Review by JodiBrozio -- Shadow's Voice by Natalie Johanson

[JodiBrozio]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Shadow's Voice" by Natalie Johanson.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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I rate Shadow’s Voice by Natalie Johanson 3 out of 4 stars because I don’t feel this book was professionally edited. After documenting ten errors, there continued to be more throughout the book. Do you sometimes see childish memes on Facebook, something like a dog “thinking out loud” with a word or two missing to denote the lack of knowledge of the English language? For instance, “How do intend to treat this?” really bothered me.

This was an extremely interesting story about supernatural powers that exist in the world, sometimes in humans and sometimes in forms other than humans. Rose, who has a supernatural power of being able to live and move partially in shadows, has a troubled past and has difficulty staying in one place for long because she feels it will always catch up to her eventually. She has done many things she is not proud of, and just wants to live a quiet peaceful life without magical powers. She is not convinced her powers are necessarily a good thing!

This book will appeal to anyone with an interest in magic and adventure. I remember being most interested in these topics as a teenager, so I recommend this to younger readers. There are so many sequels that I can envision with all of the colorful characters in the book that I can almost ignore the shoddy editing! I really enjoyed how Rose has a definitive knowledge of people, or places, or things without an explanation of how she just “knows”. It strikes me as a sense of déjà vu that she can you look you right in the eye and just explain something with total conviction. For instance, she explained how Michael was the head of a clan that is not recognized by the crown but still fully functional in every other sense of the word. I also like that she always feels better with a blade in her hand! Rose is as real to me as the author is.

What I did not really like much about the book – other than the editing – was the shadow wolves and how they would not answer questions. Everyone wants to know their purpose in life. How can you fulfill your function if you don’t know what it is? I think there should have been more guidance for Rose and the others to follow, a way to learn the rules. Additional casts of characters with similar powers, where they could learn from each other, might have been supportive to the plot.

If violence bothers you, maybe you would not like reading this book. There is a little bit of swearing, but not enough to upset anyone. Honestly, I think most people would still enjoy the book. I cannot give a compelling enough reason not to read it. There is potential for the next books to be even better. I will look for more titles by this author.

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Shadow's Voice
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[Erin Painter Baker]

I just finished this book and enjoyed it quite a bit as well. I also noticed the editing errors (and that they seemed to come in bunches), but they didn't bother me quite as much as they did you. I am looking forward to the next installments in the series.