sun.
• Power is not just the magic that comes out of your palms.
• Victor was always an enigma to me, an unknown. Everything I shared with him was a step towards solving the mystery surrounding him. But now, as I dove deeper into what he had become, I realized that my feelings for him were not limited to friendship or loyalty. It was the thrill when he touched me that scared me. It was the butterflies he awakened when he looked at me that night at the ball that terrified me. His return also filled my heart with fear. With an emotion, an emotion I couldn't name, an emotion I had trouble understanding.
• "I am shattered. " He said through his teeth. He was holding himself, gasping for breath. I pressed my hand over the scar, ignoring his grip."And I'm cursed. " I whispered."I think we're perfect for each other.
• "My soul, my heart, my body, my being, my powers... Everything that can belong to me is yours. I am yours. Every heartbeat is yours, every breath is yours." • Did they expect me to be neutral? Then I would have my own side.
• Fists flying, hearts breaking, souls shattering—two broken warriors, bound by destiny, fighting not just for victory, but for the remnants of who we once were.

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I received an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review and I’d like to thank Şevval Sağır and Reedsy for the opportunity. This has not affected my opinion in any way.

“Shadow of Reality” is out now!