Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - What Hunts Inside the Shadows

Listened to this as an audiobook while drawing and it was okay... i probably would reread it, it was mostly predictable plot wise, the main character is kinda boring and some of the smut fells non-consensual even though there is consent... its a bit odd, I'll probably read the next book cause im curious of the 5% plot that is actually in the book apart from the two main characters doing the dirty.....

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cady_sass's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

There is almost entirely no plot. 90% of this book is smut. We finally start getting somewhere in the end chapters and then it ENDS?! I thought this was a duology (I’m dumb) and now I have to read two more books, neither of which are even published yet. What the hell. Guaranteed this and the next two books could be combined into 1 book if you eliminated 30 out of 35 sex scenes (approximately). I’m all for the spice but give me the story too!

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cassie12_21's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Cliff hanger. I wanna kms rn. 😭. More smut in this book though.

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reneec1's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

What Hunts inside the Shadows is all travel, returning on the exact route Estrella took throughout What Lies behind the Veil. The prologue gives Caelum’s POV from when the veil fell, which gave good insight. Then, Chapter 1 picks up right after the end of the first book.

Spice: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
This book had more spice than I prefer, (although I know a lot of people love it! I wish I would have realized that there would be so many scenes) and I often thought it was unnecessary to the plot. I’m also not a fan of how this series romanticizes

sex in front of an audience.

Plot:
I liked it overall, but there was sooo much travel that it got a little repetitive, especially when that was so much of the first book. I’m not a huge fan of extended travel in books. It did help with world-building, and I feel like I understand their world much better than I did after the first book.

I think it was pretty obvious that

Estrella was going to accept Caldris as her mate

but I still liked reading about the journey.

I’ve seen a lot of reviews saying that Estrella was too whiny at the beginning of the book, but I actually appreciated that part. She had just found out that Caelum was actually Caldris, and I’m really glad she didn’t just automatically accept him for it. To me, that would have felt too shallow. I appreciated the inner turmoil it caused her as she adjusted to this entire new life.

Characters:
Estrella- I find her actions/struggles pretty relatable and I like her as a FMC.
Caldris- I’m so torn on him, but I think that’s the point. It still grosses me out when he calls Estrella Little One. I think My Star is cute.
Fallon- I really liked her and wish she could have been a little more important in this book. I think she is going to be much more significant in the next one.
Imelda- I loved Imelda and Fallon’s relationship and again, wish there had been more of her and think it would have easily worked with the back story we learn about.
Wild Hunt: I loved and hated them at the same time, which again, I think was the idea.

Comparisons:
I’ve read so many reviews saying this series is similar to FBAA, but haven’t read it. I think it’s really similar to ACOTAR with morally grey Rhys/Caldris and them being better than the persona they give out (which I’m expecting to see more of in the next book), but in my eyes, Estrella’s story is a little more like Arlin’s than Fayre’s.

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