Book: Shadowvein by L Ann
Reviewed by Booksbystarlightandshadows
Rating: 3/5
The book starts with a bang as Ellie is whisked away mid Christmas shop to a desert in not-Earth. The initial trip to the tower felt really atmospheric and brutal as Ellie is pushed to physical exhaustion. I am still thinking about her phone being in the sand dune somewhere; I kept thinking that was going to come back at some point to prove she was something "other".
I liked how these characters circled each other for a while in this slow burn and Ellie wasn't so distracted by the handsome man trapped in a tower that she lost her common sense. I also liked how she kept questioning whether she was on the right side when she had zero context for the world beyond what Sacha told her. They escaped the tower relatively quickly and as Sacha is super cagey about what he will and won't tell Ellie about Meridian, I liked that we saw the world building through Ellie experiencing it rather than exposition.
It is a long book and I did find the middle a bit repetitive at points once they escaped. The pacing really slowed down as Ellie and Sacha moved from place to place and it seemed to take a while to get things going again. The action was amazing though once the heist was in play; I wanted more of that. I'm a little confused as to how old everyone is meant to be though; I get age is just a number but that 27 year gap is mentioned enough that I kept thinking it was going to be relevant.
Benjamin Crow is so convincing as the manipulative Sacha. I enjoyed his POV where he straight up admits he is going to use Ellie to meet his own ends so matter of factly and it was fun to see him soften towards her whilst simultaneously stressing about what it all means. Lily Drake is a new to me narrator and I loved her take on Ellie. Ellie felt so normal in making the best of her situation and never gave of those "not like other girls" vibes but in that last chapter, wow! Lily Drake was amazing in that chapter particularly.