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Shadows (The Rephaim #1) by Paula Weston | Review

9:27:00 PM

Pages: 400 pages

Publication Date: September 10th 2013

Publishers: Tundra Books

ISBN: 1770495479 (ISBN13: 9781770495470)

It's almost a year since Gaby Winters watched her twin brother die. In the sunshine of a new town her body has healed, but her grief is raw and constant. It doesn't help that every night in her dreams she fights and kills hell-beasts. And then Rafa comes to town. Not only does he look exactly like the guy who's been appearing in Gaby's dreams, he tells her things about her brother and her life that cannot be true, things that are dangerous. Who is Rafa? Who are the Rephaim? And who is Gaby? The truth lies in the shadows of her nightmares.

Now, What I Thought:

So, this book originally intrigued me because it was considered almost as good as, Susan Ee's Penryn and the End of Days trilogy, which is a huge compliment on Paula Weston. I can officially say that even though the storylines are completely different, I do agree with the comparison. This book was actually incredible! I loved how everything played out and the sequence of events were perfect. Everything happened at such a perfect time that it flowed so nicely. It was very well written and deserves a lot more hype. Weston is an Australian author and it was pretty difficult to get her books, considering I was greedy and ended up ordering them straight from Australia, so I could have them a year before they were published in Canada, where I am. LOL I know that's cheating a little but seriously, these books were so addictive and so much fun to read, I needed these books one after the other.

The energy between Gaby and Rafa is incredible. Since the first time she, thought, she met him till the end of the book, was just consistent non-stop electricity between the two. The big drama was that Gaby seemed to have this whole life before, where she can't seem to remember a single thing about it. She learns a lot about her 'true' self and how heartless this Gabe could be. The other mystery is her brother. What exactly happened to her twin brother if she can't trust this new life's memories? Is her brother really dead? Or was that just part of this non truthful life she's been living. So we definitely get to see the journey and trip from both Gaby and Rafa to find out, considering Rafa and Jude are best friends.

I liked how Weston played on the memory aspect in this series because it was interesting when we would hear about the two different, yet same physical person- Gaby and Gabe. I really liked that and it had a bit of a psychology theme to i, which I really enjoyed. It seemed to have brought more to the book then just an average YA angel novel. I really liked this book and I'm really excited to read what happens when Gaby gets her memories back, because it has to happen some day!