Shades of Doon
Carey Corp and Lorie Langdon
Blink YA/Zondervan
Published: September 1, 2015
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As Vee embraces her role as Doon’s Queen, she looks forward to the day she and Jamie will be able to rule together. Her best friend Kenna still searches for her own place in the kingdom. Just as Kenna begins to feel she’s found her niche, a dark force boots both girls from their beloved land and drops them back in the real world. As if facing the shock of their old, broken lives wasn’t enough, all signs indicate that this is just the beginning of a new threat. Together with the MacCrae boys, they’ll have to face an old enemy once again, one who’s determined to have the rule of Doon for herself.
Vee and Kenna are very different, but their friendship makes them each stronger. I liked the dynamics between them, where Kenna kept Vee from taking herself too seriously and Vee kept Kenna from losing faith in herself. The circle of friends and advisers added interest, too. I definitely wanted to know more about each of them. I haven’t read either of the earlier books in this series, so I may have to do that in the hopes that some of these other characters get a little more stage time.
I also really enjoyed the references to musicals and theater that were sprinkled throughout the story. Though I’m far from a theater buff, I picked up on several of them, and it felt like being in on a joke or something. I thought it was a nice touch.
While I found myself captured by the idyllic landscape of the story, I felt like it lost tension in a couple of places. One is after the girls are booted out of Doon, which is resolved in a snap once the boys arrive. The other is following an attack by an unknown enemy. The attack ends and everyone kind of dusts themselves off and moves on. I was like, wait, what?! Is the enemy still out there? What’s going on?? But… no one else really seemed too worried. So that was a little confusing.
There was also quite a bit of kissing in this story. Don’t get me wrong – I’m all for a bit of smooching, especially when I’ve been rooting for the romance to finally blossom for the entire story. This was more like, the couple has already fallen in love and it’s kind of just happily ever after on rinse and repeat. I would have liked to see more tension or conflict between the couples to keep me guessing and hoping. However, if I’d been a reader from the very beginning of the series, I might still be happy-sighing every time a well-earned lip-smack happens. So it could just be me. And the authors take things up a notch toward the end, definitely creating some anticipation for the next book.
Language Content
No profanity.
Sexual Content
Lots of scenes that include kissing. There’s one moment where it gets pretty intense and the characters stop themselves from taking things further, wanting to respect the boundaries they’ve set for their relationship which include waiting to have sex until marriage.
Spiritual Content
The Protector seems to be the name the Doonians use to refer to God. They believe that some have a calling to live out their lives in the kingdom of Doon, and that calling involves being joined with a soul mate.
Violence
A witch threatens the Doonian people. No graphic details beyond an admiring description of Duncan or Jamie’s rippling muscles.
Drug Content
None.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
