Circle of Shadows by Evelyn Skye

*Spoiler free*

Sora can move as silently as a ghost and hurl throwing stars with lethal accuracy. Her gemina, Daemon, can win any physical fight blindfolded and with an arm tied behind his back. They are apprentice warriors of the Society of Taigas—marked by the gods to be trained in magic and the fighting arts to protect the kingdom of Kichona. As their graduation approaches, Sora and Daemon look forward to proving themselves worthy of belonging to the elite group—but in a kingdom free of violence since the Blood Rift Rebellion many years ago, it’s been difficult to make their mark. So when Sora and Daemon encounter a strange camp of mysterious soldiers while on a standard scouting mission, they decide the only thing to do to help their kingdom is to infiltrate the group.Taking this risk will change Sora’s life forever—and lead her on a mission of deception that may fool everyone she’s ever loved.

This book sounded interesting. I was really intrigued by the characters and their abilities. It sounded like such an original and innovative world, like something I’ve never seen before.

The synopsis, I think, is very misleading. It does hide the book secrets very well, which I appreciate, but I want into this expecting something very different than what I got. Unfortunately, I can’t say anything else without giving the entire plot away. I was expecting more of a mystery/spy mission and it wasn’t that at all.

I really enjoyed this books and it definitely had it’s strengths, but stuff just keeps nagging at me and that keeps me from loving it. I think a lot of my problems with it lie in relationship development, both romantic and platonic. There was a weird romantic thing thrown in at the end that I did not like and it seemed really underdeveloped. Part of it came out of nowhere, but part of it was kind of expect, but didn’t have enough lead up.

I also had issues with a friendship. I feel like it wasn’t explained enough in the beginning and because of that I was confused about certain motivations as the story progressed. It took me awhile to get myself orientated and to figure out where everybody stood.

The POVs were also pretty odd. I feel like it was told in omniscient/third person at the same time? All I know is that it took some time getting used to and the switch between narrators was not smooth in the beginning. There were also a ton more POVs than I expected and a lot of them came out of nowhere. I don’t think they were a bad thing since I can’t decided if they added to the story or not. I just know they didn’t harm it.

The writing was incredible. It was so full of life and it was one of the reasons that I loved this story. It kept my tied into the story so well. The plot was amazingly laid out and it was awesome to keep it progress and grow.

All I can say is that I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t get what I was expecting, but that doesn’t mean that what I got was bad. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and I am definitely looking forward to see what comes next!

Circle of Shadows comes out January 22nd, 2019. You can add it on Goodreads and pre-order in the meantime!

Thank you for reading!