Shadowlands by Kate Brian is a book that’s been getting a lot of reviews with ratings all over the board. It seems like people either love it or hate it. Two of my favorite bloggers rated it very poorly. (One gave it a one star and the other gave it 2.5.) I have seen other people claim that they’ll read a book if it has poor ratings just to see just how bad it was. I’ve never understood this until now. I picked this book up from my library with no intentions of being impressed. If you take anything from this review, let it be this: Go into this book with NO expectations! What I mean by that is be open-minded. Don’t let other people’s reviews dissuade you from reading this book. Why would I, as a reviewer, tell you to ignore negative reviews? Why, Stephanie?! Why would you do this? It’s quite simple, I almost skipped a book that I really and truly enjoyed because of just two low ratings. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I don’t fault anyone for not liking a book. What works for one, doesn’t work for another. Reading is a very personal experience but really that’s another subject for another day. On with the review!

Ya wanna know how much I liked this book? I read it in less than a 24 hour time period. I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning to finish this one. The next day? Massive party in the office that I needed to get up early for to prep. Did I care? Did I put the book down? When I had to use a Hardcover size Lightwedge, did I give up? Nope. I persevered! I can describe Shadowlands by Kate Brian best by saying that it reminded me a bit of The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer in the way that it keeps you in the dark until those last crucial pages. Oh yeah and a crazy cliffhanger that has you wishing away months of your life to get to the release day of the second book. I really, really enjoyed this book. Rory was likeable and I really sympathized with her character. I definitely got the creeps through most of this book which is kind of the idea. I enjoyed the plethora of secondary characters and Juniper Landing. I kind of liked not being real sure about what was going on through the whole book. Basically, I can’t WAIT until the second book comes out. I really want to continue the story!

If I had one complaint it’s that Rory’s sister, Darcy really started to get on my nerves. She seemed overly whinny and self-centered. Granted the situation did warrant some pity me emotions but I feel that Darcy kind of took that overboard. It wasn’t enough to make me rate the book any lower though. I can’t wait to see where Kate Brian takes this series!