Shadows by Paula Weston
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
4.5 stars!
I absolutely loved this book. Paranormal is one of my favorites and I’ve been looking for something that would just pull me in and keep me hooked and Shadows did that. It turned out to be a fast-paced debut that had me turning page after page.
Gaby is still dealing with the death of her twin brother Jude when we first meet her. She’s been living with her only friend and basically is living day to day. It’s been about a year and she can’t really remember much of her life prior to the crash that killed him and injured her. Meanwhile, she’s having vivid, violent dreams that are filled with unidentifiable beasts where she and a sexy sword wielding guy are in full battle. Entering a creative writing contest unwittingly brings her past back.
Suddenly she meets Rafa and instantly feels a connection to him that she attributes to him knowing her brother. He claims to be Jude’s best friend, but Gaby doesn’t know or remember him, yet he has pictures to back up his claims. It turns out things aren’t exactly as Gaby seems to think. Certain people think that she is dead… and now that they know she isn’t, they’re going to be looking for her.
I really loved the world building and back story that Weston created for this book. I love Fallen Angel stories when they are done well, and this one is done very well. She took some common concepts and really builds on them to create her own world.
The characters for me totally worked. Gaby, while unsure and confused is never weak. And I really enjoyed that she was a bit older than your typical YA heroine. Rafa, while self-assured and witty, never came across as a jerk or a typical bad boy, and I truly appreciated that while there are hints of romance in this book, the plot was never abandoned for it. Even the secondary characters were a great addition the the story and really added to the story.
The history of both Rafa and Gaby was interesting to me because while Rafa could remember everything, Gaby had no clue and with Rafa hinting at it throughout (as well as a few others), I’m dying to know more about their past. You could really sense the struggle for him to keep his past opinion about her (they were on opposite sides of a disagreement) out of what they were currently dealing with, yet it was still apparent that he had feelings for her and really cared about not only Jude, his best friend, but her too.
I have to say that this is in my top of 2012 reads and I’m so glad I picked it up. I can’t wait for the next in this series. If you’re looking for the next incredible paranormal, fallen angel type story… look no further because this is it.
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