Shadow Princess

After the events of the Lunar Eclipse, Tory and Darcy must learn to deal with the darkness which shadows their lives.

With a secret binding them to Darius and Orion, they must find a way to all work together for the greater good. But some things are easier said than done.

724 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 13, 2020

About the author

I'm a #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Zodiac Academy series. I write all things dark romance, from fantasy to contemporary, high school bully to mafia, there's bound to be a book for you!

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Ratings & Reviews

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Community Reviews

ME AFTER FINISHING THIS BOOK

MY OPINION OF TORY AS I READ THIS BOOK

HOW I FELT ABOUT MY SLOW BURN TORY+DARIUS SHIP

THE ONE REDEEMING THING - DARCY+ORION

OKAY, THE ONE OTHER REDEEMING THING - GERALDINE

Tory ruined this book for me. I think I'm being harsher than necessary with my rating on this one because I'm just so 🤬🤬 with certain parts of this book right now.

✅ Lots of steamy scenes that were amazing
✅ I loved the profane humor and dialogue
🆗 Action packed but a little repetitive sometimes
✅ Darcy+Orion 4evah
✅ The side characters were all amazing and hilarious
❌ Tory's backward character development
❌ Major lack of communication 😤
❌ Constantly making progress only to go backwards 400 pages again

I definitely plan to read the rest of the series but I think I might need a mental break right now haha

Tory sucks

I don’t know if it was intentional, but I hated Tory throughout this entire story. Her constant pity parties were awful and the only way I could force myself to keep reading was because Darcy was actually compelling to read about. I hope this is just setting up Tory to have a big redemption arc because it was painful (and not in a good way) to read how totally she devolved as a character. She’s shown no growth and apparently has no redeeming qualities, and I’m not even talking about the decision she made at the end, she was awful the entire book. Hopefully something changes in the next book because if not, I’m definitely dropping this series.

Have you ever felt EXHAUSTED while reading a book? 724 pages. Why God. WHY? Did Tory Vega really need 400 pages of being a whiny pathetic little bitch? Did Seth really need 120 pages to make me wish he was dead? (I've wanted him dead since book 1 anyways) Did we really need 200 pages of the same back-and-forth just to make me feel like I was reading book 1 all over again? Guess we'll find out, tonight on Discovery Channel. If I was the sort of person who drinks, I'd be on my fifth shot of sacrificial whiskey while writing this review. Anyway, let's tackle the obvious, what I hated. - Tory Vega. I hate her. Always have, always will. Her constant pity parties, whining, selfishness, and: I want Darius. I hate Darius. I want Darius. I hate Darius. I will bounce on Caleb's dick as many times as I can even though that ADDS NOTHING to the plot and I have zero connection to him whatsoever. My sister needs TO LOVE ME, APPRECIATE ME. Darcy needs to attend to all my emotional needs while I don't pay attention to a single thing that is going on with her. Someone should have left this bitch in the human world. The more I read these books, the more I want Darius to really ruin the fuck out of her life, she doesn't deserve the air she breathes and she would never be a good ruler. - Seth why the fuck is this character even here? Seth, Caleb, and Max are the most useless, shallow and underdeveloped characters I have ever read about and they are just there for filler content. They're there to sound like a bunch of fucking chads and say: BABE, LITTLE VEGA, SWEETHEART in condescending tones, fuck everything that moves, and make me want to puke every time they make a decision that adds nothing to the plot and DOES NOT belong to their personality profile just for shock value. I truly wish they would die. They are SO inconsequential to this entire thing, they're just there to cause plot-controlling inconveniences for their lazy writing. - THE BOND The fact that Orion and Darius have that stupid little bond that makes them attracted to each other as straight men. I am not a gay man and I can't say if this is problematic or not, but JESUS CHRIST that annoys me to no end. They use the little "we want to cuddle because of the bond, we want to make out because of the bond" as a fucking joke. As a comedy device. Gay characters/attraction is not a comedy tool. The entire thing made me uncomfortable and annoyed. I also hate how their inner dialogues about it is usually: I hate that the bond makes me feel this way about him, I hate that it makes me want to suck his dick. Shut the fuck up. They didn't want to commit to a relationship between them other than brotherly love but this entire bond thing is useless and weird. - The dumb southern girl and the token Mexican kid : I don't think I need to explain this one. This series just has too many stereotypes that didn't need to exist. They are already supernatural creatures, get creative with THOSE stereotypes. - Length and Lack of Editing you'd think that five books deep, they would have hired an editor that would say: hey, maybe this doesn't need these 40 extra chapters. Maybe we should focus more on the girls having real classes and actually learning something for once. Maybe we should go deeper into the world-building and add SOME droplets of it for a change. Maybe we should give these characters more solid personalities and make sure they stick to it? MAYBE JUST MAYBE, a well-written plot twist is worth 300 cliffhangers. They started with this ridiculous shit again, just to make sure people pick up the next book. A sloppy, non-sense cliffhanger that came out of NOWHERE, with no actual build-up. And please, don't even get me started on that Tory and Darius bullshit. You know what? He dodged a fucking bullet if you ask me. I wouldn't want to be tied to fucking Tory Vega for the rest of my life. I NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD SAY THIS BUT DARIUS-DESERVES-BETTER. Do you know who is the most CONSISTENT CHARACTER? THE VILLAIN OF THIS STORY. DARIUS' DAD KNOWS WHAT'S UP. He knows what he wants and he is going after it, and everything he does makes sense. Because it fits his personality profile. It fits his belief system. Even when he does something unexpected, IT FITS THE FUCKING BILL. Unlike every other character in here. if you are a writer or trying to be one, here is a tip: you need to know your characters, you need to understand their purposes, wants and needs. fears and wishes. AND THEY NEED TO REMAIN consistent, along with their choices and actions. They will all be guided by those things. And SLOWLY, add things that can shake up their belief system and maybe cause a disruption in how they see the world. I feel like these characters are being held hostage by these two authors who don't respect the characters they created THEMSELVES. They are pushing and pulling them, making them do things that make no sense so it fits their SLOPPY, LAZY plot and it is infuriating. I promised I am finishing this series because it's personal now. I want to be able to pinpoint every mistake, every disgrace, I want to criticize it with the knowledge of a FUCKING SCHOLAR OK. Now to the few good things, the only reason this book got 2 stars from me. Orion and Darcy. That's it. I want to remove every page they are on, and just make ZA their series. Their story. The only times I smiled, laughed or enjoyed myself was when they were present and I KNOW, I just KNOW they are going to fuck up the only good thing in this series in the next books. Because I am slowly learning their MO. And the MO of this series is BUTCHERING characters for the sake of shock. Anyways, 2 stars. One for Darcy being the only sister who is worth something and one for Orion finally being on time for his classes for the first time in four books. My blood boils but we will move on. Everyone is telling me: there is so much character development on book five, the writing has matured so much. If y'all are lying to me, you are getting bitch slapped. *raging violence, but it's all because the next book is even longer, don't worry I still love you*

