In the Shadow of Victory

Shadow Series, Book 4

By: J.E. Leak

Narrated by: Abby Craden

Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Victory isn’t always the end of the story.

Paris, 1944.

As OSS agents Kathryn Hammond and Jenny Ryan navigate the dangerous world of espionage, they are faced with the ultimate test of love and loyalty. Can their love overcome the obstacles in their path, or have time and the shadows of the past cost them a second chance at happiness?

Join Kathryn and Jenny on their journey of forgiveness, healing, and devotion, as they discover the strength of their love in the thrilling conclusion to the sapphic noir Shadow series.

Note: This is the fourth and final book in the Shadow series. Listening to the books in order is highly recommended.

©2023 J.E. Leak (P)2024 J.E. Leak

Excellent Story and narration

JE Leak is a fantastic skilled writer. I have listened to the entire series and I highly recommend it. The characters are extremely well developed and the storylines are intriguing. Paired with Abby Craden this book and the others are very entertaining and interesting. I highly recommend this author and Abby C as well. I’m bummed there is isn’t another book in the series. I will be finding more JE Leak books to listen to.

Beautiful

Gorgeous narration and story. A great way to close the series. I absolutely loved it!

amazing series

I loved this series so so much a must listen! this narrator and author callab was all I could hope for!

I really enjoyed this-

Thanks for another great installment to this series. I only wish it would get picked up by Hulu, so we could watch Jennie and Kathryn's continued adventures! Never mind, then we would lose Abby Craden's sparkling narrative...

Heartbroken and whole, again and again!

I was heartbroken and whole again and again throughout the Shadows series and oh my God, I loved it! The setting, the plot, the characters, the beautiful love, everything transported me in those times, I felt part of the story. This last book of the 4 was what it should have been: the raw emotion of going back to oneself, to make peace with a tumultuous past, with the reality of a war that took a lot from them, but one thing: their love. It’s hard to take sides, but I think I am a fan of Jenny, of her journey from an innocent, impulsive and oh so sweet girl to an accomplished, wise, patient and deep woman, that went through an emotional roller coaster, but never ever has she stopped loving Kat. And Kat, she’s been so close to my heart and even though sometimes her actions broke my heart, I knew she will conquer her demons in the end.
I’d like to read a story, if not a book about Smithy and Vivienne’s story and a compilation of Jenny’s and Kat’s letters to each other while they were apart.
I love the playlist J.E Leak created and that you can find on her website, it complements the books and make the experience even better.
It wouldn’t be fair not to say that for me, Abby Craden’s narration was half of the experience! There is no better voice that could have taken me back then!

Brilliant Story Telling

I’ve was hooked on Jenny and Katharine’s complex love story from the onset and I found myself excitedly anticipating the next book to drop in the series. Brilliantly written with story lines intricately woven together. Left me craving for more! Abby Craden is an extraordinary narrator. Simply the best of the best!

Compelling story

I wasn’t aware when I started book one that I would be sucked in and unable to put aside. Abby Cradden’s narration is amazing as usual. I’ve never listened to this author’s work before but will now seek it out.

Great return to form and conclusion to a wonderful series!

In the Shadow of Victory is the fourth and final book in the ‘In the Shadow of” series that is a World War II sapphic spy drama following the stories of Kathryn and Jenny as the end of the war approaches and the dramatic events of the first few books comes to a climax!

I made no secret of my SEVERE disappointment with the third book - the first two were 5-stars for me, the third was 2-star (pretty sure I said I was being generous in the review!). I didn’t like what happened to the characters, all of the actions felt forced, things got too contrived, and overall the pacing was terrible and so much more editing was needed to fix some glaring issues.

In the Shadow of Victory is like three books wrapped into one - dealing with the aftermath of the previous book, actually advancing the plot, and wrapping up the love story of Kat & Jenny.

The first part reminds me a bit of ‘Rise of Skywalker’ - retconning stuff from book three and info-dumping the new direction for the final book. It felt like the author absorbed the criticism from the previous book as she reframes nearly everything that happened while still having to deal with the actions. It worked pretty well in my opinion. But the info dumps were exhausting because they all basically existed to address shortcomings from the previous book and made the narrative and dialogue feel forced and unnatural.

As for the core story - it was fine. It wrapped up what needed to be wrapped, and did so in a way that positioned all involved (well, most) for the happy ending they all deserve. In a weird twist we get new secondary characters introduced halfway into book four who are critical to other characters endings.

My other main issue was the ‘fluid POV’ - whereas the earlier books were told from a dual Kat & Jenny POV, there were no fewer than FIVE POVs in the final book that I counted, and sometimes it would change more than once on a single page which caused whiplash!

But most importantly, we FINALLY got the happy ending for Kat & Jenny. Told in three parts starting towards the end of the war through the ensuing years, this tightly focused section shows there is much left for each and both to do to heal - but that it will be alright in the end. The happy ending extended to another couple of secondary characters which made the mid-book side-trip pay off.

Overall I was incredibly satisfied with the series despite my stated frustrations - I felt like there were three excellent books in a four book series - the final book was occasionally awkward and spent too much time in the middle telling us how to feel rather than showing us WHY we feel that way, but once it got on track I was reminded of why I completely adored the first two books.

Highly recommend the whole series - you’ll get frustrated occasionally, but mostly you’ll laugh, cry, and fall in love with Kat & Jenny. Thanks to JE Leak for the wild ride these past few years!

Gut Wrenching in a good way

This book tore my heart out and mended it back together several times! I’m sorry the series has ended but I thoroughly enjoyed the ride! Abby Craden’s narration was spot on. A great combination of JE Leak and Abby Craden!

Heart wrenching

If you enjoy having your heart broken and repaired more times than you can count than you need to listen to this series!