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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Unfortunately, a fascinatingly built world with interesting lore couldn't come close to saving a trainwreck of book. At the core of the issue were the characters, built from every other YA protagonist ever and painfully lacking in distinct personality traits or likability. Kiara's character could not have been more "not like other girls" coded, right down to her "fiery red tresses" (it helped that there WERE no other living girls in the book). Jude's character felt like a painful amalgamation of every dark and brooding love interest the author could find, and the opportunity to explore his character as he fell for Kiara was sadly lost when he instantly became enamored with her (my own dislike for the insta-love trope certainly colored my feelings towards this book, but trust me, even if you are the BIGGEST fan of the insta-love trope this book will still leave you devastatingly unsatisfied). 1 star for the world building, but 1/4 star lost for the disappointing quality of writing and another 1/2 star lost because of the sheer hatred that I have for the misogyny in Kiara's character building. (beyond the issues with... everything else).
TL;DR: This book is the DEFINITION of fast fiction. If you value your brain cells or the actual art of writing, save yourself now.
(Also, if you're curious how this book has a mind-boggling 3.75 ⭐️ rating, it's because everyone who would've rated it as low as it deserves couldn't suffer through it and DNF. Y’all, I'm not even lying– it's so bad. Easily the worst book I've ever had the misfortune of reading.)
TL;DR: This book is the DEFINITION of fast fiction. If you value your brain cells or the actual art of writing, save yourself now.
(Also, if you're curious how this book has a mind-boggling 3.75 ⭐️ rating, it's because everyone who would've rated it as low as it deserves couldn't suffer through it and DNF. Y’all, I'm not even lying– it's so bad. Easily the worst book I've ever had the misfortune of reading.)
Short Synopsis:
Jude Maddox is the commander of the Knights of the Eternal Star. When he arrives in Kiara’s village to recruit her brother, he sees the fight, passion and defiance in Kiara and takes her to join the Knights - being the only girl among them.
My Thoughts:
This book reminded me so much of Shadow and Bone. There were definitely parts that were very predictable, but I still enjoyed the ride to get there. The romance was top notch. I did want more from the history and worldbuilding though.
Read if You Like:
Jude Maddox is the commander of the Knights of the Eternal Star. When he arrives in Kiara’s village to recruit her brother, he sees the fight, passion and defiance in Kiara and takes her to join the Knights - being the only girl among them.
My Thoughts:
This book reminded me so much of Shadow and Bone. There were definitely parts that were very predictable, but I still enjoyed the ride to get there. The romance was top notch. I did want more from the history and worldbuilding though.
Read if You Like:
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
This had SO MUCH promise, especially with such a unique idea & overall worldbuilding.
But the main character and her love interest just ruined it all. She was so annoying and nOt LiKe OtHeR gIrLs that I couldn’t stand it.
And her romance with the commander was not only insta-love, but also very Tris-Four esk from Divergent, which I hated.
But the main character and her love interest just ruined it all. She was so annoying and nOt LiKe OtHeR gIrLs that I couldn’t stand it.
And her romance with the commander was not only insta-love, but also very Tris-Four esk from Divergent, which I hated.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Plot: 1
Writing: 1
World building: 1
Characters: .5
Themes: .5
4/5
Spice: .5/5 - mild kissing, very YA appropriate (as it should be)
Audiobook: 4 /5 - Dual Narrated
What you can expect:
Fantasy romance adventure
FMC trained fighter and hot head (think Poppy, red hair and all)
MMC commander with a tragic past
This was a great start to a YA fantasy romance series. The worldbuilding was interesting with enough details while managing to not be convoluted. We’ve got an interesting cast of characters, all fighting to survive in the time of a curse.
The mist is pretty much a character on its own. I’d like to explore more of the mist and what it means in the next book. It’s the result of the curse but it is still pretty unknown in what it is and what lurks within it.
