The Shadows Between Us

By: Tricia Levenseller

Narrated by: Caitlin Davies

Length: 10 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

"Few audiobooks warrant turning off all distractions, closing one's eyes, and simply listening to the story unfold. Narrator Caitlin Davies creates just that experience as she passionately guides listeners through this gripping story of ambition, love, and desire." (AudioFile Magazine)

Tricia Levenseller, author of Daughter of the Pirate King, is back with an epic YA tale of ambition and love in The Shadows Between Us....

"They’ve never found the body of the first and only boy who broke my heart. And they never will."

Alessandra is tired of being overlooked, but she has a plan to gain power:

1. Woo the Shadow King.
2. Marry him.
3. Kill him and take his kingdom for herself.

No one knows the extent of the freshly crowned Shadow King’s power. Some say he can command the shadows that swirl around him to do his bidding. Others say they speak to him, whispering the thoughts of his enemies. Regardless, Alessandra knows what she deserves, and she’s going to do everything within her power to get it.

But Alessandra’s not the only one trying to kill the king. As attempts on his life are made, she finds herself trying to keep him alive long enough for him to make her his queen - all while struggling not to lose her heart. After all, who better for a Shadow King than a cunning, villainous queen?

A Macmillan Audio production from Feiwel & Friends

"Tricia Levenseller’s latest, The Shadows Between Us, is a decadent and wickedly addictive fantasy, full of schemes and court intrigue, and delightful descriptions of food, which I am always a fan of." (Kendare Blake, number-one New York Times best-selling author of the Three Dark Crowns series)

©2020 Tricia Levenseller (P)2020 Macmillan Audio

It became tiresome

The setup was all there, but the book simply didn’t follow through. The descriptions of things were great, the narrator did a good job, the world hinted at being interesting, and I liked the sex positivity and message of consent. But the plot wound up taking some turns that were frankly stupid, and the antiheroes were not at all compelling. All told it was pretty mediocre.

Great Read!

Reading performance was some of the best Iv heard. Story was flowing and great. I really liked it!

Okay execution of a good idea.

I love the concept of a villain love story and I think the characters and this world had potential. I like that this was a single novel because that's hard to find in YA but ultimately I felt like there was something missing from this book. I wish they had delved deeper into the world, and that the main character had more political machinations and had really shown her prowess at being the woman with a plan, the one who can manipulate anyone to get what she wants. And it would have been way more impactful if there were like... consequences for her actions?
That was my main gripe with the story is 1) everything this girl was worried about ended up being no big deal because the king doesn't care. She's worried about her former lover telling on her about her not being a virgin. Well, it turns out everything she did to hide that didn't matter at all because the king doesn't care that she's had former lovers (which is cool and everything and a good message over all I think but ultimately it was a lot of build up for nothing. And that's not great.) She's worried about people figuring out she murdered her first boyfriend and when it all comes to a head and it's finally revealed... the king just laughs and pardons her. Which isn't a terrible reaction in concept because this is supposed to be a romance between two extremely morally grey characters, but in practice, it really just pulls the rug out from under the reader. Like, oh, you thought this was going to be a big deal and have lasting consequences in the story because of the hundreds of pages of build up telling you just that? Well never mind! He doesn't care because they're both not good people.
Ultimately that just makes the king seem incredibly unreasonable when there is an event that forces the main character to face some consequences. Like she comes clean immediately when he finally finds out she was planning on killing him and taking his throne, but given his track record, one would assume he would be in to that.
It's just a little too convenient that the one thing Alessandra experiences consequences for is the one thing that can be easily forgiven, seeing as how she didn't actually do anything.
I wish the story had delved more deeply into these characters. We're meant to think they're both cunning, ruthless and ambitious, but other than the occasional manipulation on Alessandra's part, and the fact that she murdered a guy one time, I don't completely buy it. The king is meant to be an ambitious conqueror who wants to actually take over the world. But other than him mentioning it a couple of times, we don't really get into that.
I wanted an actually morally grey story where the main character has to walk a very fine line between getting what she wants through any means necessary, and losing it all. I wanted a love interest who would be as cruel and ruthless as her. I wanted them to slowly realize that their desires were the same and that there is something deeper than attraction between them as they understand just how alike they really are. I want people to be afraid of this power couple as they take over the world.
What I got were two main characters just dark enough to be sort of interesting, and not much else. The ending villain at the end made no sense and everything kind of seemed rushed.
It was a fine read, but if you're hoping for a true villain romance, this isn't really it.

Unique

I had no idea what this book was about when I grabbed it. I had so many people tell me to read it I just did. I found the story to be just like many, but the female leads REASON for courting the king, fun and unique.

Overall, a fun read!

It was okay

Over all the story wasn't bad. it was very over detailed sometimes, it felt like a fanfiction written by a young teen. but over all enjoyable to make me stay to the end.

Wonderful Standalone-yeah!

Besides being a great story, it’s full of empowering women to be themselves and equal to men in every way. The main character is strong and independent, and encourages that in other women. Unapologetic in who she is. Strong female character!

The only thing I didn’t like, and it’s minor, was the way technology was mixed. Having both swords to fight and kill, the court guards also carry semi-automatic weapons. They also suddenly start having electricity half way through. Neither was important to the story so it was an odd integration of old and modern technology.

amazing read

absolutely loved this book would recommend it to anyone who enjoys fantasy. definitely a must read

Very Enjoyable Read

I don't typically read books based around this type of "courtship" plot, but I enjoyed it. I liked the very strong lead who wasn't inheritantly a good person, but still had you rooting for her. I liked the male lead as well even though he had flaws. I liked the style of writing although, I feel like their could have been a bit of a stronger end. Overall a decent read.

good but predictable

I get why everyone loves this book so much, but I picked out the murder in the first couple chapters and the "twist" soon after.

Good escape, bratty heroine

While I loved the authors description of the castle and the clothing and enjoyed the character development, it was hard to get past the selfishness of both the heroine and the king. I found myself rooting for the wanna be Robin Hood character. At least he actually cared for the people