Reviews with content warning for Blood - The Shadows Between Us

I so enjoyed reading about Allessandra - a fiery independent murdress, and a shadow king brought together.

I loved the story and loved the romance and could happily read an entire series about these characters!

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kccool12255's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This book is the SLOWEST slow-burn romance I think I've ever read in my LIFE. For that reason, it's also my favorite. The SEXUAL TENSION in this book is PERFECTION. It took them SO LONG TO KISS AND IT WAS SO WORTH IT. The plot twists were pretty good, I liked the characters a lot, they dealt really well with Kallias's faults and his flaws as a character, which is good. Dealing with Hektor's murder was also really well dealt with, I thought it would just be a passing mention, but it actually plays into the plot. Leandros plot twist is also nice, I mean it was a bit predictable but it was pretty good. I definitely didn't see it coming. The one criticism I have is that this book tries a little bit too hard just in being a YA novel. The dog's name is Demodocus, and there's a character named Hestia. Like, why the Greek mythology? It's just a little bit too superfluous. But overall, it was AMAZING, I couldn't put it down.

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piperclover's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I thought I would hate this but by the end of the first chapter I was enthralled. These characters are so bad and messy but I still loved every bit of their story. The ending is such a huge let down though so that's why its not rated higher. It will bother some people that there isn't more ruthless fighting or scheming on Alessandra's behalf but I actually appreciated that that part faded a bit to the background. This is one of the first fantasies where I actually do understand why the love interest is the love interest.

Neither the king nor the Alessandra are good people. They both are incredibly morally grey but so blatant and ouward about it, you can't help but root for them. Theres a lot of really great themes like female friendship, sexually independent women, and women's rights generally. Alessandra is the quintessential "im here for women's rights AND women's wrongs" and the king cheers her on which is just so fun to watch.

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octagon's review

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lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

The main character was very obnoxious. Caitlin Davies' excellent voice acting made her bearable; I can't imagine finishing this book without it.

Kallias

(the king) was very sweet and deserved a lot better. His shadow powers were interesting, but it was strange that there was nothing else magical in the world. It was fairly easy to predict the narrative twists. The romance has a lot of build up and I enjoyed the brief intimacy they shared towards the end. Don't expect anything explicit. The side characters were shallow and needlessly antagonistic. Even Alessandra's sister (whom we never actually meet) just existed to be hated. She was loved, pretty, and a bit dumb. Alessandra's hatred of her was very undeserved.

This includes her out-of-character insult towards Alessandra at the end of the book.

People being unreasonably mean does not make up for the main character's lack of likeability.

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karelidz's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Hmm.. I don´t know...
I thought it would be better. I was expecting it to be better.
It was fine, but i feel like it mostly left me confused with the way the mystery was solved. I was enjoying it and then the ending left me like: "???? THATS the ending?"
It also seemed to me that the secondary characters weren´t thaat fleshed out. I kept forgetting who was who; they all sounded the same.
Also, i feel like there might be plot-holes..?

Idk, either way it was an enjoyable read. Might not reread or buy a physical copy of the book but i had a good time reading it. Might have liked a bit more spice as it's what i think they call a "closed door" romance/situation. But it was over-all fine

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forgottencupoftea's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

This book had been on my "want to read" shelf for two whole years before I finally picked it up! (we have my "to be read jar" to thank for that) Imagine my disappointment when I quickly realized this wasn’t going to be a hit for me...

I did not like the writing style: it is simple, plain and bland. It is extremely descriptive too, everything is described in excessive detail: how the clothes look, how the room is set, where the characters are sitting... Most of those details are unimportant and contribute nothing to the story. In fact, I find that the actual storytelling ends up drowned in all those unnecessary elements which is a shame. On top of the narration being too descriptive, the dialogues were rather cringe-worthy. I also found the cuts and the chapter division to be awkward and seldom in the right places.

(I can’t help but point out that both the author AND the editor/editing team are at fault here.)

Alessandra is described as cunning and selfish, she is supposed to be a woman who knows what she wants and stops at nothing to get it. I personally thought that she came across as rude, annoying and bratty even at times. Though she herself did terrible things

(she did commit murder at the age of 15 just because a boy had lost interest)

, she has this holier-than-thou attitude that I could not stand. The author desperately tried to paint Alessandra as a feminist figure/an empowered woman (going as far as having the character declare "I’m a sexually empowered woman and there is nothing wrong with that.") but, instead, only managed to make her manipulative.

Kallias, the Shadow King, was nothing more than simply okay. He was scary for all of two seconds (chapters?). He softened up very quickly for a King who is supposedly ruthless and has extreme trust issues.

Both Alessandra and Kallias have strong character development, which could have been a good thing except none of it really makes sense. Their change of heart isn’t explained or backed up by actions in the narration. It all comes out of thin air in the last third of the book.

The plot is poorly executed, there are too many events happening quickly and the progression is overall messy. It lacked world-building: Kallias is the King of six (I think) kingdoms and we barely know anything about them. The novel would have benefited from a stronger political/military storyline as the romance was quite bland anyway (it all happens fast and the MCs have little chemistry).

In general, it was a pretty unsatisfying read for me.

Content Warnings

selestre's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

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