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Aaira is a dress maker from the village of Riverton, and she’s a bit bored watching the wealthy people of the kingdom dance and preen at the King’s birthday ball. Nobel women swish around wearing the dresses she made, while sneering at her. When she inadvertently catches Prince Kerat’s eye, she finds herself escaping to the garden, where she’s met by a seemingly kind old lady, who offers her a drink and some food. Unbeknownst to Aaira though, this is not a kindly old lady, this is a scorned woman who has been harbouring a grudge for the past twenty years against the king. Although Aaira has no part of it, she’s used as bait to lure the prince to the sorceress, so that she can put her revenge into place.
Although I enjoyed the beginning of A Thread of Shadows, I got lost around the half way mark. The story veered off it’s track, and a whole new plot line emerged. The main villain who had been the protagonist for everything that had happened seemed to disappear into the ether of the new plot, and her final appearance was somewhat underwhelming. The quest that Aaira, Kerat and their brooding companion, Jax, originally seemed set to complete also faded into the background, with barely a mention after a certain point. The Moonscript – the language of the gods and the book that they were hunting, just sort of seemed to be forgotten about once a certain character was introduced.
While Addington did leave breadcrumbs throughout A Thread of Shadows about the characters who would be introduced later on and who would be significant in the ending scenes, they were still somewhat confusing with their relationship to the world that Aaira and Kerat originated from. I would have like to known Cricket’s relationship to Kerat in more detail, as there seemed to be a story there, at least.
All in all, though, I have to say, I did really enjoy A Thread of Shadows. I enjoyed Addington’s writing, and little spots of humour dotted around. I especially liked Kerat in owl form, finding his little temper tantrums quite hilarious.
S. A.
First published on Reedsy Discovery as part of their ARC program. You can read the original review here.
You can buy A Thread of Shadows from Amazon, also available to read for free on Kindle Unlimited.