Today’s review is about DAUGHTER OF THE OTHERWORLD by Shauna Lawless. It’s the first book in the Gael Song: Era II trilogy and follows the story of Isolde in 12th century Ireland. I highly recommend reading the first Gael Song trilogy for maximum impact. Those books are THE CHILDREN OF GODS AND FIGHTING MEN, THE WORDS OF KINGS AND PROPHETS, and THE LAND OF THE LIVING AND THE DEAD. This new trilogy follows some of the same characters and thus contains spoilers for the first trilogy.
Author: Shauna Lawless
Series: Gael Song: Era II, #1
Age Category: Adult
Publisher: Head of Zeus — an AdAstra Book
Publish Date: November 11, 2025
Print Length: 448
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Daughter of the Otherworld Synopsis
Synopsis
From the author of the Gael Song trilogy, an epic new historical fantasy set in the tumultuous, magical world of medieval Ireland during the time of the Norman invasion.
Over a hundred years after she went missing, Isolde, born to the family of a famous Irish king and a powerful immortal, inexplicably reappears.
Her mother’s kin, the Descendants, are one of the two magical races of Ireland. But no Descendant can understand the reasons for Isolde’s disappearance, and worse yet, she is giftless ā born with no magical ability, a dangerous thing when the magic-rich Fomorians, ancient enemies of the Descendants, are growing in strength.
The Fomorians no longer control any Irish kingdoms, but they still desire control over the mortal world. They seek to spread their dangerous webs wider by manipulating England’s Norman lords to invade Ireland.
Not yet eighteen, Isolde’s world is about to change for ever. But when death and destruction seem inevitable, her true worth will show itself, for Isolde is far more than she seems.
Daughter of the Otherworld Book Review
I received a free, digital, advanced reading copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. My review is my own and reflects my honest opinion about this book.
DAUGHTER OF THE OTHERWORLD occurs about 100 years after the first Gael Song trilogy. After a century in the Otherworld, Isolde reappears as a baby back in the human realm, raised by Broccan. As 18 years pass, no Descendant gift manifests in Isolde, despite Isolde being part of a prophecy to defeat the Fomorians. The Fomorians, meanwhile, have grown slightly in number and seek to regain control of Ireland via the invading Normans. When tragedy befalls the only home Isolde knows, she must quickly learn how the real world works while seeking out her Descendant kin.
As usual, Shauna Lawless’s next installment of the Gael Song saga is impeccable. I love how she intertwines actual history with Irish mythology. I also love how she lets everything unfold naturally through conversation and context rather than through a dry information dump. The writing style has a calm, measured air about it despite some of the high stakes sequences that occur. As in the previous books, there are multiple points of view in this one. The first POV is that of Broccan, nephew of Fodla. Of course there’s an Isolde POV as well as one from Gormflaith, the de facto leader of the Fomorians. The other main POV is that of Donnchad, who is Gormflaith’s son, now about 150 years old.
My favorite POV was Isolde’s, who keeps trying to make her way to the rest of the Descendants. Unfortunately, she keeps encountering hardships, which delay her progress. The reader already knows she’s Fodla’s daughter, so there’s also, in my opinion, an emotional tie there to want Isolde to succeed considering how her mother passed. She also encounters new characters, which expands Isolde’s worldview. At first I found it difficult to keep them all straight. But as the story unfolded and certain characters became more central to Isolde’s plotline, it became easier to follow along.
While Donnchad’s POV is important to Fomorian progress, it wasn’t my favorite. I think this is definitely more of a personal preference thing because his POV is mostly as a translator and foot soldier for the Normans. There is a lot of strategic discussion that I had a hard time following because of the introduction of new secondary characters and Irish kings. Where I had multiple books to warm up to “who is who” in the previous trilogy, this current book fast forwards 100 years. So it was a bit of a learning curve for someone like me who doesn’t study medieval history of Ireland and England.
Gormflaith’s POV, however, was easy to follow and a continuation of her previous methods to sway current events. This time, though, there are more Fomorians she has to wrangle than just her brother. Donnchad is no longer a child and has his own method of achieving kingship. Plus the gifted children of Donnchad and Maelmorda are also in the picture and have their own goals. So Gormflaith has her work cut out for her.
Lawless, again, is not shy when it comes to gut-wrenching plot decisions for her characters. There are a couple of twists near the end that shocked me and made me mad. Obviously, I can’t say more because spoilers! But wow.
So, of course I continue to recommend Lawless’s books, DAUGHTER OF THE OTHERWORLD included. The amount of research Lawless must do to mesh everything together so well astounds me. I’m definitely looking forward to the next book because I have questions!
Rating: 4.25
Content warnings: war, death, animal death, blood, slavery
Reading format: Kindle e-book
This series probably isn’t for me, but I do love twists and shocking endings! I hope you can read the next book soonš