Review: Where Shadows Meet: A Novel by Patrice Caldwell

Where Shadows Meet: A Novel by Patrice Caldwell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was provided both an ARC and ALC of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this.  The audiobook has several narrators, which is helpful as the story is told from Favre, Leyla, and Najja's perspectives.  As many of the characters in this book are female and the POVs are female it really helped having a distinct voice as the POVs switched.  This doesn't alternate between chapters, though it is mainly told in the present from Najja and Leyla's point of views with sprinklings of the past here and there from Favre's perspective.  I also found it helpful to have a copy of the ebook handy as there are lots of characters and new names to keep track of.  The ebook also has a handy family tree to look at and an explanation of the vampire bloodlines which are important.  The audiobook will come with a PDF of supplemental information, the ALC did not so I don't know what all it contains.

This follows Leyla, a vampire,  Crown Princess, and descendant of the original vampire.  She tries to live up to her mother's expectations but always seems to fall short.  When the capital comes under attack by strange monsters and Leyla's best friend is captured, she vows to save her.  Her mother forbids her, but she has chosen to take fate into her own hands this time.  Najja is a yamaja and her people are the messengers of fate, and her fate is tied to Leyla in some way.  They team up to find Leyla's missing friend and possibly prevent the world from ending.  As Leyla and Najja are on their quest, Favre a powerful and old vampire awakens from a long sleep and is determined to awake her true love who has also been asleep for very long time.  Favre has sacrificed much for Thana and will continue to sacrifice to awaken her again, even if it ends in destruction.

We get some great info about Thana and Favre's relationship in the past and how the vampire bloodlines/classes came to be.  We also get some background on the world and how everything works which I appreciated.  Favre is on a mission to awaken her love and will do anything to get her back, but I can see the cracks in the foundation starting to form or atleast I hope I do.  I'm hoping Favre comes to her senses about how much she has sacrificed for Thana, and Thana hasn't done much but manipulate and take from those around her.  As for Leyla and Najja, their relationship is only just beginning to blossom, and I expect it to develop further as the series progresses.  There are some more mature themes, but nothing graphic, gory, or detailed for YA readers who are ready for something on the more mature side of the age range. 

I am really looking forward to where this series goes.  This does end on a cliffhanger but you could see it coming well in advance.  I thought the pacing was good, we got good character development, and I love a good YA fantasy that discusses some bigger topics.  This does have trigger warnings so make sure you read the author's note before picking this up, she addresses them there.

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