I’m not going to lie, Kiara, our FMC got on my nerves so many times. I had to keep reminding myself that she’s still young and this is book one. FMC’s are almost always annoying in the first book. How else would we get growth? I think she’s got a lot of potential though.Sure, she was trained to fight by a god…but I’d still like to see her grow physically/fighting as well. I like that she’s not infallible and can still get hurt but when we get an FMC that already has had some kind of training, where can we go from here? Maybe learning to use her powers somehow? That’s still a largely untapped area I really really want to see more of. But who’s going to teach her?!
Jude, oh Jude. The name Jude is really starting to grow on me…and not because of Jude Cardan. Don’t we all love a broody MMC with a tragic past? Other than that, there really wasn’t a lot that stood out from him. He’s loyal to the King. I’d like to see some personality.
I really thought we were going to get a found family here…not a stab to heart. Multiple times. As much as it hurt, I loved that everyone died. It really helps set the tone of the story.
This is a great one for young adults who want to read FBAA but aren’t ready for something that mature. It’s just as good (if not better) and a great place to start in the fantasy romance genre. Kiara is young and hot headed, running head first into danger but she has the talent to back herself up. I look forward to seeing her growth as she navigates her identity with the world on her shoulders.
To Kill a Shadow is worth a read for all fantasy romance enthusiasts. The only thing it lacks is explicit scenes. I’d recommend checking it out!
Though I listened to the audiobook, I also received an eArc through Edelweiss. Thank you to Entangled Teen for the opportunity. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Writing: 1
World building: 1
Characters: .5
Themes: .5
4/5
Spice: .5/5 - mild kissing, very YA appropriate (as it should be)
Audiobook: 4 /5 - Dual Narrated
What you can expect:
Fantasy romance adventure
FMC trained fighter and hot head (think Poppy, red hair and all)
MMC commander with a tragic past
This was a great start to a YA fantasy romance series. The worldbuilding was interesting with enough details while managing to not be convoluted. We’ve got an interesting cast of characters, all fighting to survive in the time of a curse.
The mist is pretty much a character on its own. I’d like to explore more of the mist and what it means in the next book. It’s the result of the curse but it is still pretty unknown in what it is and what lurks within it.
I’m not going to lie, Kiara, our FMC got on my nerves so many times. I had to keep reminding myself that she’s still young and this is book one. FMC’s are almost always annoying in the first book. How else would we get growth? I think she’s got a lot of potential though.
Jude, oh Jude. The name Jude is really starting to grow on me…and not because of Jude Cardan. Don’t we all love a broody MMC with a tragic past? Other than that, there really wasn’t a lot that stood out from him. He’s loyal to the King. I’d like to see some personality.
This is a great one for young adults who want to read FBAA but aren’t ready for something that mature. It’s just as good (if not better) and a great place to start in the fantasy romance genre. Kiara is young and hot headed, running head first into danger but she has the talent to back herself up. I look forward to seeing her growth as she navigates her identity with the world on her shoulders.
To Kill a Shadow is worth a read for all fantasy romance enthusiasts. The only thing it lacks is explicit scenes. I’d recommend checking it out!
Though I listened to the audiobook, I also received an eArc through Edelweiss. Thank you to Entangled Teen for the opportunity. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This story is a fast-paced romantasy that talks about the reality of life —in general. With its enthralling and straightforward plot, you will find yourself fascinated by the light and darkness involved in the story. The world building was cruel and dark yet the characters are lovable. It also talks about the horrors of war and death. And it was brimming of plot twists and turns that might take you on the edge of your seat. Yet, the story was full of hope and love. It was both heartwarming and heart-wrenching. This is the beginning of a beautiful and immersive series, “Mistlands”.
When all seems lost, light will always be found in the dark.
Katherine Quinn made sure that the readers will feel deep sentiments in this story. It was captivating, fun, and romantic. I have never like instant love as much but I do appreciate how the author made it so acceptable — in my opinion. This is the first time I read her stories and definitely not the last. Thank you for this enticing story!
