Title: In The Shadows
Author: Julieanne Lynch
Publisher: Strict Publishing International
Buy Link: Buy In The Shadows Here!
Rating: 
You Could Read
Reviewed By: Janelle
Blurb:
“In The Shadows”, the first of The Shadows trilogy, is an urban fantasy of vampires and the supernatural, and much, much more. In the shadows you will find lust and passion, battles for power and for blood, and death and fear around every corner. In the shadows you are carried away to an unknown future. Your destiny awaits, and you are no longer who you thought you were. You have a thirst, for blood perhaps, but a thirst for very much more than that.
Giselle was a normal girl with an attitude common to most girls of her age. Her family might not have been perfect (whose is?) but she loved them, and her future looked bright. She had an awesome best friend and a steady boyfriend, but how could she possibly have been so wrong about someone she loved? And how could she have been prepared for the darkness and for what she was to become?
Review:
This book is a slow starter, taking over fifty pages of its hundred and eighty eight just to find the main plot. And once it does, there doesn’t seem to be much there. Giselle is a victim from page one and at no point grows any sort of spine. She has no effect on the world or the characters in it; allowing herself to be bum rushed from one location to the next with nary a question or objection. She ends up bouncing from one toxic relationship to the next, making no real connections in any of them.
Aside from Giselle, Alex is the character who bothers me the most. The story expects us to believe that he played the kind, devoted best friend for years, only to instantly turn into an abusive monster as soon Giselle becomes a vampire. This isn’t just hiding his true intentions; this is becoming a different person entirely. A character like this needs to be played with far more subtlety than the story displays.
I do like the multiple factions of vampire society. However, with all the sides being so violent and all having virtually identical goals, they end up all seeming very much the same.
Overall, I’m not impressed. It’s a slow read, with a weak leading lady and underdeveloped supporting cast.
