The Shadow Girl by Jennifer Archer

Series: STANDALONE

Genera: Mystery/Paranormal Romance/Sci-fi

Subjects: Supernatural, love, Colorado, identity, secrets, death

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 325 pgs.

HC/PB: Paperback

List Price: $9.99

Publisher: HarperTeen

Summary/ product description:  “Sometimes I forget for an hour or two that she's with me. Sometimes I convince myself that she was only a dream. Or that I'm crazy.
For as long as Lily Winston can remember, she has never been alone. Iris, a shadowy figure who mimics Lily's movements and whispers in her ear, is with her always—but invisible to the rest of the world. Iris is Lily's secret.
But when Lily's father is killed in a tragic accident, his cryptic final words suggest that he and Lily's mother have been keeping secrets of their own. Suddenly, Iris begins pushing Lily more than ever, possessing her thoughts and urging her to put together the pieces of a strange puzzle her father left behind. As she searches for answers, Lily finds herself drawn to Ty Collier, a mysterious new boy in town. Together, Lily and Ty must untangle a web of deception to discover the truth about her family, Iris . . . and Lily's own identity”

My Rating: êêêê

My Review: The one thing that made me give this book a try was the setting. Colorado. I’ve been to Denver and Colorado Springs, and I remember how beautiful the mountains were. The only other books set in Colorado that I can think of are Stung and A Beautiful Dark and A Fractured Light.

Picturing scenery while reading a book is like taking a virtual vacation. The author took full advantage of the setting and had scenes where the characters are going on hike or on off-road vehicles. There’s a lot of description and showing instead of telling. I checked on Google Earth, and Silver Lake is not a real town.

This book also had pretty good characters. The main character is home schooled, so thankfully this book didn’t suffer from cliché high school drama. Lily has the spirit of another girl named Iris speaking in her head. She used to think her own shadow was Iris, but she only hears her voice and feels like she’s part of her. There’s the neighbor, Wyatt. He’s funny and cute and slightly reminds me of Tucker from Unearthly. Too bad Wyatt’s not a cowboy.

There’s Lily’s dad who dies at the beginning of the book, and Lily’s mom who’s depressed about it. Her parents are kind of old, like in their 60s. I kept suspecting them to be Lily’s grandparents, and thinking Iris was Lily’s mother. There’s also Ty, the new guy in town who starts repairing the roof for their cabin. He’s hot and mysterious and has his reasons for coming to Silver Lake.

The plot of the book was the mystery behind Lily’s past and who she is, and how she can help Ty. Much of the book was the romance/love-triangle between her, Ty and Wyatt. Sometimes the book felt slow, like there was no plot, but it picked up later on in the story. There’s a few twist towards the end. One of them I saw coming. Kind of changed the genera to sci-fi. Not trying to spoil it, but just saying. Wish there was more sci-fi stuff, because this is only a stand-alone. It was a good, enjoyable book anyway. Recommend it to anyone who likes a mystery or a virtual Colorado vacation.

Cover Art Review: Yet another reflective cover. There’s way too many covers with a similar seen. Like Pivot Point. Don’t care for this cover. But the back cover is pretty nice.

 

~Haley G