From the highly acclaimed author of The Treasure Keeper and Queen of Dragons comes this mesmerizing new novel of the drákon, a supersensual race of shapeshifters whose world exists side by side with our own. In The Time Weaver, a young drákon woman discovers she possesses a unique gift, one that brings her closer to her destined love--at the cost of their very lives.
Honor Carlisle may have been born into the drákon clan but she’s always felt like a stranger to her kin. It’s an intuition that proves true when she receives a mysterious letter--a letter sent by her future self. Honor learns she is a Time Weaver: a creature with the extraordinary ability to transport herself into the past or future.
But the letter contains a dire warning. If Honor remains in her home at Darkfrith, she is certain to be killed. Fleeing for sanctuary among old friends in Spain, she practices her Weaving and unknowingly draws closer to an even more immediate danger. For on one of her Weaves into the future, Honor encounters the very man she should most avoid: the prince of a rival tribe of drákon.
Drawn to Prince Alexandru of Zaharen, Honor is unable to resist the temptation of Weaving to him again and again across time. As they surrender to a desire that brings the present and future ever closer, they realize they are true soulmates. But they also risk fulfilling a terrible prophecy--for their union is destined to wreak havoc. Now Honor and Sandu must place their trust--and their lives--in each other’s hands, and their faith in a magical love that could restore order to the drákon universe--or destroy it forever.
She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Southern California, and currently resides in the mountains of Colorado with her very patient husband and a lot of pets.
Zane and Lia, from , play a big role in Time Weaver, and Zane's even more deliciously dark, dangerous, and morally ambiguous here than in the second novel. <3 Meanwhile, Lia's mature, mysterious and elegant as an adult.
So, as I warn my friends, the hero and heroine are not immediately thrust together. Be aware that they will spend some time apart but not unaware of each other. I don't usually like this, but with the Drákon books, I find I don't mind because every bit is so decadent.
Readers new to the Drákon should at least flip through book four, Treasure Keeper, or they may not understand Honor's dilemma in this book. I'll be interested to hear everyone's opinions on the climax. I have no doubt there'll be differing opinions. For my part, I thought it fit. Do you enjoy your fairy tales and Greek myths dark? Then check out the Drákon.
Books about time travel confuse me. I always feel like there is something I'm missing, something that I can't put together in my mind. I try to ignore that and just enjoy the story. There's a lot of time travelling in this story, and a lot of alternate futures.
However, I was always hoping that the English Weredragon Council would get some sense knocked into it regarding women. Unfortunately, that never happened. Even though female weredragons are smart, strong, gifted and brave, the Council never acknowledges them as anything more than breeding machines. In addition to all that, they keep upholding their medieval rules and punishments. They mercilessly kill anyone they see as a threat, including children. They slaughter their own kind for running away from the clan.
This is the fifth and final book in what I consider a five star series. In a series I tend to rate the books against each other and the first three were five stars and the last two would have been a 4.5 but had to round it up. I loved them all! The world this author has created was one of beauty and wonderful descriptions that took me back to the 1700's to Darkfrith and to Zaharen Yce deep in the Carpathian Mountains. The English Drakon of Darkfrith have discovered their distant relatives long hidden in Zaharen Yce and that is in the previous books. This book is a continuation of course of the those stories although each book highlights the lives of a different couple. By now the reader is well aware that the Drakon are not humans who shape shift into Dragons. They are DRAGONS who have learned to live in secret within the world of man by shapshifting into human form. That does not make them human.
For me this book began with an ominous tone and kept it throughout. From the prologue:
"Everyone local knew not to venture to Darkfrith at night, even if they did not know why.
For sixteen generations the drakon thrived in this little pocket of the world.
By the time the seventeenth took their first toddling steps, it was done.
Here is the story of how they perished. Or perhaps it's the story of how they did not.
You'll see."
The plot of this book is very unique and if you like twists and turns, there are more than I can count. I did at times find it confusing but at the same time it was intriguing which meant I wanted to know more. I will suggest something here that I did. I went back to the previous book, The Treasure Keeper, and re-read from page 288 to page 296. It ties Honor to this book. This is her story, a Drakon girl/woman who was kidnapped as a young girl from Darkfrith for her own safety. Honor has a unique gift for a Drakon in that she can Time Weave or go back and forth in time. She can't Turn but most females can not. I really didn't like Honor all that well, but that is part of the story.
