Sworn to the Shadow God

Rate: 5/5

“I’ve fallen through a portal to another dimension. Part of me is a little panicked but then that fades. This. Is. AWESOME.”

Pg. 25

When Max is brought through to another world she is excited to be part of an adventure. This could be just like a video game! Her plans are quickly thrown off when she is told she must be an anchor for the god of Death. An anchor must be a gods tie to humanity, they must eat, sleep, and do all other “human” things for them. Well that’s easier said than done when Death can’t tell the truth and all he wants to do is go back to the Underworld. Unfortunately for Max, that means she has to die, you can’t kill a god can you? Max might be getting a completely different adventure than she had in mind, running for her life, trying to teach the death god humanity, and maybe enjoying her time with him a little too much.

I am a sucker for books about gods/goddesses. I’ve adored the Egyptian and Greek myths and stories since middle school. Though Dixon creates an entirely new set of gods and goddesses set in a completely different world, you can definitely tell where she got her inspiration from. Rhagos gives off major Hades vibes, he is lonely and sick of being looked down upon just because he deals with the dead. Max is a little naive but she believes in looking on the bright side no matter what life throws at her. There is great world building, dead that can’t stay dead, dragons, betrayal, and of course romance. My favorite kind of pairing is the ball of sunshine and the stoic intimidating one who only has a soft spot for one person, Dixon definitely delivers on that.

“This is a man who’s raised armies of diseased zombies, and he’s disgusted by a little stew left in a bowl?”

Pg. 415

I love how Dixon humanizes the gods in this series. At the beginning when I’m first introduced to Rhagos, I low-key hated him. I believe that was because you are introduced to him as his full god self and he has a mind like all gods, he is better than all these puny mortals. Throughout the book you see how he changes and how out of touch with humanity gods become. The gods don’t have much to do with humans unless they are having fun at their expense. I may also have fallen for him faster because I pictured him looking how Adam Driver looked as Kylo-Ren, which Dixon said is where she got her inspiration from. I related to Max because she was so eager to try and prove herself and show that she can be a “chosen one.” There were times where she definitely came across as naive, but being shoved into a whole new world where everyone is trying to kill her is a whole lot to take in.

Like most adults in the past couple years, I have found myself a slave to TikTok. That is where I discovered BookTok and where they insisted on everyone reading a 22 book series about humans falling in love with big blue aliens on an ice planet. Well, that would be how I was introduced to Ruby Dixon. Yes, I devoured all 22 books and figured her other books would definitely be worth the read. Sworn to the Shadow God is book two of the Aspect and Anchor series, which is my personal favorite series of Dixon’s. I recommend this book to those who like romance, spicy reads, and fantasy. This is a large book, over 600 pages, and spicy. On a spice scale I’d give it a 3 out of 5. All of the Aspect and Anchor books deal with death and rebirth, they can be a little dark at times, any triggers that may appear are listed at the beginning of the book.

Aspect and Anchor Series Order