A review by neville_lvr_reads
Shadows of the Lost by Maxym M. Martineau

adventurous mysterious medium-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

3.75

 Shadows of the Lost is a fantasy romance in the world of Maxym M. Martineau’s Beast Charmer series. I didn’t realize that this was a spin-off/sequel series until I was almost all the way through the book 😅 It was definitely still understandable without reading the first trilogy, but there were quite a few times that certain aspects of the characters and world were referenced very briefly, as though you already know about them.

I really liked the various pieces of the magic system and this is definitely a great read if you love magical creatures! The romance and the spicy scenes were 👌 I absolutely adored Gage and Kost 😍 I did feel like the first half or so was a little slow and repetitive, but the second half picked up and was much better.

It also took me a little while to get into the audiobook - there are multiple narrators, one for each PoV, but I wasn’t the biggest fan of the narration in the beginning and it took some time to get used to. Also the hour long bestiary recital at the end is interesting but doesn’t make for very good audiobooking 😅 It would have been nicer if the audiobook came alongside a PDF of the bestiary or something so you could actually reference it throughout the story and read through it in a more productive manner.

Thanks to @dreamscape_media for the audio arc via @netgalley