Zane and Lia from the second book, The Dream Thief, play a huge part in this book. Although this is a romance between Honor who later is called Rez and Sandu, Prince of Zaharen, to me the real love story is that of Zane (who is a mortal) and Lia, daughter of the alphas of Darkfrith. Zane and Lia have defied family and tradition for so many years with their forbidden union, and yet she is willing to risk everything including her life for family and Darkfrith. However, when they become aware of the threat, Zane is willing to destroy Darkfrith and everyone living there to protect his wife.
The ending was kind of disappointing to me, not in how everyone ended up but in the way it was done. The entire book is a trip full of twists and turns and at many points I had no idea how this could ever end "right". Then it is kind of tied up in a tidy bow toward the end in a twist I did not see coming and seemed a little contrived. That said, I LOVED this series and will read it again. One note - the cover. I bought the first book for the wonderful cover and the second one was just as beautiful. Covers went down hill from there and this one looks like a Twilight copycat. Not good, publishers!
Excellent! Regency dragon romance! And an intriguing ending to a pretty amazing series. It's such a realistic romance for a paranormal or fantasy type novel. I was enthralled from the first word. I'm glad I finally got around to finishing this series.
Nothing more ugh-inspiring than finding out a book you've just read is like, the who-knows-number-what in a series!!! (FIFTH in this case. That's a LOT). But grumbles aside, this book was pretty AMAZING. Breathtaking. This was a really magical tale, and I think I just discovered yet another brilliant author! Could be due to the fact that I missed four books, but there were some parts that made me a little confused but mainly it was fine. Star-crossed lovers, magical abilities, time travelling, and of course, a love that seems to overcome all.. Not sure if this is the last book of the Drakon series (the author stated that it wouldn't be the last if she could help it so guess that's pretty good news for myself and other Drakon fans!) but I am so gonna go read the previous books! This book is hard to put down and the storyline was great, totally original. Liked it a lot! :)
The premise was great and i really wanted to feel for Honor and Sandu, I did, but there was just not enough interaction between the two of them. I felt as if they spent too little time together for me to feel anything for them and I desperately wanted to because the story was so pretty, it really is. All in all I was left seriously wanting more.
I finished reading this book a few days ago and I couldn't get myself to put down in words what I felt about the book. I've read other reviews about this book and they all say it's excellent, loved it, etc. I just thought it was ok. At times I had trouble following whose narrative I was reading about. Yes, it is a wonderful love story, however, I think it was the ending that bothered me the most. The solution that took place in the end just defeated everything about the story in that everyone worried for nothing. I wish I could explain more. A little out there for me. I've read better and ones that made more sense to me. C'est la vie.
I feel...hollow after reading this book. I was very unhappy with the way it ended and how it went about to be honest. First off (Even though I know the book wasn't about this) i'm really pissed off about how Darkfrith thinks they have the right to just come and takeover Zaharen Yce. THEY LIVE IN ENGLAND!!! At this point I don't like The Council OR Kimber, all of them can SUCK IT! Are you kidding me! They would have killed an entire village of people/drakon just to procure some land that they most likely would never traverse to. And the fact that Maricara would even let that sh** slide is disgusting to me, she lived in that village and Zaharen Yce her whole life up until her late teens- early twenties and she's just gonna sit back and let Darkfrith go over there and act like they have some sort of claim to it. NO, THEY LEFT A LONG TIME AGO SO THEY NEED TO STAY THE HELL GONE. AND THEN, I hate how the only choice Sandu and Honor had was that she had flee and even that wasn't a choice because of the Draumr, because those sons of b* at Darkfrith were gonna come and claim Zaharen Yce and oh yeah, they also heard a rumor that Honor was with the Sanf Inimicus and she "ran away" when she was younger so they also have to kill her...and apparently her child because YOLO?
I wanted Honor and Sandu and Lia and even Zane to do something about this and try to stop them (I am aware that's not even the focal point of the book)
I will say this like all the other Drakon books, I wanted to read to the end. But unlike all her other books, I was sooooo ready for this one to be over. The book used a lot of whimisical words to describe feelings and places and yada yada but truly, it seemed all over the place. It was about love, it was something about a Dragon of Time that was devouring Honor, it was about Honor going crazy with each Weave, it was about The future of Zaharen Yce and how Darkfrith is filled with assholes, it was about a not so well put together romance between Sandu and Honor, we went back we went forth, we learned things that we already knew and we didn't learn things that we wanted to know, like where the hell Honor went for a year when she was 16...wtf and also who was the girl at the fence that Lia dreamed about... What the hell did Rez have to do with the Sanf Animicus, when did she start handing out with them? Basically I had to focus on too much and it was hard for me to pull it all together so it could come to a good ending.
