Format: Hardcover, 336 pages
Release Date: February 25, 2020
Publisher: February 25, 2020
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy
Tricia Levenseller, author of Daughter of the Pirate King, is back with an epic YA tale of ambition and love.
They still haven't found the body of the first and only boy who broke Alessandra's heart—and they never will. Since then, all of her relationships have been purely physical. And now at eighteen years old, Alessandra is ready for more. The plan is simple:
1. Make the king fall in love with her.
2. Get him to marry her.
3. Kill him and take his kingdom for herself.
It's no small task, but Alessandra wants a kingdom and is going to do everything within her power to get it. She knows the freshly crowned Shadow King will be her toughest target yet. Shrouded in a mysterious power, no one is allowed to touch him.
But, as forces combine to try and keep Alessandra from earning the king's heart, she wonders if perhaps she's already lost her own.
The Shadows Between Us, by author Tricia Levenseller, is being promoted as a standalone Slytherin fantasy romance. 18 year old Alessandra Stathos is apologetically driven to prove to detractors that she doesn't need them. Especially her father Sergios Stathos who would marry her off to a minor noble in a New York minute and her sister who never once said anything positive about her. As a second child, she is unable to marry until her older sister Chrysantha does. After killing a boy at 15, there's really nothing that Alessandra won't do to get ahead.
She has a plan; she's going to seduce the king, marry him and be crowned queen, and then she's going to murder him and take his kingdom for herself. Piece of cake, right? Not so fast! Alessandra is ruthless, driven, cunning, manipulative, and wicked. She unabashedly sleeps with men to gain political leverage she needs to move ahead with her plan of killing the Shadow King who they say can command shadows to his bidding. He also uses them to kill others. The shadows act like a shield keeping him from harm. No blade can pierce his skin, and no one is allowed to touch him.
So, how does Alessandra plan to get close enough to touch him without being killed on sight since it's against the law for anyone to touch the King. First, she gets herself an invitation to the King's court. How does she do that? By dressing differently in an all-black ensemble w/pants. She succeeds in catching his attention and he invites her to stay at his court where she actually makes friends with Hestia and Rhoda. For the first time in her life, she actually has female companionship which she uses to highlight the inequities between men and women.
But, Kallias Maheras isn't what Alessandra expected. Both characters have unapologetically questionable morals. Kallias has conquered (6) other countries and plans on making it (7) very soon. He puts down anyone who crosses his path while being targeted for assassination on a daily basis. He is driven to find those responsible for the murder of the former king and queen who were his parents. He keeps enemies close to him, and refuses to allow anyone to leave until he can out the killer or killers and bring them to justice. He also has an adorable dog named Demodocus who soon latches on to Alessandra.
There are moments of banter between Alessandra and Kallias that are particularly compelling. The pair acknowledge that they aren't the best people, and they'd probably be really bad partners if they were with anyone else, but because their moral compasses are pretty much aligned, they compliment each other nicely. Alessandra gets involved with saving Kallias and the kingdom instead of murdering him and taking it for herself. As the couple's romance blossoms, so does the danger that it brings. One of the more curious aspects of this story is Alessandra's brilliance at getting women to wear clothes that she herself has designed. Alessandra is brilliant in challenging her female friends to the idea of their own empowerment and not waiting for a man to make the first move.
Overall, this was a twisted story to read and a dark one with some brevity mixed in. Alessandra is someone who will sleep with you one moment, and stab you in the back the next. She's left a trail of men behind that never knew what hit them until she kicked them out of her bed, or used them to get something she really wanted. The ending of this book is a bit predictable but the mystery into the killer's identity was held until the very last moment which is what I loved.
i love the killer wasn't exposed until the end. i do enjoy a good fantasy novel
ReplyDeletesherry @ fundinmental