When all seems lost, light will always be found in the dark.
Katherine Quinn made sure that the readers will feel deep sentiments in this story. It was captivating, fun, and romantic. I have never like instant love as much but I do appreciate how the author made it so acceptable — in my opinion. This is the first time I read her stories and definitely not the last. Thank you for this enticing story!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Grief, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Let me start this review by stating I'm not a person who typically enjoys romance books. I do, however, quite like fantasy, and I hoped that this book would be able to split the difference.
I was profoundly disappointed.
This book was a slog, and probably the closest I've come to a proper DNF in over two years. I realized I wasn't enjoying myself very much around the 90 page mark, and was properly frustrated by 130 pages. I endured until 200 on the hopes that circumstances would improve once the plot properly started before giving up and resorting to skimming through the rest in order to preserve my own sanity. I'll try to avoid major spoilers as best I can while breaking down my thoughts.
I think my biggest gripe comes down to the characters. I'm not sure poorly written is the correct description so much as just being violently generic. The two protagonists are the epitome of cookie-cutter fantasy stereotypes. I hesitate to assign female characters words like Mary-Sue or to put them in the "not like other girls" category, given their misogynistic history of overuse, but that is overwhelmingly the impression I had of Kiara. This is not helped whatsoever by the fact that she is the only female character in the story who is 1) alive, 2) named, and 3) has actual dialogue. She is painfully generic and constantly asks the love interest why he treats her differently, despite being literally the only woman he knows. The reader is constantly reminded by the narrative that Kiara is the best at everything, and that everyone in her village hated her despite the fact that as soon as she leaves it practically everyone wants to be her friend because she's the best at everything. It pains me to think of how much more tolerable her characterization could have been if there were literally any other female recruits. Kiara constantly asking Jude why he treats her differently from the other recruits is also frustrating given that we rarely, if ever, see him interact with the other recruits in any kind of meaningful way. He is entirely fixated on Kiara (and his own monstrousness or something I guess).
Jude doesn't escape this blandness either. He is your stereotypical angsty male love interest with a dark past he constantly bemoans makes him a monster, to the point of melodrama. The reader is told about all of these horrible things he's supposedly done, that he is the best assassin ever, and we're shown very little of it beyond one on-page assassination. I feel like the book does a lot of telling over showing when it comes to dealing with his flaws. I think this book could have honestly benefited a lot by just not having his POV chapters if it actually wanted him to seem so dark and mysterious, but that would have also left us with just Kiara's POV, which probably would have made me want to tear my hair out even more than I already did.
Even the side characters aren't left unscathed by this blandness, and almost all of them are entirely one-note. Jake is gay and loyal. Nic is friends with Jake. Patrick likes Kiara. Isiah is fatherly towards Jude. The King is evil. It would help if any of them tended to interact with more than one of the POV characters, but they really don't.
None of my gripes about characterization are helped by the fact that a lot of the dialogue just wasn't very good. It's hard to really point to anything specific about it beyond chunks of it just not feeling like things people would actually say, but also sometimes things people wouldn't really say in specifically a fantasy setting. A lot of the prose itself was fine, the dialogue and characters themselves just absolutely grated on me, which sucked given so much of the first half of this book is character-driven- the protagonists don't even start their quest properly until almost 200 pages in! Even the romance angle wasn't interesting to me because it's basically just insta-love, which made their sudden devotion to each other feel lazy and unearned.
I've also seen a lot of people comparing the book to the Shadow and Bone Trilogy, but I would argue the first half of this book read to me like some kind of Divergent fantasy AU where instead of Tris / Kiara being the only Abnegation girl, she's the only girl period. Throw in some insta-love and a sprinkle of fantasy and you've got To Kill a Shadow.