The point is I was confused A LOT of the time. If there is anyone out there who can explain those things to me (AND MORE) that would be great. I hope there is a 6th book because I'm to far into the series to give up now but I hope that a lot of things get sorted out and answered, and I really hope that Darkfrith gets its sh** under control because they are getting on my damned nerves.
Seriously unimpressed. I really didn't care for her last book, and this one follows through the same way. The whole changing history part was alright, but not holding the English drakons more accountable really didn't cut it for me.
Last book in the Drakon series, which was a (good) surprise of the year in terms of fantasy-romance series. I am usually not a fan of the hybrid as the balance between the two genre usually feels off to me. If the romance is too heavy then the fantasy suffers and vice versa. Having said that though, I usually prefer if the fantasy is more upfront because it gives the world heft.
In this series, the mix worked. This follows the conventional romance series structure with different couple in each and the romance being a driver. However, I think this worked for me because in terms of plot, the romance was actually a side note. There was definitely something that the characters had to do (save someone, find a diamond, make peace with another tribe etc etc) which puts the couple in proximity but gives the romance stakes. The romance itself - the “will they get together� - is usually not the question the book is asking.
This last book is the most directly connected with the macro plot but also has romance as the driver. It gave me vibes with the timey-wimey romance element. This book is also the most romance focused in plotting - the couple getting together drives the issues in the book.
As a result, this book should have worked the least for me in the series - but somehow it kind of blew me away. Kudos to the author there!! Of course, the writing being good helped here and the general time-travelling premise.
I will say that the fantasy elements in the series had a bite which is typically missing from Paranormal Romance (PNR) books. In PNR romance, the world conforms a little too easily to give us a HEA - being a romance the HEA is needed which makes all the earth-shattering problems the couple face (including literal ends of the world / kingdom) all feel a little trite.
In this book, the fantasy elements mattered more than I expected to the romance.
There were consequences here which made me a bit sad but also impressed. There was something so sorrowful about the dragons, so aching and wistful at the same time. Yes, there is love but there is pain too at the loss the women have to suffer in their lives.
I think what impressed me about this book is that morally ambiguous characters are actually such. They are not miraculously transformed by the power of love - which is more complexity than sometimes I prefer in my easy romances. Here it works.
The ending was quite bittersweet, but still a strong novel - romance was great. 4.5 stars which I rounding up for the entire series.
This book was not a bad end of the series. I like Sandu a lot. We know him since book two, where he was a little boy. Now, he is a grown man and a prince. Honor is quite difficult to assess as a character. I still don't know if I really like her. What made me super happy was that we met some characters from the last books. Zane and Lia made an appearance again. I think they are my favorite couple from all the five books.
The ending of the book was abrupt. I would really like to know what happened to the other characters or the drákon in general. There are so many unanswered questions!
All in all, the book was not bad, but it also was not a masterpiece. I enjoyed this series a lot. I can recommend it!
I really wanted for this book series to end on a high note. First four books were a wild ride of beautiful highs and confusing angsty lows. I loved the idea of dragon shapeshifters and all the intricate details the author added to her particular myth of dragons. Some of it was confusing but most of it was engaging and inspiring. The level of angst and confusion in the last book left me disappointed as a reader. The time travel trope is hard to manage and this time it was not managed well. I did not mind the style or the tone of the book but the characters lacked focus and the whole plot lacked direction a reader can follow. I'm actually sad at how this series ended...
I'm pretty disappointed in this book and series. I have no idea if I would read the next book. I just felt that this book left or ignored too many issues. They didn't discuss what happened to Rue and Christoff, they didn't discuss why the English drakon felt that they needed to invade the Carpathian Drakon. I would think since the English Alpha is married to the sister of the Carpathian alpha that there would be more of a willingness to form an alliance. Heck the Carpathian alpha saved the brother of the English Alpha. In this book you don't even see an effort made between them to form an alliance. It's just strange. His sister sends him messages basically to beware her husband's intentions.
So that's one issue - then there is the whole issue of Honor. She can go through time and somehow in the future she is screwed. She is betrayed and so becomes mad. So her 91 year old self travels back in time trying to fix it and finds out that she is outside of time and can no longer change her future. So she creates the sanf inminicus(the dragon hunters) to get revenge on those that killed her husband and child. So the author's answer to this is to send Honor and Sandhu far forward in the future, so they are saved and the sanf inminicus are not created. Lia is the one who commands this with the help of the Dramur. Really? The sanf have already been created as we can attest in the last two books. Crazy old lady Honor went back to when she was a child and established them. So they're still there, as well they don't tell us what happened to crazy old lady Honor. I'm assuming that Lia killed her to protect her species and Honor but it's never really said. I don't see how this is a good solution. The Sanf are still there and nothing is resolved between the two tribes. If anything, the English drakon will just walk in and take over. I just don't get it.
