This book was provided for review by the author and The Write Reads. Thank you!

Have you ever seen something you can’t explain? Did it vanish as fast as it appeared?

Perhaps that thing you saw was lurking in the shadows, and you caught a glimpse of it before it went back into hiding.

There’s a good chance, of course, that the thing you saw simply emerged from your imagination.
Or maybe, just maybe, it didn’t…

Sapphire Smyth is no stranger to rejection. When she was only a baby, her father abandoned her after her mother died. Since then, Sapphire has never felt like she belonged anywhere, or with anyone. To make things worse, her foster carers have now turned their back on her – on her eighteenth birthday. After living with them throughout her childhood, Sapphire has to find a new home. Is it any wonder she finds it hard to trust people?

Abandoned by the people she called family, Sapphire is alone and searching for some meaning in her life. Except that meaning has already come looking for her. When she discovers mysterious creatures lurking in the shadows, Sapphire soon realises that her fate is unlike anything she had ever imagined.

Trigger Warning: Violence. The main characters parents die in a mysterious way. Also, the main character is beaten up.

Even though I am an avid and voracious reader, there are times when I do not feel like diving in to a large book. For me, that is where short stories and novellas come in. They allow me to enjoy a story in a short amount of time.

Such as it is with Shadows, the first book in the Sapphire Smyth and The Shadow Five series. Written with the half hour/hour TV series in mind, in comes in at 104 pages. Even a very slow reader can easily tackle it in an afternoon.

This first book is very much like the first few episodes of a new TV series. In it we are introduced to the main characters, given a little bit of drama and questions, and are left wondering what will happen next. All key components of any good series that hopes to draw viewers in.

As far as the characters themselves, it’s still too early to tell who is a “good” guy and who is a “bad” guy. Even with the main character Sapphire, it’s too early to know if one wants to root for her or not. She does seem to be an interesting character though, as does her good friend Ben. It’s obvious he knows more than he’s telling but whether that is a good or bad thing is yet to be seen.

For an introduction to a new series Shadows shows a lot of promise. I enjoyed it and encourage my readers to seek it out.