– 4.5 stars

That cliffhanger. I knew something bad was going to happen, it was still brutal, but I'm sure everything is going to be fine *send prayers to the stars*

Warning: Contains spoilers for previous books I guess… but I don’t think I’m revealing anything too big for this one.

I'm going to stop trying to summarise the plot from here on, because it pretty goes like this every time:

In the last 10% of book A shit is going down, book B picks right where A left off and the characters have to deal with the consequences of what happened at the end of A while dealing with their own problems & traumas at the same time.

↠ DARCY & TORY VEGA.

One thing that was solid about this series from the start, is the strong sister bond between Darcy and Tory. It was always them against the world and for the first time the lies and secrets from the previous books are catching up to them and causing a riff. It had to happen, cause it couldn't be 7 books all rainbows and sunshine between them, but I still didn't like it when it happened. It made everything worse, because their riff happened when everything else was falling apart too, so reading that was depressing af and felt wrong. Those chapters gave me a feeling of "doom" like something bad is going to happen any moment and it made me fucking anxious. 😩 Luckily, their rocky relationship was only a smaller part of the book and they made up. The doom still happened, but idk if the Vega twins have e/o backs everything is going to work out somehow.

"Take it in turns. Does one of you want to go first?"
"I will," I said quickly. Darcy frowned at me but I held her gaze, not backing down. "If this is dangerous then I'm not risking you doing it first," I said simply. "You're the only thing I've got that matters to me in this world. If I lost you, I might as well be dead anyway so I'm not arguing."
"Tory. " Darcy replied with a frown. "Don't say things like that."
"It's true." I shrugged. "And it's not up for debate."

↠ PROFESSOR LANCE ORION.

Every book I think I cannot possibly love this guy more and he proves me wrong. The fact that all the relationship he has are fantastic just proves what a catch he is. Orion-Darius bromance. Check. Orion-Gabriel bromance. Check. Orion-Darcy romance. DOUBLE CHECK. He's THAT man. He has the RANGE. You know how he keeps being an asshole in class and basically to everyone, but I love how he's trying to be less of an asshole to Tory and build a relationship with her, because he knows how much Tory means to Darcy.

