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Review: Shadow Fall by Erin Kellison

TDF Pamela, on July 29th, 2010 |

Shadow Fall by Erin Kellison

Description:
Sacrifice

Custo Santovari accepted pain, blood, even death, to save his best friend. But a man with all his sins just isn’t cut out to be an angel.

Mystery

One moment he’s fleeing Heaven; the next, he’s waking up stark naked in Manhattan. In the middle of a war. Called there by a woman who’s desperately afraid of the dark.

Shadow

It gathers around Annabella as she performs, filled with fantastic images of another world, bringing both a golden hero and a nightmare lover.

Wolf

He pursues her relentlessly, twisting her desires even as she gives herself to the man she loves. Because each of us has a wild side, and Annabella is about to unleash the beast.

This review is based on a review copy received from the publisher.

TDF Pamela’s Review:

Warning! This review contains spoilers for Shadow Bound, the first book in Kellison’s series. It’s kind of unavoidable. :( If there was a way for me to talk about the events in book 2 without referencing the end of book 1, I’d do it, but alas! I kind of have to. So, if you haven’t read Shadow Bound, beware spoilers here!

I have to admit, I was a bit surprised when I cracked open Shadow Fall and discovered that it’s not about Adam and Talia, the couple at the center of Kellison’s first novel, Shadow Bound (read my review here). After that initial bit of disappointment, I found myself quickly sucked into the new couple’s storyline.

Custo Santovari, Adam Thorne’s right hand man, died at the end of Shadow Bound, and much to his surprise, he finds himself ferried through the Shadowlands to the gates of Heaven. Custo had always tried to do his best, but he knew he wasn’t a good person. When he discovers that he’s been promoted to angel, he’s sure someone screwed up. Instead of getting used to life in Heaven, he spends his time prowling the walls, and when Shadowman, still mourning his lost love, appears at the gate, Custo makes a shady deal. He’ll swap places with Shadowman, letting the Fae into Heaven while he escapes into the Shadowlands. While looking desperately for a way back to Earth, he sees a beautiful dancer being stalked by a wolf, and he can’t help but intervene.

Annabella is a ballet dancer, just promoted to the starring role, and she has an unusual talent. When she concentrates on her dance, she can breach the boundary between the mortal world and the Shadowlands, and unfortunately her talent has captured the attention of the wolf, a shadowy hunter who is bent on making Annabella his. When Custo bursts back into the mortal world, accidentally dragging the wolf with him, he finds himself attracted to Anna; he not only wants to protect her, but he wants her. Together, the pair must evade the wolf and find a way to send it back to the Shadowlands.

I found myself really drawn in by the characters in Shadow Fall. Custo is a complicated, conflicted sort of guy; as the reader, you know he’s a good guy, but he just can’t believe that. From his illegitimate beginnings to his rough-and-tumble upbringing to his job doing Adam’s dirty work, Custo isn’t easy to pin down, but you just know that he’s good inside. All of the bad things he does, he’s doing for the right reasons.

Annabella is likewise an interesting character, even if she’s not as complex as Custo. She’s finally realized her dream of being a star ballerina, only to have her sudden (and unfortunately unexplained) ability to tap into the Shadowlands surface and threaten to ruin everything. She’s smart and confident, and while she occasionally loses her cool–and with good reason–she always pulls herself together and holds her own. This is the kind of heroine I want to see more often in paranormal romances. The progression of her relationship with Custo felt completely natural, as something that starts as pure physical attraction and turns into something more as they go through harrowing experiences together.

The wolf is intensely creepy, particularly in his ability to change shape and possess others. I won’t go into detail, but I’ll just say that his snake-like attack on Anna left me shuddering. His motivations aren’t exactly clear, though, other than that he is a hunter and therefore he hunts Anna. I would have liked a bit more out of him, but he is an effective villain.

