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Grace is a warrior born to the Ser Irese, a desert tribe on Talia. She has been contracted to marry a man, Stone Tiran, something which she had no desire to do. When she refused the bonding, he took offence. Great offence, and somehow ended up in control of the government of Citadel – the principle city on Talia. He became The Revered. He gained it by taking advantage of the unrest that was already happening in the city. After he becomes Revered, he arrests Grace on a trumped up charge, and drugs her into unconsciousness. She awakes in time to overhear a strange man with amber eyes testifying against her. She’s sentenced to death.
Death doesn’t come to Grace, though. Instead she’s shipped off to a penal colony on a distant moon named Emerald – primarily for it’s green hue. She awakens in a cell, and soon discovers that there are four other young adults there – and no one else. There’s Mika, a doctors son with a penchant for playing board games. Skelly Shane, a miner who can move with stealth. Carina, a young dancer who has gifts for seeing and hearing things no one else can. And Duncan. A man with amber eyes. The same man with amber eyes who had ensured Grace’s sentence.
All Grace knows, is that she has to leave this prison; she must get home. But there are dangers on Emerald that are more frightening than she could ever have imagined. Should she trust her other inmates, can she trust them? Or do they mean to harm her or impede her?
The Shadows We Make had me pretty much gripped from the first chapter; I immediately felt comfortable with Grace’s narration and slipped into the world with ease. Admittedly, I didn’t really know what Citadel was, nor the history of why it was burning – but that simply just made me want to read on further; to see if I could unravel this mystery.
I found that I was left slightly disappointed, in that I never really found out much more about Citadel or Stone Tiran – but the array of new characters and voices made up for that. As did the action sequences on Emerald. It was truly spooky and slightly horrific, what happened there, as well as adding to the mystery.
In all, this was an amazing read. I’m looking forward to The Thrice-Gifted Child which is cited to be released early next year.
S. A.
Originally published on Reedsy Discovery as part of their ARC. Read the review here.
You can buy The Shadows We Make by clicking on its name.