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A review by bookishly_faith
Girl in the Shadows by Gwenda Bond
2.0
Received a copy via Net-Galley in Exchange for an honest review (thanks!)
Rating 1.5 stars.
Note: Most of my rating is affected by the fact that I didn't read the previous book [b:Girl on a Wire|17838538|Girl on a Wire|Gwenda Bond|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1397837172s/17838538.jpg|41801682]. If you read and liked this book, you might like this book better than I did.
When I looked up this book, it said it was a companion novel. But it seemed to depend a LOT on me knowing the characters of the previous book. I was expecting the characters to show up, but I found that they were an important part of the plot, therefore heavily in the book(which you can consider a good thing if you read [b:Girl on a Wire|17838538|Girl on a Wire|Gwenda Bond|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1397837172s/17838538.jpg|41801682]). My problem was that I had no really connection to the secondary characters because it was expected that I read the previous book.
I was interested in reading a book about a girl who worked in a circus. I was expecting this to mean that the book would be really exciting with super complex characters. But I found that the book really dragged. Maybe it was just the pacing but I found the world building was a little rough. It took me a while to figure out that it was set in modern day (I don't know why I thought this was a historical novel) and I thought the circus aspect was underdeveloped. When I think of a circus, I want to hear about the exotic animals, people with unique talents, crazy stories about circus incidents. I felt like the circus was really unexplored and focused way too much on this magical coin and the Prestigae. I found I really didn't care about the Prestigae or the magic coin maybe it was because I didn't like the characters all that much.
I absolutely didn't like Dez, the love interest, as the book went on. At first, Dez seemed like a cool guy. This guy starts off as a badass knife thrower who is cocky and romantic. But then he gets all whinny, which REALLY got me angry. This guy had no self worth at all, which made me wonder why Moira liked this guy when she sees this.
I'll admit, the only reason I liked this book was Moira's way of doing magic. I liked how she would talk about the first female magicians during her acts and some of the behind the scenes look at magic was interesting. I liked that she disobeyed her father to do what she wanted to do and her acts were interesting to read about. Some of the mythology of the Rex and Regina was kind of interesting, but undeveloped for my taste.
Well, I don't know if this review made any sense at all, so sorry about that. I really wasn't happy with how this played out. I definitely didn't like how this book felt more like a sequel than a companion novel. Because of this, I didn't like many of the secondary characters, because as a new reader, I didn't have much of a connection to these characters. I did like Moira and some of the magic stuff but, overall, this book dragged and wasn't fun to read.
Rating 1.5 stars.
Note: Most of my rating is affected by the fact that I didn't read the previous book [b:Girl on a Wire|17838538|Girl on a Wire|Gwenda Bond|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1397837172s/17838538.jpg|41801682]. If you read and liked this book, you might like this book better than I did.
When I looked up this book, it said it was a companion novel. But it seemed to depend a LOT on me knowing the characters of the previous book. I was expecting the characters to show up, but I found that they were an important part of the plot, therefore heavily in the book(which you can consider a good thing if you read [b:Girl on a Wire|17838538|Girl on a Wire|Gwenda Bond|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1397837172s/17838538.jpg|41801682]). My problem was that I had no really connection to the secondary characters because it was expected that I read the previous book.
I was interested in reading a book about a girl who worked in a circus. I was expecting this to mean that the book would be really exciting with super complex characters. But I found that the book really dragged. Maybe it was just the pacing but I found the world building was a little rough. It took me a while to figure out that it was set in modern day (I don't know why I thought this was a historical novel) and I thought the circus aspect was underdeveloped. When I think of a circus, I want to hear about the exotic animals, people with unique talents, crazy stories about circus incidents. I felt like the circus was really unexplored and focused way too much on this magical coin and the Prestigae. I found I really didn't care about the Prestigae or the magic coin maybe it was because I didn't like the characters all that much.
I absolutely didn't like Dez, the love interest, as the book went on. At first, Dez seemed like a cool guy. This guy starts off as a badass knife thrower who is cocky and romantic. But then he gets all whinny, which REALLY got me angry. This guy had no self worth at all, which made me wonder why Moira liked this guy when she sees this.
I'll admit, the only reason I liked this book was Moira's way of doing magic. I liked how she would talk about the first female magicians during her acts and some of the behind the scenes look at magic was interesting. I liked that she disobeyed her father to do what she wanted to do and her acts were interesting to read about. Some of the mythology of the Rex and Regina was kind of interesting, but undeveloped for my taste.
Well, I don't know if this review made any sense at all, so sorry about that. I really wasn't happy with how this played out. I definitely didn't like how this book felt more like a sequel than a companion novel. Because of this, I didn't like many of the secondary characters, because as a new reader, I didn't have much of a connection to these characters. I did like Moira and some of the magic stuff but, overall, this book dragged and wasn't fun to read.