Nov 13, 2011

Book Review: Shadowland by Alyson Noël

Shadowland by Alyson Noël
(The Immortals, #3)
Release Date: November 17, 2009
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 339 pages

Ever and Damen have traveled through countless past lives—and fought off the world’s darkest enemies—so they could be together forever. But just when their long-awaited destiny is finally within reach, a powerful curse falls upon Damen…one that could destroy everything. Now a single touch of their hands or a soft brush of their lips could mean sudden death—plunging Damen into the Shadowland. Desperate to break the curse and save Damen, Ever immerses herself in magick—and gets help from an unexpected source…a surfer named Jude.

Although she and Jude have only just met, he feels startlingly familiar. Despite her fierce loyalty to Damen, Ever is drawn to Jude, a green-eyed golden boy with magical talents and a mysterious past. She’s always believed Damen to be her soulmate and one true love—and she still believes it to be true. But as Damen pulls away to save them, Ever’s connection with Jude grows stronger—and tests her love for Damen like never before…





Shadowland is the third book in the Immortals series. It picks up where the previous book Blue Moon left off at with Ever struggling to deal with the curse that Roman put on her and Damon. In Blue Moon, Roman tricked Ever into putting a spell on Damen that now if the two of them touch Damen will die. As a reader, I will say that this is very painful. I would hate not being able to touch my significant other. It reminded me of that short lived tv series, "Pushing Daisies" In Pushing Daisies the lead male could raise the dead by just one simple touch, the catch was that if he touched this person again they will stay dead forever. Of course the lead ended up falling in love with a girl who he brought back from the dead, and their relationship suffered because he could never fully touch her. In Ever's case there is an antidote for this spell that was placed on Damen, but of course Roman won't give it to her.

Both Ever and Damen blame themselves for the situation they are in. Damen decides that it's because of how he has lived his life for the centuries that he's been alive, that he is being punished. He decides that he is going to basically live like a pauper for now on. He's giving up his lavish lifestyle and fancy clothes. This amused me greatly. It reminded me of a celebrity deciding to slum it.

Also in the book, Ever's Aunt Sabine really wants Ever to get a part time job at the law firm she works at. But instead Ever gets a job as a psychic at a bookstore, where she meets Jude. I like Jude. He's very comforting. But from the moment I met him, I really felt sorry for him. He reminds me of the nice guy who always loses. It's clear as he and Ever get to know each other that he has feelings for her. Damen is of course weary of Jude, but while reading I figured it was more than just the fact that Jude likes Ever. And as I kept reading, we discover of course there is a lot more to it than that. Unfortunately for me, the twist of it didn't really surprise me because it reminded me of something I read in a previous book series. That has always been my overall issue with this series, lack of originality. As I keep reading, all of the plots remind me of other books I have previously read.

One thing in the book I did find kind of cute in the book was Damen having to take care of Rayne and Romy. The two witches from the previous book, make a return in Shadowland fairly early on. They are still as bratty, but they are in a bind and Damen is trying to help them. Taking care of Rayne and Romy, puts Damen in a very domestic role and I found it very sweet.

The climax of this book, really made me shake my head. In fact, I think that Ever makes one of the dumbest mistakes in this entire series in this book. Yes, she is put in a horrible position once again, but I definitely think she made the wrong decision. In previous books, she's been tricked, but in this book there was no trick, and Ever literally has to make a choice between life and death. A situation no one should ever be put into. As previously stated, I think she chose wrong.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...