{"id":455,"date":"2022-10-05T22:39:18","date_gmt":"2022-10-06T02:39:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/samiamreadingandreviewing.wordpress.com\/?p=455"},"modified":"2025-06-24T21:03:04","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T21:03:04","slug":"a-slave-to-kings-dodie-bishop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/?p=455","title":{"rendered":"A Slave to Kings – Dodie Bishop"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the third book in the Silence and Shaows<\/em> series, Dodie Bishop once again brings the drama and the heat with Raphael and Susannah Rossi. I\u2019ve really been enjoying this series, and I hope this isn\u2019t the last novel. I think it wrapped things up with Sam, but I\u2019m hoping Bishop will continue the series in whatever direction she sees fit. I\u2019m going to give this novel 4.5\/5 stars, but I\u2019ll round it up to 5 for the Goodreads review!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raphael, Susannah, Sam, Noah, and his sons are once again dealing with danger, drama, and chaos. Sam is going to start a new life in Italy after he was \u201ckilled\u201d in Jamaica, and connects with his mother\u2019s family in order to do so. They come from the same town as Raphael\u2019s family, so the group is looking forward to reconnecting with relatives. Raphael and Susannah discover multiple surprises and Sam is gratified that his family are more accepting of him and Noah than he thought. All too soon, the group must separate to find out who tried to kill Sam in Jamaica. Noah goes on the hunt in London, Susannah and Raphael get back to their artistry, and Sam is left to worry and wait. However, Susannah accidentally spills the truth to the Duke of Monmouth, which lands everyone in a pile of worry and trouble. Will Sam\u2019s problems ever be laid to rest?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was so much going on in A Slave to Kings<\/em> that my synopsis has only reflected the general nature of the book. I\u2019ve totally left out the minor character drama and other issues that Raphael and Susannah are experiencing. Bishop really knows how to weave a complex storyline with the adventure, romance, character-building, and world-building all in a superb and delicate balance. This novel might have been a tad more on the romantic side, but my guess is that it was necessary to give us more insight into a character who I hope will be central to the continuation of the series. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I said in my introduction, I believe that we\u2019ve wrapped up the business with Sam. I think I\u2019ll have to do more reading about King Charles II to really understand why<\/em> Sam needed to die in the first book. I get the conundrum he was in, but I\u2019m still not sure why it needed to result in his being out of the picture permanently. I do believe this was a misunderstanding on my part rather than poor execution on Bishop\u2019s. If you want to read more about the Duke of Monmouth, you can check him out here<\/a>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because Sam\u2019s problem appears to have been resolved, I\u2019m curious (and a little worried, if I\u2019m honest) about the next direction this series will take. I\u2019m not ready to let go of Raphael and Susannah after three books! I want more! This series just ticks all of my boxes for romantic suspense. The plot is tense, there\u2019s good camaraderie between the characters, each character has realistic flaws, the romance is a little spicy, and the drama is REAL<\/em>. I don\u2019t know how Bishop has included all of these elements while still making the books likable. I feel that it\u2019s very hard to have so much going on while still creating a comprehensive novel that isn\u2019t overbalanced in some element. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, Dodie Bishop, if you\u2019re ever reading this: please write more! The only novel by Bishop I haven\u2019t read is Still Life<\/em>, but that\u2019s because BookSirens said it had a bittersweet ending and I\u2019m not here for sadness. I\u2019ve said before that Bishop is an author to watch, and I\u2019m finding that I connect with her writing really well. Part of what makes it so quality to me is that if someone needs to be killed, it happens, even though the characters obviously don\u2019t want to. Or, a bit of rough language is thrown in at totally the right moment, or some intimate description is included that could otherwise be closed-door. I find that these details increase the believability of the story and make the characters more relatable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019ve read this far, thanks for sticking with me! Give the Silence and Shadows<\/em> series a try; I\u2019ve really enjoyed it. Let me know what you think! I will look forward to the next installment, provided there is one. I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thanks, BookSirens!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the third book in the Silence and Shaows series, Dodie Bishop once again brings the drama and the heat with Raphael and Susannah Rossi. I\u2019ve really been enjoying this series, and I hope this isn\u2019t the last novel. I think it wrapped things up with Sam, but I\u2019m hoping Bishop will continue the seriesContinue reading “A Slave to Kings – Dodie Bishop”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":457,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,17,33,52,57,105,157,169,331,344,380,381,400],"class_list":["post-455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-a-slave-to-kings","tag-advanced-readers-copy","tag-arc","tag-book-review","tag-booksirens","tag-dodie-bishop","tag-historical-fiction","tag-historical-romance","tag-raphael-rossi","tag-review","tag-silence-and-shadows","tag-silence-and-shadows-series","tag-susannah-rossi","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/image0.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=455"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":618,"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455\/revisions\/618"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}