Enshadowed

by Kelly Creagh

[Angie]

Unfortunately, Enshadowed is the dreaded filler book of the trilogy. I was fully expecting a dark and dangerous adventure as Isobel attempts to rescue Varen, but nothing really happens until the last 100 or so pages. The beginning is mostly just Isobel trying to get to Baltimore, and a lot of her developing friendship with Gwen. I didn't wholly dislike it, but for the most part I felt like I was playing the waiting game. Not fun.

Enshadowed did start off promising. Isobel is having trouble telling dreams from reality. She's on Winter break, but keeps thinking it's some time before. She also sees Varen a few times. Is he somehow breaking through the barrier between the real world and his dreamworld, or is Isobel just dreaming him being there? She doesn't know, and it has her parents worried. This was all interesting, but it soon became repetitive, and easier to tell when she was dreaming and when things actually were leaking through.

The majority of Enshadowed was just Isobel trying to convince her parents to let her to go Baltimore with the excuse of scouting the university there. Of course, she really wants to go to Poe's grave to get Reynolds to take her back into the dreamworld so she can save Varen. Once her dad does agree to take her, I expected everything to get rolling. Well, not exactly. Now she has to plan (along with Gwen) how to even get away from her dad and into the cemetery without being seen and arrested for intruding. This dragged on for so long, and I just wanted the story to get on with it! It really isn't until around the last 100 pages when anything starts to happen, but then it just ends.

Enshadowed ended on a kind of weird note. Isobel does find Varen, but then...nothing. She's back in the real world and is confused on what's happening to her. I was confused too, since the story just jumps ahead to her being out of there, but not really. Essentially, Isobel ends exactly where she started. She made no progress on her rescue mission, although she does learn a bit more about how the dreamworld works and the creatures within. I guess I'll just need to wait patiently for Oblivion for the action to start again.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.