Review - Shadows And Fire by Jennifer Fales

Shadows and Fire by Jennifer Fales

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Publisher Outskirts Press, Inc
Pages - 108

Blurb from the back cover

"In the parallel future, mankind has created its own worst nightmare - a hybrid species of supernatural beings that demands a high toll in return for peace. Follow the adventure of a tortured man seeking redemption and a brother and sister, the unwilling product of both worlds, torn apart, determined to reunite with one another. And remember that nothing is what it seems under the dome."



My review

To be honest I was so close to giving this book a two for a few reasons. There are so many characters it is hard to remember who is who and what their part is and they were very fleeting and we only had a few pages for most of them. The main characters are the twins Lilith and Laydon, Father Augustin and the bad guys Aamon and Maltha (although there is more to Maltha than I first thought).

The chapters are very short which in a book so small they would be but I do like small chapters. The idea of the hybrids I really liked too, half human and half whatever animal has been spliced with human.

My main problem with the story is there isn't enough of it (yeah yeah I know good author always leaves you wanting more) but I think for the whole story to come together we need more. I feel and will have to confirm this with the author that this is just the start of a series in which case I would have waited and put them all together. Or the next one should be the prequel so we can get a better understanding of the hybrids and how they came to be so different and powerful.

That is a lot of complaining for a 3 star rating right? However the way she has wrote certain parts of it is so well done and she paints quite a picture than you can visualise some of the scenes in beautiful detail. And the basic idea is so unusual that I think anything below a 3 would be quite unfair. So for me 3/5 this time, I would read this author again as I like the writing style but I definately need more background and information on the origins and characters. A very quick read at just 108 pages and I feel we could definately have done with more and it would have added to the value of the story.

Thank you to the author for introducing me to her work and sending me a copy of this book. All opinions are 100% mine, I was not paid or influenced in anyway for this review.

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