The Shadows Between Us

Actual rating: 3.5 ★

It could've been a 5 ★ read if only it had better pacing, and if only the female empowerment messages weren't so blatantly inserted it felt like an attempt to win brownie points.

The book starts off strong with Alessandra showing the full extent of how shady she is, so in addition to it being marketed as a “Slytherin romance”, I expected her to be super questionable in terms of action and morality. Since the story opens with her murdering her first love, of course I loved her instantly. Unfortunately, this only lasts for like the first few chapters. Once she enters the palace, her shadiness considerably starts to fade. She grows tamer and tamer as she interacts with the Shadow King too, but I thought maybe she just needs to adjust before she can carry out this plan of hers.

So I waited and waited as the story drags on, veeery slowly going through Alessandra's life in the palace, hoping that she'll go back to how she was in the beginning eventually. That did not happen. What happens is she turns into a blushing maiden, and the Shadow King himself isn't any better. Save for their occasional cunning and stomach for murder, nothing else is shady about them. This is not what I signed up for, so I can't help but feel disappointed. I wanted grey characters, not sometimes grey but most of the time white characters. It doesn't help that once Alessandra falls in love, her plan just goes out the window... though she gets what she wants anyway due to a very convenient proposal from the Shadow King.

To be fair, the writing is very easy to digest. The world is interesting, but lacks proper world-building to fully bring it to life. We only learn a little about the empire and the conquest, and even less about everything else. We don't even learn much about the land outside of the palace. Due to the lack of information, the climax and especially the ending feel terribly rushed. I feel like some parts in the middle could've been cut shorter to allow room for better build-up.

I wanted to love this. I didn't, but it was a fairly entertaining read.