Shadow Fall fits into the world-on-the-edge established in Kellison’s first novel, where the supernatural is beginning to filter into the mortal world, and people are beginning to become aware of the wraith threat. I was very pleased to see the mythology expanded in this book. It’s a fascinating blend of different cultural mythologies, and I’m very hopeful that we’ll get to see more of this world very soon.

This is a very solid sequel that only falters in its lack of explanation of some key points, such as Annabella’s magical ability. However, the strong characters; believable, sexy romance; and strong worldbuilding overshadow that flaw by far. I enjoyed Shadow Fall very much, and I’m hoping I’ll hear about a sequel soon.

TDF Pamela

The Discriminating Fangirl, who is more likely to answer to Pamela if you shout it at her, is the proud owner of an MA in English, focusing on children's/young adult literature and popular culture. Because of her ample free time thanks to being gainfully unemployed, she reads voraciously. She also loves geeky movies and tv shows, reads comic books as often as she can buy them, and when she's procrastinating, she enjoys playing video games. She can be contacted at t.d.fangirl @ gmail.com and followed on Twitter at the link below.

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Review: Shadow Bound by Erin Kellison

TDF Pamela, on May 7th, 2010 |

Shadow Bound by Erin Kellison

Preorder: on Amazon (Release Date: 29 June 2010)

Description:
Death
Some people will do anything to avoid it. Even trade their immortal souls for endless existence.

Wraiths
Secretly, inexorably, they are infiltrating our world, sucking the essence out of unsuspecting victims with their hideous parody of a kiss.

Segue
Adam Thorne founded the Institute to study and destroy his monster of a brother, but the key to its success is held in the pale, slender hand of a woman on the run. There is something hauntingly different about Talia O’Brien, her unknowing sensuality, her uncanny way of slipping into Shadow.

Twilight
This is the place between life and what comes after – a dark forest of fantasy, filled with beauty, peril, mystery. And Talia is about to open the door. (from the author’s site)

This review is based on a review copy sent by the publisher.

TDF Pamela’s Review: If this book isn’t on your wishlist yet, it needs to be. Go ahead, add it now. I’ll wait.

Shadow Bound is Kellison’s debut novel, and it is one hell of a debut. The story is richly imagined, fast-paced, and engrossing, and the characters are well-developed and utterly believable. It is also a nicely original entry to a genre that’s quickly becoming oversaturated.

Adam Thorne is a driven man. He’s poured most of his inherited family fortune and the last several years into the Segue Institute, a foundation devoted to studying the frightening, vampiric wraiths. Adam’s motivation isn’t all altruism, though; his brother became a wraith, and Adam is determined to find a way to kill him.

Talia O’Brien, a young academic with strange powers, seems to be the answer to Adam’s problems. She can use the darkness to cloak herself so that even wraiths cannot find her. Her mysterious heritage and powers are at the center of the story, and she must accept who she is if she’s to survive.

The story expertly blends the supernatural into a mystery/thriller, and there’s nary a vampire or werewolf in sight. The wraiths are soul-sucking creepy creatures, and a major player in the story is Death himself, called Shadowman here. The Fae are mentioned repeatedly, though they’re not really explained, which leaves a nice set-up for future books in the series.

While the story is gripping, I think my favorite part is the growing romance between Talia and Adam. I love that Kellison doesn’t rush right into it with some kind of tired trope about love at first sight. They’re attracted to each other immediately, but their relationship grows at a believable pace. It’s quick, but at the same time, they’re in a very stressful situation. I think that is so much more convincing than if they immediately fell for each other and didn’t hit any bumps on the road to romance. Talia’s trust issues and reluctance to let herself believe that she is desirable add another nice layer of tension on top of the danger that they’re in.

I feel like I’m not saying enough about this book, but… I can’t say enough about it. I procrastinated on so much schoolwork to read this book, and I stayed up WAY past my bedtime to finish it. As a grad student with a serious aversion to getting less than 8 hours of sleep a night, it’s pretty amazing when I stay up until the wee hours when I have to be at work in the morning. The book comes out in July, so wishlist or preorder it if you want to read an original, excellent urban fantasy.