Shadows (Rephaim, #1)

by Paula Weston

[Angie]

I received an ARC through NetGalley.

I had high hopes that Shadows would finally be another angel book that I could add to my like list. Sadly, it wasn't. It sounded dark and kickass, and it was at times, but ultimately, I just do not care about angel problems! I don't know why! But as soon as angels start talking about their issues, my brain turns to mush and my eyes glaze over, and I have weird dreams. This one was different than other angel books I read in the past, but it wasn't enough to change my mind.

Shadows starts off with Gaby going about her normal life. A year ago, she was in a car accident that killed her twin, Jude, and left her with a bum leg and a huge scar on the back of her head. She has nightmares about the accident, and her memories of everything before that are fuzzy, but for the most part she's getting along fine. At least until she meets Rafa. He seems to know Gaby, but she has no clue who he is. But she can't deny that he must have known her at some point, since he has photos of them together and with her brother. Of course, all of Gaby's memories are lies, but no one knows why or how.

Memory loss plots either really work for me, or epically fail. Shadows is more of a fail. I did find it interesting that Gaby has memories, but she just can't focus on them. Her real memories are gone and have been replaced with ordinary human ones. But for the most part I was annoyed, since every single character Gaby meets asks her if she really can't remember them, does something crazy to try to reveal her true memories, then acts surprised when she doesn't remember anything. I totally get that they're shocked she can't remember them or anything about their lives as the children of fallen angels, but did we really need to read this same scenario 50 times?! Then of course there's someone who decides to fill in what happened to Gaby and Jude right before the "accident" in a giant info-dump, but by that time I really didn't care anymore.

Shadows just did not work out for me. There are interesting ideas here that I hadn't come across before, like the Rephaim trying to find their angel fathers who are locked away somewhere. But for the most part, I don't care, and couldn't keep up with which characters were on whose side, and what their goals were.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.