Dragonshadow (Heartstone #2)

by Elle Katharine White

ISBN 978-0-06-274796-9

Disclaimer: I received a free review copy of this title from the publisher.

“I won’t play this game. Aliza is your wife, not your servant. You can’t dismiss her and you certainly can’t slip away in the night without telling her. Frankly, I’m a little ashamed to see you try.”

The Greater Lindworm is dead, and Aliza Bentaine and Alistair Daired are happily wed and settled at House Pendragon. But only a couple of weeks into their honeymoon, reality has come calling. The Tekari continue to wreak havoc on the Kingdom of Arle in the aftermath of the Battle of North Fields, and the offers for Alistair and Akarra to take a new contract are mounting. The question of which contract to accept is settled when a desperate messenger from the far north of the kingdom collapses on their doorstep, bringing news of a threat that hunts Idar, and has now begun to claim human victims as well. But as Alistair and Akarra prepare to travel north, Aliza is determined not to be left behind

The second installment in this series follows on Heartstone, which could be best described as Pride and Prejudice with dragons. However, Dragonshadow stands alone, having left the parameters of the original scaffolding story behind. I was curious to see if White would try to pull in another narrative, perhaps using elements of a different Austen story, but Dragonshadow instead delves deeper into the fantasy elements to explore the fallout of the Battle of North Fields. Old, dark things are stirring in Arle, and the lindworms were only the beginning. While humans freely harvest heartstones from the Tekari, they do not take them from the Idar, and wearing the heartstone of a Shani is unthinkable. But meeting some of the Idar, and talking to one Centaur in particular, causes Aliza to beginning thinking about how these distinctions among Arle’s magical creatures arose in the first place.

Many of the supporting characters from Heartstone do not feature in Dragonshadow, as Alistair and Aliza wing north to Castle Selwyn with Akarra. None of Aliza’s sisters make an on page appearance, and nor does Alistair’s sister Julienna feature. I found this a bit disappointing, since I really enjoyed the sibling dynamics in Heartstone, but White highlights other relationships here. I particularly enjoyed the dynamic between Aliza and Akarra. Although Akarra is bonded to Alistair, she accepts Aliza into that bond as an equal, despite her lack of Rider pedigree. More than that, she calls Alistair on his nonsense when his protectiveness borders on infantilizing. It would have been easy to set up a conflict between Aliza and Akarra, but their friendship is much more interesting.

This final point is a bit spoilery, but also falls into the category of content warnings. Over the course of the story, Aliza discovers, and then loses, a very early pregnancy. It’s rare to see miscarriage depicted in a fantasy novel at all, let alone sensitively handled. I was a bit worried that it would be used as a destructive plot point for Alistair, who would blame either himself or Aliza for killing their child by allowing her to accompany him on the contract, but fortunately White does not take the story down that road. Instead, Aliza is surrounded by empathetic and supportive women from Castle Selwyn, some of whom have known loss of their own.

In order to live happily ever after, Aliza knows she needs to figure out how she will walk the line between the traditions of the dragon riders, and staying true to her own heart. As Lady Daired, new expectations threaten to hem her in at every turn, but she is determined to forge her own path, and set her own terms for what it means to be a Rider’s wife. Sequels with newly married characters often find an excuse to separate them in order to add tension to the plot, but Dragonshadow stands out by having Aliza and Alistair face the difficulties together, weathering their first disagreements as newlyweds. I look forward to the Daireds’ further adventures in Flamebringer.