If there is another book, I really don't know if I would read it. I don't know if there can even be another book. I just feel that the author could have wrapped this up a bit better and answered a few questions that I felt needed to be answered.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
You know when you read a book that's so good it's succulent? It lingers on the tip of your mind like honey on the tongue. This is a book like that. This is a "I don't care how tired I am, I HAVE to finish it tonight!" sort of book.
the language-sumptuous the characters-compelling the plot-twisting like a dragon the magic-enchanting the love story-beautiful and timeless
It is the story of Honor Carlisle who is gifted with the ability to Weave time, to pop in and out, with limited control and at increasing cost to herself, from the past into the future and back. Perhaps this was why she always felt a stranger amongst her own clad, the English Drakons, a dangerous tribe of people who are more than they seem to be.
When she was a girl she got a mysterious letter, from herself, an older self, telling her she was about to be kidnapped and to pack a bag and await the kidnapper, if she didn't- she would die. The man who would be her adopted father did in fact come for her as the letter said he would. And so she slipped away from the English Drakons to live happily in sunny Spain with her beloved adopted parents. As she grows, she Weaves repeatedly to the side of the very man her adopted parents most wanted her to avoid, the price of the rival tribe of Drakons, her soulmate, and the union that could bring ruin to themselves and the two tribes of their "people".
The author weaves the plot like Honor Weaves time, intricately as a celtic knot and masterfully unfolding one possible outcome after another. Until you read the last pages, you never know for sure what happens in the end. And it leaves you desperate for more.
Like the rest of Abe's novels, it is very eloquently and beatifically written. Time Weaver is volume 5 of The Drakon series. The gifted and main character of this novel is Honor Charlisle. In real time she is an ordinary girl but with a very unique gift. She can travel trough different parts of time. She can't control it at first and that is were Lia and Zane come in. Lia helps Honor control and improve with her talants. Despite the caution there are many rules and consequences that unfold with this rare gift. For instance her own people, the drakon from Darkfrith, consider her to be the biggest threat to their existence and want to have her killed. Lia still see the future in her dreams and does everything in her power to deter from a possible horrid future. Honor on the other hand is not aware of what twisted part her future self will do but she gets glimps from notes that future Honors sends her to try to warn and avoid potential situations she will eventually face. Honor's main focus though is Prince Alexandru of the Zaharen. She spends a lot of her weaving or time traveling, trying to see and talk to him. Once Alexandru figures out who this mysterious person is, he realizes that a relationship with her would mean war with the drakon of Darkfrith. This novel has excellent plot build up but it gets confusing from the constant jumping from one time to the next. Also some things from past books were never resolved, which kind of annoyed me. The plot builds nicely and peaks to the climax but the solution is like a big drop off a cliff. It worked but basted off the excellent plot build up it seemed kind of a cheated ending.
I am disappointed in this last book.... In book two Amalia was daming that she was back with her family by the river with her daughter.... But it turned out she never went back or had a daughter of her own.... Amalia ended up living on an island with Zane, never to see Darkfith or her parents..... Rue and her husband were missing from book three, they went in search of Amalia, I expected them to be back some day but with the conclusion of this book they appear that they didnt, the author never mentioned their POV in book 3/4.... The english Drkon to invade and rule the Romanian Drakon... I didnt like that they wanted to over rule Zandu.... And future Zandu and Rez planning the cruise? How is that possible when Amalia planted the Dramur in their bodies and commanded them to never come back? I wonder is there a book 5 ?
I had hopes that Rue and her children would be reunited in the end of this book.... :(((
I was really disappointed in this book. It was as if the author read and just made the traveler female and put a dragon-shifter spin to it. I disliked this almost as much as . I really enjoyed the first three books in the series but this one and were just mediocre. I don't know if there is going to be another book but I don't think I'll be reading it which is a shame because the first three were fantastic.
I honestly wanted to love this book because the idea is really interesting but it got to a point where I just didn't care about what happened to the characters and I wanted to just put the book down.
I actually really liked the structure of the book - the letters and dreams that hint at the future and then coming to see how all of those things come together to create Honor's life. The author is also really good at describing a place and the feel of it. I just wish that the characters were more engaging.
It's been a few months since I finished this one so my review will be lacking in detail. What I do remember is that this book dragged me in right from the start and then got confusing .... but then it would intrigue me again .... and then ... yep totally confused again. It was a decent book with a decent love story but ... it was not my thing.
Would I recommend it? >>>>> Not to most of the people I know, but then again ... this is not my genre. Perhaps to someone who loves these types of romance novels. That being said, I cannot honestly say that I would in fact recommend it.
