Mara enrolled the order to atone for her crimes. When she finally sets out to seek her charge, she has a very idealistic idea of how things should be, and she hits really far from the mark. Even though things are nothing like she had hoped, she finds her path anyway, for better or for worst.
Empire of Shadows is a companion novel to City of a Thousand Dolls, a book I have not read. I usually don't read books out of order and the whole time I was wondering if I was missing anything because I hadn't read the first book. Don't get me wrong, I never felt lost or anything while reading, but it kept bothering me. Until the very end that is. When I realized that Empire of Shadows actually takes place roughly 15-20 years before the events of City of a Thousand Dolls. Now I just want to read CoaTD!
First I have to say that I really liked Mara. She is haunted by her past, but she's determined to atone and she has a fierce desire to do the right thing. She earned my respect with her decision to completely refuse to shift to her Sune form has a kind of punishment, but found a way to be strong as a human, and fight for her beliefs.
An aspect of this novel I particularly liked was the friendship between our fierce Mara and Revathi. It wasn't love at first sight between Revathi and I. She was kind of snobbish and arrogant with Mara at first, but I loved how she did not denigrate the Arvi clan at the beginning, so I was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. Turns out I was right! Their growing bond was a star to this story and I loved to see two young girls driving a YA plot instead of the usual love triangle.
Speaking of love, I really liked Emil on his own. His troubled relationship with his father and his brother, his desire to protect the latest, his yearning to be something else than he is destined to. He was very endearing with his actions both toward Mara and Esmer, his Sune friend. What I liked less, is the way Mara & Emil's relationship evolved. I can believe in chemistry, or even instant attraction, but the way they became each others' center of the universe after only a few shared sentences was not believable.
That being said, I really liked the world-building and the plot. Full of mysteries, action and conspiracies, there was plenty to keep me interested the whole time. And the end? LOVED it. The epilogue completely sold me, and as I said in my intro, I now want to read CoaTD!
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ReplyDeleteThe cover looks so gorgeous!!! *u*