My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Title: The Shadows Between Us

Author: Tricia Levenseller

Format: Hardcover (own)

Pages: 326

Categories: Fantasy, Young Adult, Romance, Royalty, Feminism

Alessandra is tired of being overlooked, but she has a plan to gain power:

1) Woo the Shadow King.
2) Marry him.
3) Kill him and take his kingdom for herself.

No one knows the extent of the freshly crowned Shadow King’s power. Some say he can command the shadows that swirl around him to do his bidding. Others say they speak to him, whispering the thoughts of his enemies. Regardless, Alessandra knows what she deserves, and she’s going to do everything within her power to get it.

But Alessandra’s not the only one trying to kill the king. As attempts on his life are made, she finds herself trying to keep him alive long enough for him to make her his queen—all while struggling not to lose her heart. After all, who better for a Shadow King than a cunning, villainous queen?

My Attention: took me one week to read

World Building: the court of The Shadow King

Writing Style: easy to read, but it lagged in the middle

Crazy in Love: slow burn  

Creativity: The MC starts off as one of the villains…it’s definitely intriguing.

Triggers: murder

• I love that Alessandra, our MC, is a confident, cunning, sexually empowered, murderess. Not that murder is a good thing – but Alessandra is smart, she knows what she wants (power) and she has a plan to achieve her goal. It helps that she’s beautiful, bold and quite a charmer as well.
• Alessandra has a few skeletons in her closet. Apparently having random lovers also means risking being attached to some unsavory characters, like Myron, who tries to blackmail her. Also, she did kill her first love and that comes back to haunt her in the end. The story intrigued me enough to want to see if she accomplishes her goal and how she gets out of tough situations.
• The whole feminist vibe of this story is great. It’s fascinating to see how Alessandra uses her skills to catch the eyes of Kallias, the Shadow King. She stands out by ignoring him and she does everything opposite of every other lady at court. Alessandra designs her own fashions as well, like wearing pants with a skirt. She’s not shy about what she wants – she wants to be Queen.

• The slow burn was too slow for me. The beginning started off well, but the middle just dragged for me. Kallias was barely with her so I didn’t feel any attraction between them until the later half of the book, which was way too late for me. The letters between them did nothing for me. Like Alessandra said – it was all talk, no action. She really wanted to be Queen though, so she stuck it out, which shows determination. Thing is I forgot she had even brought poison to kill Kallias! That’s how much my attention was lost in the middle.
• Throughout the story there is political intrigue about who is trying to kill Kallias, but I didn’t feel like it was an urgent matter in the story.
• Kallias as the Shadow King was confusing for most of the book. We barely get to know him and his shadows? Like what is it and how did he get them? We learn about it way later in the book. He wasn’t mysterious and dangerous enough for me and with a name like The Shadow King, I wanted danger.
• World-building? We are basically stuck in Kallias’ palace, but I needed more.

Usually if it takes me a long time to finish a book, I’d rate it lower, but I did like Alessandra as a character and watching her try to get out of her mess. I did genuinely want to know if she would eventually be Queen in the end or some other skeleton would pop out of her closet. This author is an auto-read for me, but this is not my favorite of her books. Overall, I think this was an okay read, but I was expecting more.

🖤 ~ Yolanda