There are numerous things I love about Shadows – that it's a paranormal romance novel without an entirely insipid heroine (Gaby is actually pretty kick-ass), that it's set in a fictitious Australian coastal town (for some reason, even Aussie authors can't imagine angels or vampires outside of the US – seems like a dangerous place, what with all these supernatural creatures. It’s the main reason I haven’t visited), that it manages to be both absolutely extraordinary and remarkably authentic (for instance, it’s about angels who fight evil beasties – which is absurd – but maintains believability by the fact that there’s a lot of politics and infighting, like in any non-angelic organisation). It's about Gaby Winters, who believes her twin brother died a year ago and has horrific nightmares of killing evil beasties – and who gradually finds out the truth about herself, the Rephaim and her brother's death when Rafa comes to town. You’ll like Rafa. I rather enjoyed to snappy dialogue and magical teleporting (teleportation is the greatest). I know, I know, angels are the new vampires and there’s an utterly ridiculous number of angel novels out right now – plus they’re all series, so you have to commit to a trilogy, or longer. Let me assure you that Shadows is well and truly worth it – as well as being delightfully Australian and featuring teleportation, it’s fast-paced and well-written and I’m very much looking forward to reading the next in the series.Originally published in Young Vagabond.
