Review: Shadows and Shade (Shadows and Shade Series Book 1 ) by Amanda Cashure

Shadows and Shade by Amanda Cashure
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Interesting ideas

I’d probably give this 3.5 ⭐️ if I could.

There was an awful lot packed into this book. This is quite common with the first novel in a series, particularly fantasy novels because of the amount of world building required. I felt initially like a lot of information was thrown at me, but then it slowed down a bit.

Shade is a servant (read: slave) and is 18 years old. She works for a very cruel master who is overly interested in Shade as she spends a great deal of time trying to avoid him. She also does a lot to protect her fellow servants, especially the children, even if it means putting him her master’s eye-line.

One day, she is chained up waiting to be whipped, when four strange men arrive at the manor. They see her chained up and decide to take her away from the manor, for inexplicable reasons. The everything starts to get strange because they head into the enchanted forest, from which no one returns and only bad things come out of it. What she actually finds is that inside the enchanted forest is another realm, one which is full of power and magic. It’s a land filled with immortals and Shade is a very vulnerable and inexperienced mortal.

The plot of this book seems highly inconsistent. In a world where Elites rule and servants are lucky to get paid at the end of their 50 years of service, it seems unlikely that it would be ok for a servant to wander about as she likes and not get into too much trouble, or that she would be allowed to attend classes without a great deal of discussion and negotiation. I also felt that Shade was annoyingly flippant about getting into trouble in a brand new world to her.

I find myself having more and more trouble empathising with very young women as the lead in a novel. I find myself asking “was I this stupid at 18?” And not knowing the answer because it was too long ago to recall perfectly. This lack of empathy on my part makes it harder for me to connect with a story, and this book is no exception. However, it was an interesting idea and things about the world building are intriguing. The plot is a little fuzzy, to be honest, as I think it got lost in the world building. Part of me wants to read the next book to see what it’s all about and the other part of me things I have a huge TBR list that isn’t getting any shorter. Who knows whether I’ll read the next book or not!

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