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A review by noll
Shadows on the Border by A.L. Lester
3.0
2.5 Stars
This is a tricky book/series to review for me.
I want to start with how much I loved these characters. I really did enjoy them. I wanted to learn more about them. I wanted to find out how they would grow and develop and react to the things happening around them. I wanted to see if/how Alec and Lew would work things out. And that was... kind of the problem? It felt like all of the development for them (and everyone else) happened off page.
In the first book, their relationship is presented as a very new acquaintanceship that's barely started when they meet at the first crime scene. In Shadows On The Border, though, they just drop that there had actually been months of flirting and tension before that? Did I miss some subtext, or did that just kind of come out of nowhere? On that note, the transition from the first book to the second book kind of felt like a speedrun of Enemies-to-Lovers. I didn't feel like they'd settled into a relationship at the end of Lost in Time, and I wouldn't have known they had in this book if Lew hadn't said they were settling into a relationship. I wanted more explicit on page development. Explicit in the sense of concrete evidence, not in the sexy way.
Although, on a personal note, I didn't realize how much I needed kissing in my romantic couples until Alec and Lew didn't. In hindsight, that was probably part of why they didn't feel like they were in a relationship. All of the actual relationship development was just offhand comments like "Of course they'd kissed before" or "They frequently ended up in each others beds." And then suddenly there were love confessions and very intense emotions that were so well done but they just didn't feel like they had enough build up to support them. The last two chapters were so vulnerable and soft and I ached for both of them. But it was like coming into a movie right at the climax when everything's coming together and you think "Wow there must have been amazing things leading up to this moment" except... there weren't. Sometimes you read a book and you get to a very satisfying ending but you know it wouldn't have been half as good if all of the horrible things before that moment hadn't happened. This was like the opposite of that. The ending was very nice, very emotionally satisfying. I'm not sure how it got there.
And maybe the problem is that romance wasn't the point of the book, and I was just trying to get orange juice from an apple. That's entirely possible.
The set up for the magical rules and the world building were interesting, but at the end of this book, I didn't find myself invested enough in Will and Fenn to want to go on to the next book- especially since the storyline for Lew and Alec is pretty much tied up in this one.
This is a tricky book/series to review for me.
I want to start with how much I loved these characters. I really did enjoy them. I wanted to learn more about them. I wanted to find out how they would grow and develop and react to the things happening around them. I wanted to see if/how Alec and Lew would work things out. And that was... kind of the problem? It felt like all of the development for them (and everyone else) happened off page.
Spoiler
In the first book, their relationship is presented as a very new acquaintanceship that's barely started when they meet at the first crime scene. In Shadows On The Border, though, they just drop that there had actually been months of flirting and tension before that? Did I miss some subtext, or did that just kind of come out of nowhere? On that note, the transition from the first book to the second book kind of felt like a speedrun of Enemies-to-Lovers. I didn't feel like they'd settled into a relationship at the end of Lost in Time, and I wouldn't have known they had in this book if Lew hadn't said they were settling into a relationship. I wanted more explicit on page development. Explicit in the sense of concrete evidence, not in the sexy way.
Although, on a personal note, I didn't realize how much I needed kissing in my romantic couples until Alec and Lew didn't. In hindsight, that was probably part of why they didn't feel like they were in a relationship. All of the actual relationship development was just offhand comments like "Of course they'd kissed before" or "They frequently ended up in each others beds." And then suddenly there were love confessions and very intense emotions that were so well done but they just didn't feel like they had enough build up to support them. The last two chapters were so vulnerable and soft and I ached for both of them. But it was like coming into a movie right at the climax when everything's coming together and you think "Wow there must have been amazing things leading up to this moment" except... there weren't. Sometimes you read a book and you get to a very satisfying ending but you know it wouldn't have been half as good if all of the horrible things before that moment hadn't happened. This was like the opposite of that. The ending was very nice, very emotionally satisfying. I'm not sure how it got there.
And maybe the problem is that romance wasn't the point of the book, and I was just trying to get orange juice from an apple. That's entirely possible.
The set up for the magical rules and the world building were interesting, but at the end of this book, I didn't find myself invested enough in Will and Fenn to want to go on to the next book- especially since the storyline for Lew and Alec is pretty much tied up in this one.