thisisgabe's review against another edition
3.0
I've seen some reviews call this book fast-paced. It is, by no means, fast-paced. This is possibly one of the longest times I've taken to finish a book. I even read this book every day and I still couldn't finish it. It's only 264 pages.
I'm starting to think a lot of the reviews for this book are biased, because this is kind of an obscure book and it seems a lot of these people know the author personally. As someone who doesn't know this author personally, here's what I honestly think (with as little spoilers as possible).
As I said, this book is slow. Instead of the storyline and writing flowing together, we get bits of choppy plot and some random slice-of-life kind of things. For example, one moment we're in a police raid, a few sentences later Charlie is in his lab doing lab work, which is definitely a far cry from the action I was just reading. The way the focus shifts so quickly somehow made me read this slower because I was so confused as to what was going on and how Charlie just has nothing at all to say about what happened to him moments ago.
There's also A LOT of wasted potential here. I feel like a small amount of this book was world-building for the Otherworld. But, from what I did gather, Martin Owton's Otherworld seems very interesting. I'd hoped for more insight into this 'parallel world' and was prepared to be wowed by whatever Owton could come up with. Unfortunately, we barely see anything about the Otherworld until near the very end, because apparently it took that long for Charlie's mystical father to take him there.
Additionally, I really loved the love interest. Y'know, until suddenly she became the most petulant adult I've ever read about. She was pretty cool in the beginning, and I was rooting for her and Charlie. But, as soon as she began pouting ever single chapter, it got to the point where Owton had transformed her character into someone childish. I know she's younger than Charlie - I think she's 20? 21? - but there wasn't any excuse to change her personality and demeanour later in the book. It completely ruined their relationship for me and I just wanted her and Charlie to stay away from each other.
There's so many mistakes that I couldn't even count them on both hands. I'm not too sure how they even got missed in editing because they're such significant ones. I've seen some of the sentences end up being similar to something like this, 'the a. and Sharon walked out of the room.' That isn't the exact sentence because I didn't bother noting it down somewhere. There's a lot of spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes and overall tons of plot holes. Credit to the author: a lot of potential plot holes were remembered and solved later on.
Last but not least: "I pissed around on the internet." If I had £1 for every time I've read this sentence repeated throughout the book, I'd have £3-£4, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it was written that many times. It's not even that interesting of a phrase to be repeated. Couldn't Owton have said Charlie had 'messed around' or 'browsed for a few hours before heading to bed'?
Despite there being a lot wrong with this book, it was really interesting reading about a city that I've visited a lot and recognising all the references to the streets and areas. The Otherworld concept was interesting and it wasn't too bad description-wise. I weirdly enjoyed it and it definitely has the potential for a sequel.
I'm starting to think a lot of the reviews for this book are biased, because this is kind of an obscure book and it seems a lot of these people know the author personally. As someone who doesn't know this author personally, here's what I honestly think (with as little spoilers as possible).
As I said, this book is slow. Instead of the storyline and writing flowing together, we get bits of choppy plot and some random slice-of-life kind of things. For example, one moment we're in a police raid, a few sentences later Charlie is in his lab doing lab work, which is definitely a far cry from the action I was just reading. The way the focus shifts so quickly somehow made me read this slower because I was so confused as to what was going on and how Charlie just has nothing at all to say about what happened to him moments ago.
There's also A LOT of wasted potential here. I feel like a small amount of this book was world-building for the Otherworld. But, from what I did gather, Martin Owton's Otherworld seems very interesting. I'd hoped for more insight into this 'parallel world' and was prepared to be wowed by whatever Owton could come up with. Unfortunately, we barely see anything about the Otherworld until near the very end, because apparently it took that long for Charlie's mystical father to take him there.