I loved this series but could not seem to get into this book. I almost didn't even read it because of the ending of the previous book. I felt like there wasn't enough suspense to it and the love story aspect was predictable, especially after the other books. I liked the idea of the ending but did not completely like the way it was executed.
I just can't say enough good things about Shana Abe. Her writing is lyrical, her stories divine. For me, this is her best yet. Sweet, sexy, sigh-worthy and truly magical. Absolutely loved it.
Re-reading this a decade later is still as disappointing as the first read.
For me the single biggest disappointment as a reader was the ending. Amalia arriving with a deus ex machina to resolve everything, with the additional bonus that it strips both Honor and Sandu of any free will, and even turns Honor into some sort of zombie suddenly able to perform feats she couldn't previously... well, I don't even know how to express my feelings about this. Instead of watching the characters grow, we watched them wither and vanish.
Still not a fan of how nobody thinks of pregnancy before having sex. We need to not normalise thoughtless, careless sex, really. Also not a fan of how Honor deciding to launch herself off Sandu's back during the first flight is passed off as a wonderful dragony whim to admire.
So yeah, what a sad end to the series. :/
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This was my first reading of Shana Abe. When I picked this book up I wasn't aware it was part of a series. I picked it up because it reminded me somewhat of another story I enjoyed by another author. Her series was never finished and the last book was supposed to incorporate a war of dragons and other fantasy creatures. I thought this might be a fun read to imagine how the other story would have worked out had the author ever been able to complete it. I haven't read any of the other books in Abe's series and I likely won't search them out as I don't think they will enhance the enjoyment and understanding of this story.
I did really enjoy this story right up to the end. I read through it quickly and it captivated my interest rather well. I didn't like how the story was completed though. The final few pages felt like a cop out to what was otherwise a fun, fantasy story. I can't dissect it in this review without giving away major spoilers so I'll leave it at 'it was a weird and unexpected ending that felt out of place with the nature of the story.'
A brief look at the players: Honor - an English dragon child who gets kidnapped from her family to protect her from a plot to kill her (at some point in time). She is a special dragon with the powers to weave through time. Amalia - a dragon woman with premonitions. She dreams the future to come and is responsible for the rescue of Honor. Zane - Amalia's human husband and all around good "bad guy". He's a bandit/thief/murderer/etc both for personal gain but also to protect and please his wife. Alexandru - Prince of a rival Dragon tribe (Romanian) to Honor's. Saves Honor after a weave puts her in danger as a child beginning a relationship that unfolds in the story through various weaves through time.
I would have given this story 4 stars if not for the ending. I felt that really was a weak way to end this story.
The solution was unexpected, but I could follow the logic. The final note, however, left me a bit confused. Unfortunate that I finished the novel feeling a bit uncertain but considering what Lia dreamt and what our narrator tells us, I've settled into my own conclusion--confusing end-note aside.
I look forward to the days I get to return to the series, and I'm so so happy I own them. :)
For those who indicate that you can not read this as a stand alone... that's untrue. It's been years since I've read the rest of the series and I had no issues with the story. It does reference past characters but that just adds to your enjoyment. If you have not read the others, or forgotten everything like me, you can still appreciate this novel.
Shana Abe doesn't disappoint. Her descriptive writing style brought this book to life for me and I was engaged the whole time. One star off, as I hate time travel plots and this one can be a bit confusing, like they all are. The author did an excellent job with it though; so I found myself actually not giving up in annoyance (which is a huge compliment to her gift of story telling).
I really liked the premise of these books, in fact I really enjoyed these books at first, but no. The council and their ways are slime. It ruins the series for me. The danger isn't from the dragon hunters, the danger is from the dragon council themselves. I will not be reading the trilogy after this. The fact that there are powerful dragon couples, including the supposed leading family are kept trapped by ridiculous rules? More dragons are actually killed BY OTHER DRAGONS doing their "duty" as opposed to any human hunters is ridiculous. I totally get why Rue and her mate/husband left, but they should have either taken on and changed the council or left with their friends before having children.
This concluding book of the Drakon series is a dark fantasy, and as such is darker than the previous books of the series. It is a tale of pending disaster. In the prologue, Shana Abe writes, " Here is the story of how they perished. Or perhaps it is the story of how they did not. You'll see." That sets the stage perfectly. I enjoyed the complexity of the characters and their known and unknown future. Shana Abe writes beautifully. Her descriptions of little things like the light coming through a cracked door are beyond compare. Everything seems like a beautiful dream. I loved this series and this was a good conclusion.