Title: What Hunts Inside the Shadows
Author: Harper L. Woods
Publisher: Adelaide Forrest
Publication Date: August 30, 2022
ISBN: 9798218055691
Synopsis:
For weeks, he stood by my side, twisting his words into pretty half-truths. He enraptured me with his smooth temptation, leaving no corner of my being untouched. He consumed my mind and my body, then finally claimed my heart for himself. But Caelum’s true identity is terrifying enough to bring me to my knees.
Caldris is whispered in the Nothrek wind. The legend we only speak of with hushed words, in shuttered rooms, for fear of drawing his wrath once again. His intentions are a mystery, his desires impure, and he seeks to shackle me to his side for all eternity. With the Wild Hunt as our guard, he points us back to where it all began: the village of Mistfell and the boundary where the Veil once shimmered in the wind.
The Mist Guard have been sworn to keep us from crossing into Alfheimr, and from treading Faerie soil, even if innocents must pay with their lives. They have orders to resurrect Mistfell’s shimmering barrier, but, once again, there’s a greater cost than what has been revealed. Once, the people of Northrek blamed me when the Veil fell.
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I feel like I’m the only one who isn’t keen on this series, though I do have to give the author a bit of credit that the second book in the series is much improved from book one. In this second book in the Of Flesh & Bone series, deep-rooted secrets are revealed, betrayals run deep, violence lurks at every turn, and love and hatred run along a fine line. If you’re looking for a spicy book with minimal plot, this series is definitely the one for you. While the plot picks up somewhat in What Hunts Inside the Shadows and there’s marginally more character development in this book than in the first, it’s still a stretch to call this book “quality” fiction. It’s slow, with characters whose sanity I questioned regularly, and no real things happening until near the end.
The one thing keeping me strung along is that Estrella clearly is more than what she seems, and I’m too intrigued about what that may be to just walk away without finishing. She’s got to have a big revelation coming in her future, and there is a ton of mystery surrounding her past, but we begin to piece together the puzzle of her history as this book progresses. Mysteries are slowly being solved as Estrella’s understanding and confidence in herself grows. She’s still dull throughout most of this book. A character that, thus far, has life happen to her, and not the other way around. With the undiscovered secrets and the moderate character development she sees, I’m hopeful that the final book in the series will see her reach some kind of positive growth and turnaround.
Something else that made this book slightly more tolerable from the last is the building of Caelum’s character throughout. Though his storyline is filled with deception, the reader actually begins to get a glimpse into his love and motivations, and though it may not have seemed it until this book, he’s actually full of a very pure and devoted love. It’s hard to believe based on book one, but he does do a bit of a turnaround as the “plot” progresses, which I did appreciate.
Overall, still a struggle of a series to get through, and I can’t figure out why so many people have rated this book so highly, while I truly can’t find more than one or two minor positive things to say. But I’m committed. I got it free on Audible so I’ll be finishing the series while I wait for next month’s credit.
Happy reading!
Worn Pages and Ink 