Additionally, I really loved the love interest. Y'know, until suddenly she became the most petulant adult I've ever read about. She was pretty cool in the beginning, and I was rooting for her and Charlie. But, as soon as she began pouting ever single chapter, it got to the point where Owton had transformed her character into someone childish. I know she's younger than Charlie - I think she's 20? 21? - but there wasn't any excuse to change her personality and demeanour later in the book. It completely ruined their relationship for me and I just wanted her and Charlie to stay away from each other.
There's so many mistakes that I couldn't even count them on both hands. I'm not too sure how they even got missed in editing because they're such significant ones. I've seen some of the sentences end up being similar to something like this, 'the a. and Sharon walked out of the room.' That isn't the exact sentence because I didn't bother noting it down somewhere. There's a lot of spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes and overall tons of plot holes. Credit to the author: a lot of potential plot holes were remembered and solved later on.
Last but not least: "I pissed around on the internet." If I had £1 for every time I've read this sentence repeated throughout the book, I'd have £3-£4, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it was written that many times. It's not even that interesting of a phrase to be repeated. Couldn't Owton have said Charlie had 'messed around' or 'browsed for a few hours before heading to bed'?
Despite there being a lot wrong with this book, it was really interesting reading about a city that I've visited a lot and recognising all the references to the streets and areas. The Otherworld concept was interesting and it wasn't too bad description-wise. I weirdly enjoyed it and it definitely has the potential for a sequel.
booksofemma's review against another edition
3.0
first, i would like to thank the author for giving me a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
shadows of faerie was a good book! i thought the plot was unique, and i liked the characters.
this is a book within which your imagination can run wild. who knows what other worlds may be out there! there were some times i got a little bored, but the story always managed to rope me back in at the perfect times.
there was kind of a cheating scandal that involved the main character that i wasn’t exactly fond of (even though the person who was cheating on her boyfriend with him was not in a great relationship). i really liked the main character and her together, but it just didn’t sit right with me.
also, i love British accents! so the british dialogue in the book was a lovely surprise.
overall, shadows of faerie is a solid book with an interesting and unique plot!
shadows of faerie was a good book! i thought the plot was unique, and i liked the characters.
this is a book within which your imagination can run wild. who knows what other worlds may be out there! there were some times i got a little bored, but the story always managed to rope me back in at the perfect times.
there was kind of a cheating scandal that involved the main character that i wasn’t exactly fond of (even though the person who was cheating on her boyfriend with him was not in a great relationship). i really liked the main character and her together, but it just didn’t sit right with me.
also, i love British accents! so the british dialogue in the book was a lovely surprise.
overall, shadows of faerie is a solid book with an interesting and unique plot!
emm_enchanted's review against another edition
4.0
Review also available on my bookstagram: emm_enchanted
*I received a free copy of the ebook in exchange for an honest review.*
My rating: 3.5/5
I usually don't read urban fantasy but the description of the book piqued my curiosity and I had to give it a try.
Shadows of Faerie follows the story of Charlie Sommes, half human and half Otherkin with the power of touch telepathy. Forced to use his gift on a dead person, he finds out about the serial killers who are sent to murder women who had faerie lovers. He finds himself involved in a situation where he is the only one who can stop them.
I liked how the book started, it was fast paced and there were a lot of things going on. I mainly enjoyed the investigation parts.
The characters were likeable and some supporting ones had significant roles to play. The women were strong and independent, especially Sharon with her no nonsense attitude and her determination in going after what she wanted.
The plot was great but I found the relationships between the characters to be superficial and lacked emotions, which affected the story. Charlie loses someone but apart from a brief thought in the beginning, him and his friends didn't seem to be much bothered by it. She was forgotten after a few pages. It was the same case with Michelle.
I also thought the book jumped a little in places, like the parts where Charlie was learning to control his gift could have been fleshed out a little. Instead it felt like he just achieved everything in the first try.
I enjoyed the parts in the Otherkin realm and wanted to read more about it. Hopefully, the sequel will mostly be based there. The writer has made a good attempt in incorporating the commonly known myths about faeries.
The final scene was great and there was a twist in the end, but I'm not sure how I feel about it.
