Circle of Shadows / Evelyn Skye

2.5/5

I was first drawn to Circle of Shadows because I found the proposed "gemina" bond between the characters interesting and I liked that it started with a kingdom at peace rather than with a tyrant. I finished the novel and looking back, it was a very average read. My main problem with Circle of Shadows was its lack of originality in terms of plot and characters.

I struggled through the first ~30% of the novel because the characters and world were bland and un-unique. A semi-twist is revealed about 40% of the way in; I predicted it before the reveal but it still made the story more interesting. After that, the story picked up. There was more action and higher stakes, which made the reading go by much easier until I hit about 85% of the way in. Here, the plot becomes outright blasphemous. A side mystery throughout the novel is the lineage of Daemon, one of our protagonists, and the reveal was farfetched and inconsistent with the rest of the novel. It felt as if Evelyn Skye neared the end of her novel, realized she'd created an enemy that was too powerful and heroes that were too weak, and so she dumped magical nonsense in to try and tip things in the hero's favor.

But to speak well of this book, there actually wasn't a heavy focus on romance, which is a pleasant surprise. There is one kiss in the entire novel and it isn't between the two people I thought it would be, which again is unusual for a YA novel.

Overall, Circle of Shadows was not an unenjoyable read but it won't win any awards from me regarding excitement or originality. It's not a bad choice if you're between novels and looking to kill time, but I'd find it hard to believe if you said you couldn't find something more interesting.