I faced the board, curious as Orion wrote his quote of the day on the board.

YOU ALL PASSED THE RECKONING

I arched a brow, glancing at Tory. "That's almost a compliment." I breathed and she laughed, but our amusement died away as Orion added more to the board.

THE STARS MUST BE FUCKING WITH ME.

Name me a better motivational speaker, I'll wait.

↠ DARCY & ORION.

credits to fendersdraw on ig

THEY ARE GOALS. Darcy and Orion's relationship is risky af, cause of their forbidden student-teacher romance. So many things can go wrong and they keep trying to make their relationship work. Both of them actually put so much effort in it. There are so many little moments that is making me soft when it comes to them. Their scenes keeps getting better w every book and I'm loving it here. 🥺

"Blue." I smiled dreamily, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear.
She is everything. Does she know how everything she is?

Lance Orion’s 5 love languages:

1. Words of affirmation

Orion shot to my side in a blur, steering me out of earshot of the waiting Keepers. “You’ll have to work on your stamina,” he said with a suggestive smirk. “Apart from that, it’s clear you’re made for this, Blue.” He dipped his head to my ear for half a second. “Thought you might be.”

It's the way Orion believes Darcy can do anything she sets her mind to and is always her biggest cheerleader.

2. Acts of Service

When it was revealed that the twins order form is a phoenix, Orion went straight to the library to find everything about phoenixes so that the twins could learn more about their magic. He knew he could help them strengthen their power and read more about it to help Darcy. Also the other time when Orion prepared his date with Darcy under the willow tree. Who would have thought this asshole professor would be so trash for a girl. If he wanted to, he would. Lance Orion proves that every single book.

3. Receiving gifts

Orion being a complete romantic and preparing wine and a gift for their liaison session. Orion gives Darcy a gift and it's a rose quartz. In Solaria they have a tradition to give a rose quartz to their significant other when they want to be exclusive. AHHHHHHH. AHHHHH. AHHHHH. *continues to scream for quite a while* Excuse me while I'm screaming all my feelings into the void, cause I can't deal with these emotions.

Please when Orion put Darcy into the Pitball club. I'm wheezing. You can't convince me otherwise that he didn't do it just to spend more time with her as he is the Pitball coach. Especially since Pitball means so much to Orion, I love to think of them just spending more quality time over a mutual hobby since Darcy is in the team now.

5. Physical touch

Darcy giving Orion a striptease. While she's doing it, she has her clumsy moments and it makes it even hotter for Orion. Please they are so precious. 🥺 technically that's Darcy's love language to Orion. But the fact that Orion is a vampire, an order that likes to stay by themselves and avoid touch and whenever he is close to Darcy, he can't help but touch her in some kind of way. That man can't keep his hands to himself when he is near her.

Give it up for my multi language king! 😌

He is SOOOOO smitten with her. All Darcy has to do is bat her eyelashes at him and he would do anything for her and it makes me want to bawl my eyes out.

Just wear what you like and put an illusion over them only Geraldine can see." Orion shrugged like that was so simple and I gave him my biggest eyes.
"You mean you'll do it for us?" I asked sweetly.
His eyes slid over me. "Yeah of course Blue."
Tory's brows lifted as she gazed at him. "The weirdest thing about all of this is you being nice, you know that right?"

Darcy & Orion out here giving me AVENGERS feeling. 😌 I love how well matched Darcy and Orion are. Their relationship is perfectly balanced out with every party involved doing everything they could to keep the relationship going. It's always making me soft the length they are willing to go to protect and fight for each other. 😩

↠ TORY & DARIUS.

credits to fendersdraw on ig

Here is the thing. I like Darius and Tory as individuals (enough). Tory was hella frustrating in this book, but I was warned by a couple of friends, so I didn't hate her too much. Also, I ADORE their relationships with other people (Tory with Darcy even Orion & Darius with Orion/Xavier/all the heirs), but when they are together, Tory and Darius are toxic. Hell, there are a lot of toxic couples out there that I love, give me toxcitiy anytime to a degree, but Tory and Darius are just frustrating me. Their relationship is stagnant and there is hardly any development, because they are both hot-tempered, stubborn and like to see the worse in e/o, especially Tory when it comes to everything Darius-related. This book we FINALLY got their first real kiss and sex scene after 4 long books and you know what. I FELT NOTHING, because I knew the second it was over Tory and Darius would go back hating and ignoring e/a, saying it was a mistake bla bla bla we've been here many times before. There is so much hot and cold, push and pull and personally i’m tired of them.