The overall book was good and people who enjoy urban fantasy should give it a try.
*I received a free copy of the ebook in exchange for an honest review.*
My rating: 3.5/5
I usually don't read urban fantasy but the description of the book piqued my curiosity and I had to give it a try.
Shadows of Faerie follows the story of Charlie Sommes, half human and half Otherkin with the power of touch telepathy. Forced to use his gift on a dead person, he finds out about the serial killers who are sent to murder women who had faerie lovers. He finds himself involved in a situation where he is the only one who can stop them.
I liked how the book started, it was fast paced and there were a lot of things going on. I mainly enjoyed the investigation parts.
The characters were likeable and some supporting ones had significant roles to play. The women were strong and independent, especially Sharon with her no nonsense attitude and her determination in going after what she wanted.
The plot was great but I found the relationships between the characters to be superficial and lacked emotions, which affected the story. Charlie loses someone but apart from a brief thought in the beginning, him and his friends didn't seem to be much bothered by it. She was forgotten after a few pages. It was the same case with Michelle.
I also thought the book jumped a little in places, like the parts where Charlie was learning to control his gift could have been fleshed out a little. Instead it felt like he just achieved everything in the first try.
I enjoyed the parts in the Otherkin realm and wanted to read more about it. Hopefully, the sequel will mostly be based there. The writer has made a good attempt in incorporating the commonly known myths about faeries.
The final scene was great and there was a twist in the end, but I'm not sure how I feel about it.
The overall book was good and people who enjoy urban fantasy should give it a try.
aconitecafe's review against another edition
4.0
Loved the main idea of this story so much. A fae world sprinkling their 'seed' through out our world because they mate with our people. Good plot, and well laid out twists. There was a lot of slang/terms that if seen in the wild I wouldn't have known their meaning but the author did a great job at laying context clues in the surrounding words, so there wasn't a point that I didn't know what a word meant.
Since this book is written in first person, and the main character was going for the Phd or whatever, I was a little disappointed in the low vocabulary level of Charlie. Not sure if this was done for the readers benefit or not though.
I am still not sure how I feel about the ending twist, a little lackluster I guess. Didn't really need to go that direction, but maybe there is an future point to it. All in all, it was a great story.
Since this book is written in first person, and the main character was going for the Phd or whatever, I was a little disappointed in the low vocabulary level of Charlie. Not sure if this was done for the readers benefit or not though.
I am still not sure how I feel about the ending twist, a little lackluster I guess. Didn't really need to go that direction, but maybe there is an future point to it. All in all, it was a great story.
a_robin_reads's review against another edition
3.0
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Information:
- ARC ebook
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Review:
Thanks to the author for providing a free copy! Really apreciate it.
The beginning of the story was pretty good. I liked the way our world and the faerie world were combined. Also seeing the normal life of the MC was really nice, I liked that the other did research about working in a lab. What I immediately did not like was the romance parts of this book. I'm not a fan of "out there romance". So I mean sentences like: "I longed for her and wanted to kiss her" etc.
Then the story got very repetitive. There were things happening and the MC needed to explain those things to a lot of different people. That meant in this book that there was a lot of the same explanations that we already knew, but the characters did not. That was a bit frustrating to read.
What I really liked about this book was the MC. He was really well thought out and felt as a wholesome character to me. Other characters were also very well written.
Unfortunately there were some details that weren't connected together in the story. I missed a couple of things I wanted to be tight up more. But on the other hand there were some details that were great, especially the work that the MC did in the lab, but also the police stuff felt very realistic.
The world itself was great, especially the faerie world. There wasn't a lot of worldbuilding, but as they didn't went there that often I didn't mind that and the worldbuilding that happened was enough for the story.
There were a lot (in my opinion) of spelling mistakes and that really put me out of the story. Also the ending felt really rushed and again I needed some more from it. Some parts weren't addressed at all and therefore it didn't feel like a good ending.
So overall some things weren't great, but I loved the characters and the world.
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