Review Detail

TO KILL A SHADOW is an intriguing YA fantasy romance. When the king's Knights come to town for the draft, Kiara is seen fighting her brother's bully and drafted in his place. She finds herself being briefly trained before they are to be sent into the mysterious mist that is ruining their kingdom with the hopes of finding a cure. During her training, she makes a few quick friends and is immediately attracted to the brooding commander, Jude, who is only a year older than she.

Although she is not chosen by Jude to venture into the mist, Kiara cannot let her new friends go alone, and so she follows them in. Once there, they must face nightmares beyond imagining to have a chance to collect the items they need to possibly save their kingdom.

What I loved: This had a really intriguing premise and setup - a kingdom on the verge of destruction due to something created/left by the gods that once walked among them. This curse has left the king to make reckless moves with the people in the kingdom, primarily the boys who he recruits in large numbers. In addition, there is something mysterious about Kiara that has made her an outcast in her town.

The ending definitely upped the ante as there are more secrets revealed that give the characters potential complexity that we did not see earlier in the story. There is a cliffhanger that will be interesting to follow in future books.

What left me wanting more: I wanted more depth on the characters and relationships. Kiara and Jude have an instant connection that is not really deepened later on. The same thing seemed to happen with Kiara and the friends that were intended to be a found family sort of thing. She latched onto them very quickly, and it was not clear why she was more concerned about helping them than, say, getting back to her brother who she cared about deeply.

While we get some insight into the mythology and the royalty/way the kingdom works (for the latter, this is mostly through the chapter starters), there were so many questions remaining to fully grasp this. I would have appreciated even more world-building for these to really understand what is going on politically and the pantheon of the gods/goddesses.

Final verdict: TO KILL A SHADOW is an intriguing YA fantasy that will appeal to readers who enjoy questing, mythological danger, and quick connecting romance.