"The Shadow Reader" by Sandy Williams

  

Title: The Shadow Reader

 

Author: Sandy Williams

Series: The Shadow Reader, #1

My rating: 2.5 of 5

(Book read from February 3rd to February 6th, 2014.)  

Summary:

There can only be one allegiance.
It’s her time to choose.

Some humans can see the fae. McKenzie Lewis can track them, reading the shadows they leave behind. But some shadows lead to danger. Others lead to lies.
 
A Houston college student trying to finish her degree, McKenzie has been working for the fae king for years, tracking vicious rebels who would claim the Realm. Her job isn’t her only secret. For just as long, she’s been in love with Kyol, the king’s sword-master—and relationships between humans and fae are forbidden.
 
But any hope for a normal life is shattered when she’s captured by Aren, the fierce and uncompromising rebel leader. He teaches her the forbidden fae language and tells her dark truths about the Court, all to persuade her to turn against the king. Time is running out, and as the fight starts to claim human lives, McKenzie has no choice but to decide once and for all whom to trust and where she ultimately stands in the face of a cataclysmic civil war.

 

My Thoughts on the Book:

 

First of all, I have to admit that this book annoyed me quite a lot, and it makes me want to rant, but I'll try to stop myself from doing that, so this will be a review, not a rant.

I'll start with the thing I liked - the fae world. I really liked it, it was quite interesting, and I enjoyed learning about it & the fae themselves.

But, the story itself, and the heroine - I really did not like. Imagine the typical YA novel that's not-so-good, has too-stupid-to-live heroine & a love triangle - but in an "adult" package, and you've got yourself The Shadow Reader. This might sound harsh, but it's the truth. 

McKenzie Lewis is just such an irritating & immature heroine, that was often quite selfish, and despite her amazing ability as a shadow reader (the only thing she's good at), she's quite helpless. Definitely a too-stupid-to-live heroine. To be honest, I don't know what both Kyol & Aren saw in her, and why they love her.

I quite liked Aren as a character, he was fun, charming & brave, though at times he acted as an immature teenage boy, but thankfully, that didn't happen often. As for Kyol, I felt sorry for him. He's really honorable, and good, and brave - a great hero. As I said, I can't see why they both had fallen in love with McKenzie - she so didn't deserve any of their love.

The love triangle was especially stupid & pointless. Even though I was kinda team Aren from the beginning, before this book ended I felt that both Aren & Kyol were too good for McKenzie, and the love triangle existed so McKenzie can use Kyol in the end.

I have to mention that I quite liked all the secondary characters: Naito, Kelia, Lorn, Sethon, Lena, etc. They are the only other thing I liked about this book, though I wasn't really happy with what happened to some of them.

That being said, The Shadow Reader wasn't the worst book I've ever read, but if it was one of the first urban fantasy books I've read, I probably would've stayed away from the genre, not knowing what I'm missing. So, I can't really recommend this book. Maybe it's because of all the amazing & awesome UF novels I've read, because when you start with the best, the not-so-good are even worse, though I think that I still wouldn't have liked it, because of all the elements it contains that I strongly dislike. 

 

 

 

Challenges:

 

2014 TBR Pile Reading Challenge