Sweet Shadows by Tera Lynn Childs

About the book

Sweet Shadows is the second book in the Medusa Girls series by Tera Lynn Childs. It was published by Templar on 1^st March and the book is 368 pages long. Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a copy for review.

Plot Synopsis

Grace, Gretchen and Greer are sisters who are descendants of Medusa. Not that long ago, none of them knew about their sisters as they were adopted. Gretchen has always known who and what she is but now she must teach her sisters all about the monsters who try to kill them and how to fight. However, now that they are all together, and united, monsters of the abyss are out to destroy Grace, Gretchen and Greer.

As the girls begin to get to know one another, many obstacles stand in their way. Gretchen doesn’t know if she can trust the extremely hot Nick, Grace’s brother Thane has gone missing and rich girl Greer doesn’t want her perfect life being upset. With all of this going on, their destiny calls but will it be fulfilled?

What I thought

Being the second book in a series, there may be minor spoilers for the first book, Sweet Venom in this review.

Something that I think was common with the first book in this series was the confusion between the three sisters. It took me some time to get used to each character but as they all narrate their own chapters, it becomes easier to tell them apart as time goes on. In Sweet Shadows, after a quick recap of who was who at the back of the book, I didn’t have any problems remembering which girl was which. Now, each of the girl’s voices are much more distinct, as are their personalities. As I began reading Sweet Shadows, I felt that I really knew who each character was thanks to great introductions in the first book.

As far as characters go, even though Grace, Gretchen and Greer are all pretty equal, I did have my favourites. Grace is sweet and intelligent, thinking she is nothing more than the brains of the operation while Gretchen already kicks ass and is quite sure of herself. Greer on the other hand, I had problems liking. Maybe it was because of her upbringing in comparison to Gretchen and Grace. She’s a bit spoilt at times but she does begin to be a better character in this book. Tera Lynn Childs spends time in this book with each of the girls on their own as well as combinations of them together. I really enjoyed seeing them all in different situations and how they reacted.

Sweet Shadows sees some really interesting developments with secondary characters, who didn’t have much to do with anything in the first book. Nick, the mysterious guy always hanging around Gretchen is certainly an interesting character with many secrets. While he and Gretchen begin to know each other slightly better, there is always the thought that he is hiding something. In this book, we get to know so much more about Nick although I’m still unsure about whether I trust him or not. There is also Thane, Grace’s brother. He pretty much ran away in Sweet Venom and he is still missing for the majority of this book. Due to his texts with Grace, it made me wonder where he went and what he was doing because if it wasn’t something exciting or a big secret, it wouldn’t have been included in the first place.

This book expands on the girls’ destiny and what they were born to do. As descendants of Medusa, they are able to fight monsters and a whole range of other awesome things. While there was some monster fighting going on, I didn’t feel as though it was enough. I wanted more. There could have been so many more scenes with the girls kicking some ugly monster’s arse. However, I did find the whole mythology aspect of Sweet Shadows much more interesting than in the first book as so much more was explained. Along with Medusa being a central theme in the book, many of the other Gods are brought in to help with the background information, as well as during the events of this book.

There was a lot going on in this book and I found it very exciting to read. While there is a lot of information to take in, learning about so many new people and what they do, there was also a lot more to this book. The plot thickens deeply, the characters develop so much and there are plenty of twists and turns. I especially liked the explanations to do with Grace, Gretchen and Greer’s destiny and other people’s opinions on what they thought should be done.

Sweet Shadows is a great second book and it sets the scene really well for the third and final instalment. Grace, Gretchen and Greer are three kick ass teenagers in a world full of crazy monsters and back-stabbing characters.