"You pulse through my blood with each beat of my heart. I live for every scrap of attention you offer me and suffer through every moment you spend ignoring me," he said darkly, holding my eye the entire time.

By the end of this series, people are going to say that Tory/Darius is the couple that made it against all odds, but IMO they had enough opportunities to make the relationship work in their favor, but decided not too, because of their pride, close-mindedness, lack of communication, I could name so many things that is wrong with their relationship and how THEY ARE THEIR WORST ENEMIES.

When the end happened and the decision between Tory and Darius that was made.. I saw that coming. I hurted for Darius, but at the same time I'm like dude.. you could have worked harder for it. You could have done so many things differently before that moment. You couldn't have chosen a worse timing to apologise the first time everything you've put Tory through. As for Tory, I understood why she rejected the bond and I was cheering her on. She had to do what felt right for her and it made me so proud. If a guy tried to drown me, choked me, pushed me into the mud and called me a whore and other things without ever apologising to me, I would have done what Tory has done too. 🤷🏽‍♀️

I jinxed myself.. here I was saying that I started to like Seth and in this book he shit all over that again. No no go fuck yourself werewolf. The way I had hopes that Seth and Darcy could end up besties, but after this book. ahahahahaha it's still possible, because there are still 3 more books, but Seth better makes up for all the pain he caused in Shadow Princess. If he's the reason something happens to Orion.. it's on sight.

Caleb somehow was less annoying in this book too. Ngl I even felt a little bad for him, because he clearly cares about Tory and she's giving him the cold shoulder, but how can I just not see that she isn't interested?!

CALEB: Hey, sweetheart. Do you wanna hang out tonight? X

I watched as the red ticks illuminated to let me know she'd read the message. She was probably trying to think up the perfect thing to say back to me. Agonising over it, debating it with her friends and trying to figure out how best to respond to me.

I'm shipping Max and Geraldine so much. It's beautiful to see how she wouldn't even think about giving him any attention, which makes him crave it even more. I can't wait to read their novella.

↠ ORION & DARIUS.

This bromance is the best. I love it so much. They remind me of Johnny and Gibsie (Binding 13 & Keeping 13) another amazing bromance. It's never not hilarious when both of them get so touchy with each other and feel so happy when the other is around.. it's so untypical for their orders. Also their banter is top notch. Darius is jealous of Gabriel & Orion's friendship and it's so funny. LOL.

Darius stood up, pulling me into a tight embrace, his muscles looking around me. The bond between us grew sharper and I clutched onto him. "I'm gonna miss you," i said out loud, even though I'd meant to say it in my head.
"As much as Gabriel?" Darius asked, his forehead knocking against mine.
"You guys need to get a room," Tory interrupted and we stepped away from each other.

↠ SIDE-CHARACTERS.

Protect Xavier at all cost. Geraldine is a QUEEN and a SAVAGE. I want to be her when I grow up, even tho I don't understand half of the shit that comes out of her mouth. 🤣

↠ Orion's birthday when he went out with Gabriel, Darius and meet Darcy and Tory at the club and they played the 'Dare' game. Drunk Orion is so funny. 😭😭

↠ Tory, Darcy, Orion, Darus, Seth, Max, Caleb & Xavier having a snowball fight. One of the best scenes in the whole series hands down. I was waiting for something like that for so long!! If they could all see the bigger pictures and work together to fight off the bigger evil, they would be unstoppable.

↠ ALL THE DARCYORION SCENES. MY HEART IS SINGING.

This series has been great so far. It has great romance, great friendships, great bromance + an interesting plot. All the things I love, but the reason why I can't give any of the books 5 stars is because I'm not invested enough in half of the couples.

#0.5 Zodiac Academy: Origin of an Academy Bully – 3.75 stars
#1 Zodiac Academy: The Awakening – 3.5 stars
#2 Zodiac Academy: Ruthless Fae – 3.75 stars
#3 Zodiac Academy: The Reckoning – 4.5 stars
#4 Zodiac Academy: Shadow Princess – 4.5 stars
#5 Zodiac Academy: Cursed Fates – 4 stars
#5.5 Zodiac Academy: The Big A.S.S. Party – 3.5 stars
#6 Zodiac Academy: Fated Throne – 4.25 stars
#7 Zodiac Academy: Heartless Sky – 3.75 stars
#8 Zodiac Academy: Sorrow and Starlight – tbr
#9 Zodiac Academy: (. ) – tbr
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