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Radiant Shadows by Melissa Marr
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication date: April 2010
ISBN: 9780061659225
Source: Library
Ani is caught between two worlds - Faerie and mortal. She's neither one nor the other, and even for a halfling, she's quite different. This attracts attention from many dangerous and powerful Faeries - all clamoring for her blood. Devlin, assassin of the High Queen is sent to the mortal world for Ani, but finds he would rather keep her safe, both from the High Queen and her twin Bananach. Soon, he must decide whether to keep Ani safe or to keep all of Faerie safe.
Things I Liked:
Marr really has a way of sucking you into her world. Even as I know in my head all of this is imaginary, I still can picture some of the faeries - Ani, Devlin, Irial, Niall, Seth. They seem so real and full of personality, it's hard to remember they aren't real. Her writing is gorgeous and the details are rich and vivid, see below for some of my favorite descriptions. But, it's the story that makes you want more. The decisions characters must make and the twisting path they take to get there are intense. I had a hard time putting this one down, particularly near the end. Some loved tidbits:
"Like chaos in a glass cage." p 70 (Don't you just wish you'd made that phrase up?)
"Slowly, as if he were spun glass she could break, she leaned in and brushed her lips over his. It wasn't even really a kiss, just a butterfly brush, but it felt like the sort of kiss that made the world stop turning - which made her even less able to speak." p 199Things I Didn't Like:
I kind of have a love-hate relationship with these books. I am not entirely sure what nameless thing is keeping me from outright adoring these, but I don't. Sometimes, I would get distracted by the repeated use of a character's name. I really wanted her to use some more personal pronouns, but I suppose it might have become confusing then. Speaking of confusing, I also found that there were explanations and reasoning that really didn't make sense to me. Ani, Devlin, and Seth in particular do not make complete sense to me. Their abilities and power were not clear in my head. Maybe it's just me, though.
Read-alikes:
Read the first three books in the Wicked Lovely series
Still reminds me of the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare
Lament by Maggie Stiefvater
BOOK CONTENT RATINGS:
s-factor: !@#
plenty
mrg-factor: X
mostly "off the page," but the whole book feels very sensual
v-factor: ->
a couple of incidents
Overall rating: ****
Any books or series you have a love-hate relationship with?
If you buy through my Amazon linkage, I will get a very small percentage
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