Synopsis:
When Evelyn Dasher crossed paths with Luc, she was thrown headfirst into the world of the Lux—only to discover that she was already far more involved in their world than she ever suspected.
Because the Luxen aren’t the only ones with a hidden past. There’s a gap in Evie’s memory, lost months of her life and a lingering sense that something happened, something she can’t remember and nobody is willing to tell her. She needs to find out the truth about who she is—and who she was. But every answer she finds only brings up more questions.
Her search for the truth brings her ever closer to Luc, the Origin at the center of it all. He’s powerful, arrogant, inhumanly beautiful, extremely dangerous…and possibly in love with her. But even as Evie falls for him, she can’t help but wonder if his attraction is to her, or to the memory of a girl who no longer exists.
And all the while, a new threat looms: reports of a flu-like, fatal virus that the government insists is being spread by Luxen. A horrifying illness that changes whoever it touches, spreading panic across a country already at its breaking point.
My thoughts:
3/5 stars.
Where I really loved the first book, this one just fell short. It was probably because of the time I read it in, as this was about a deadly virus and riots and protests which hit a bit too close to home and made it difficult to fully emerge myself into the story and the world Armentrout has set up.
Not only that, but where the Blood and Ash series really shows how she has progressed in her writing, The Burning Shadow did not. At times I felt like I was re-reading parts of the Lux series, and while that will forever remain a favourite, I do not wish to see it repeated.
I enjoyed the relationship between Evelyn and Luc but the two of them as characters weren’t very dazzling. Evelyn kept struggling with her past, which is very understandable and Luc kept trying to help her, but no-one showed any real character development in the book and I thought that was a pity as I had hoped that Luc would become a bit less arogant and self-absorbed and possessive and obsessed with Evie. I do have to stress that I really liked the two of them together, but didn’t find them mesmerizing on their own.
The plot largely resembled that of Opal and Onyx with a few name changes which was very disappointing and made the book at times incredibly predictable. There were too many apparently important side characters that were killed off, minor spoiler although not really because that is Armentrout’s style and considering that I knew that, I cared little about the deaths of certain characters, which were supposed to be shocking to the reader.
The ending was what saved the book, even though it was predictable as well. It was interesting to see how far Armentrout has evolved and developed the world of the Luxen and how she has build on what she started in the Lux series.
This book was saved by the relationship of Evie and Luc and it’s ending and the above mentioned development of the Daedalus department.
I do recommend this series to fans of Jennifer L. Armentrout but I strongly suggest you do not read all of her work as the patterns in which she writes become clear and her books become predictable (at times).
ReadingInsideaBellJar 