The Hidden (Shadowed Wings #1)

Compared to other Ivy Asher books this one is just abhorent. The book is essentially how can we mistreat women without outrigh raping them. I mean what’s with this he beats and abuses me therefore he loves me nonsense. Its just plain horrible. Writting quality plot conherence is ok though. Just stop making women into some sort of weak caricatures and men into abusive subhumans. It’s plainly sickening.

Losing your last bit of family sucks. Waking up in another world, completely lost, new rules and a new body suck even worse. The fun part, other than hateful attitudes, is that the gallant gryphon that’s supposed to be lurking inside seems more like a horny chicken. Yay! So, this whole other nonsense about prophecies spouted by sarcastic ghosts is just icing on the cake.

Spoilers ahead.
I love Ivy Asher. Her Sentinel series is amazing. Her Fools standalone is hysterical. This one? It sort of fell flat for me. I liked the concept. Something in the fleshing out just lost it.
*How could a reasonable person dropped into a new world not want to know more about it?
*There’s a war going on, wouldn’t you want to learn why? Basic vagueness of magical slavery doesn’t cut it for me.
*Wtf is up with the men in this world? Are they Klingons in their foreplay? Slamming down, biting, hitting. The not taking no for answer pushes it from Klingon into rape, though. And then shaming her for using the only method available to her to make him stop?? Oh. Hell. No. He was already on shaky ground with me as an H, he lost it after that. I hope he’s served up with BBQ sauce in book 2. No. Means. No. Especially with the background scene he provided. The misunderstanding from their first scene made him seem like he wouldn’t be a knuckle dragger. Then he 180ed and ended up a complete jerk. It wasn’t a lack of character growth, it was character devolvement. BTW, one yes isn’t a blanket yes for all future attempts.
*She’s got an itch, we get it. She was looking for a lay before she got realm swiped. New layout just provided new opportunities. And I liked Sutton. A lot better than the 2 freaking turkeys that are apparently supposed to be her “men”. He was sweet, actually talked to her, not at her. One of her Hs had some random chick on his lap but she slow dances and he loses it? Screw him and his double standards.
*As her hormones keep getting yanked into knots, wouldn’t a girl want to know just a little more about gryphon mating habits? Since her inner chicken seems to be the one calling the shots?
*I get that no matter where you wind up, there’s always going to be opposition. But why is Loa being so hateful? From the go, just pure ugliness but no reason why.
*We get these 2 week gaps, yet she seems to learn almost nothing in them. Barely fighting skills, not a peep about culture, she’s building them a hot water system but she’s been there months and still knows nothing of importance.
*If some ghost popped up and told me that I was the key to ending magical slavery, something that pretty much everyone currently hates her for (yay lucky genetics), I would be grabbing that knowledge with both hands. I’d want to help people, if for no other reason than it’d leave me a lot less worried about knives in my back. And get me back home away from creepy thing 1&2, the less than lovely love interests.
*Pheromones or not, her gryphon should be very interested in protecting itself, no matter if it’s her human form or animal form. It doesn’t seem very keen to do so. Not her body, not her head, not her heart. Being injured on arrival would only slow it down. If it has healing powers, why would it take weeks when a broken bone is healed in hours? Does it not have any inherited memory? Does it want to see her human half demeaned by hateful would-be lovers? I don’t get it.
*On Earth there were several types of shifters. Does this world only have gryphons? If so, why?
I’m always amazed at the world building Ivy Asher does. Little bits of history, culture clues, hints via conversations, breadcrumbs that leave you looking for more of these amazing new worlds. This one felt more like a bludgeoning than a leading. I want book 2, but only because I hope there’s some way she can get her inner chicken to break the bonds to those 2 and snag Sutton. I don’t care of it’s some role they are playing. I don’t care if they’re worried about her possible “powers”. If they were that worried she wouldn’t be in their secret hideout. She’d be under guard in a cell or a remote cabin away from potential victims. There is no plausible excuse for their behavior and I’m crossing my fingers that she grabs Sutton and gets to go back to Earth. She can introduce him to Netflix, ice cream and hot tubs.

Seriously! The first book just released tonight, and I already can’t wait for the next one! This is one of the best books I’ve read this entire year by far! The heroine is amazing. She’s so snarky and yet soft sometimes. She’s so kickass that you can’t help in love with her. Sometimes she stands her ground which is great but sometimes she just wants to bitch slap the inner pigeon inside of her. Ha ha. Seriously, this was amazing and I can’t wait for the next. How long until release?!?

The first thing I can think to say about The Hidden is that it grabbed me right from the beginning and wouldn’t release me. Falon is a snarky, somewhat brash heroine with a strong personality which I dug. Things start out in what feels like a paranormal/shifter type world until suddenly Falon is dealing with a whole other set of circumstances, creatures, and rules. She’s flying by the seat of her pants and I appreciated that Ms. Asher didn’t make the adjustment easy for her. The pull Falon feels to two of the guys around her makes things especially interesting.
In The Hidden, we learn about things as Falon does and there are a lot of huge question marks for her in this first installment of a new series. To me, that feels realistic in a world where there are groups at war with each other. There also appears to be complicated motivations/reasons on the part of one of the guys for keeping Falon in the dark about some things.
The guys are interesting and yes, they are dominant. Falon is used to dominating herself so there are definitely some struggles for control/power going down. I also really, really loved Falon’s animal. I loved her self-confidence, the no holds barred way that she approaches things, and how much personality she had that at times made Falon cheer and other times made her livid.
I truly enjoyed the heck out of this book and I’m looking forward to learning more about this world and how Falon’s going to deal with everything.

This is an angry young woman who ends up having angry sex that feels like rape. I dont like feeling distressed for characters and you will reading this. No HEA alphas being arses.

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