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Review: Where Shadows Lie (The Last Gift: Arc one #1) by Allegra Pescatore

March 15, 2024 by C. J. Daley (CJDsCurrentRead) Leave a Comment

Rating: 8/10

Synopsis

The Chosen One is dead.

Only his sister can take his place.

Disabled since childhood, Elenor was content to live in her brother’s shadow, besting her cousins at cards and sneaking her girlfriend into her room at night. Now she’s next in line for the throne and beset on all sides by factions out for blood. With time ticking down until someone manages to kill her too, Elenor will be forced to choose between accepting her father’s despotic rule or risking everything for her late brother’s lofty ideals.

Meanwhile, from the rainy streets of Lirin to the scorching dunes of the Mondaer Desert, the death of the Chosen One has inadvertently broken a chain of events five centuries in the making. Ancient forces move in the shadows, calling in debts and striking deals. A monster with a thousand faces fingers his knife, ready to kill, and a pair of fugitives run for their lives, unaware of the danger they carry with them. 

Filled with intrigue, romance, and an adorable baby dragon, this own-voices Gaslamp Epic Fantasy puts a disabled, lgbtq+ protagonist front and center.

Review

I was given an audiobook from Authors Direct in order to judge the book for Best Audio Narration for the Indie Ink Awards. It is narrated by Marian Hussay, and it’s incredibly well done. 

The cast of characters is incredibly diverse, and the narration doesn’t miss a beat with accents and personalities. There’s everything from Irish to Middle Eastern, and they’re all done well. I was super impressed and it was very enjoyable. 

The novel also features lesbian/bisexual and disability representation, which I also found to be well done and meaningfully used. One of the main characters, seen on the cover, was taken with a wasting sickness as a child and had to fight their way back to walking. It’s not used just to be there, it genuinely shapes everything the character is and does. 

This is a large scale epic fantasy, with winding plot and twisting turns. It features multiple POVs that become more and more intwined over time. It is very heavy on the political intrigue, with actual action being quite spread out, but the climax was pretty damn solid. There’s cool magic, relying on apparatuses that enhance or funnel power, and most people are required to charge items with magic so that they have a source to draw from in times of need. Therefore, the more powerful are dangerous, and the gods watch them. 

Interesting first entry, I would check out more!

Filed Under: Dragons, Epic Fantasy, Fantasy, Gaslamp, LGBTQ+, Reviews Tagged With: #AllegraPescatore, #DisibilityRep, #IndieInkAwards, #LGBTQrep, #TheLastGift, #TheLastGiftArcOne, #WhereShadowsLie

About C. J. Daley (CJDsCurrentRead)

I was an avid player of Who Wants to be a Millionaire: Lord of the Rings Edition. When the millions turned out to be fake, and answering that ‘Athelas’ was another name for ‘Kingsfoil‘ grew tiresome, I retired. Now I'm a horror author and an avid reader of all things sci-fi/fantasy/horror/mystery.

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