I'm not sure I even have that many thoughts on the plot itself of this book. By the time the plot really started to happen, I was so burnt out and frustrated from 200 pages of suffering through the protagonists being so violently uninteresting that I could barely bring myself to care. The sad part is I could see parts of this story and setting that had genuine promise so long as they were about literally anyone else.
TLDR: protagonists were so bland they made basically the entire story nigh intolerable
I was profoundly disappointed.
This book was a slog, and probably the closest I've come to a proper DNF in over two years. I realized I wasn't enjoying myself very much around the 90 page mark, and was properly frustrated by 130 pages. I endured until 200 on the hopes that circumstances would improve once the plot properly started before giving up and resorting to skimming through the rest in order to preserve my own sanity. I'll try to avoid major spoilers as best I can while breaking down my thoughts.
I think my biggest gripe comes down to the characters. I'm not sure poorly written is the correct description so much as just being violently generic. The two protagonists are the epitome of cookie-cutter fantasy stereotypes. I hesitate to assign female characters words like Mary-Sue or to put them in the "not like other girls" category, given their misogynistic history of overuse, but that is overwhelmingly the impression I had of Kiara. This is not helped whatsoever by the fact that she is the only female character in the story who is 1) alive, 2) named, and 3) has actual dialogue. She is painfully generic and constantly asks the love interest why he treats her differently, despite being literally the only woman he knows. The reader is constantly reminded by the narrative that Kiara is the best at everything, and that everyone in her village hated her despite the fact that as soon as she leaves it practically everyone wants to be her friend because she's the best at everything. It pains me to think of how much more tolerable her characterization could have been if there were literally any other female recruits. Kiara constantly asking Jude why he treats her differently from the other recruits is also frustrating given that we rarely, if ever, see him interact with the other recruits in any kind of meaningful way. He is entirely fixated on Kiara (and his own monstrousness or something I guess).
Jude doesn't escape this blandness either. He is your stereotypical angsty male love interest with a dark past he constantly bemoans makes him a monster, to the point of melodrama. The reader is told about all of these horrible things he's supposedly done, that he is the best assassin ever, and we're shown very little of it beyond one on-page assassination. I feel like the book does a lot of telling over showing when it comes to dealing with his flaws. I think this book could have honestly benefited a lot by just not having his POV chapters if it actually wanted him to seem so dark and mysterious, but that would have also left us with just Kiara's POV, which probably would have made me want to tear my hair out even more than I already did.
Even the side characters aren't left unscathed by this blandness, and almost all of them are entirely one-note. Jake is gay and loyal. Nic is friends with Jake. Patrick likes Kiara. Isiah is fatherly towards Jude. The King is evil. It would help if any of them tended to interact with more than one of the POV characters, but they really don't.
None of my gripes about characterization are helped by the fact that a lot of the dialogue just wasn't very good. It's hard to really point to anything specific about it beyond chunks of it just not feeling like things people would actually say, but also sometimes things people wouldn't really say in specifically a fantasy setting. A lot of the prose itself was fine, the dialogue and characters themselves just absolutely grated on me, which sucked given so much of the first half of this book is character-driven- the protagonists don't even start their quest properly until almost 200 pages in! Even the romance angle wasn't interesting to me because it's basically just insta-love, which made their sudden devotion to each other feel lazy and unearned.
I've also seen a lot of people comparing the book to the Shadow and Bone Trilogy, but I would argue the first half of this book read to me like some kind of Divergent fantasy AU where instead of Tris / Kiara being the only Abnegation girl, she's the only girl period. Throw in some insta-love and a sprinkle of fantasy and you've got To Kill a Shadow.
I'm not sure I even have that many thoughts on the plot itself of this book. By the time the plot really started to happen, I was so burnt out and frustrated from 200 pages of suffering through the protagonists being so violently uninteresting that I could barely bring myself to care. The sad part is I could see parts of this story and setting that had genuine promise so long as they were about literally anyone else.
TLDR: protagonists were so bland they made basically the entire story nigh intolerable
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes