Blog Tour: Shadows by Paula Weston

Thanks for stopping by Stellar Book Blog! Enjoy my stop on this blog tour, be sure to follow Paula Weston on Twitter, Facebook and her blog.

Also, be sure to follow the whole tour between September 16-20. Schedule is posted here.

Happy Reading!

Publish Date: September 10th, 2013
Publisher: Tundra Books
ISBN: 978-1-7704-9547-0
Pages: 400
Series: The Rephaim, #1
Source: From publisher for honest review and blog tour

Goodreads Synopsis:

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.

My Review:
Hell-beasts, hellions, demons and angels is the world we venture in when we pick up Shadows. We've read it before, we know the story. But Paula Weston takes us on a different adventure that is fascinating, intriguing and exciting!

Gaby just wants to live life quiet and alone since her brother was killed in a horrific car accident that she can't remember all the details to. She doesn't want to be reminded daily of what she lost. Gaby finds this seclusion within Pandanus Beach and with a roommate named Maggie who doesn't ask a lot of questions. The two of them have this sort of mutual agreement that they don't talk about Jude, Gaby's brother. And this suits Gaby just fine. 

Gaby has these dreams about fighting monsters and writes it off as an active imagination. Within these dreams is a mysterious but handsome guy whom, lo and behold, shows up one night at the same bar that she is. Things aren't adding up, and to make it worse Gaby runs into people who seem willing to fight her for no apparent reason. Needless to say Gaby is confused and wants answers and it seems the only one to know answers is Rafa but he is far from willing to sit down and reveal everything to Gaby. Little by little Gaby figures out that maybe things aren't as they seem, and that she is suffering from memory loss and distorted memories. I loved that we were on the journey with Gaby to remember things. The book wasn't all hellions and beast and so forth, Shadows was also about overcoming the unknown and forgotten and I loved that!

Paula Weston is an Australian author, with Shadows already published and read by many in Australia and it was neat seeing the Aussie feel to the book. I'm sure some wording needed to be changed but I loved that Wallaby's were out on the road, and friendships were with mates and little details like that. The writing was fantastic, I could really put myself in the book and see the picture. There was action, suspense and romance all written with an expert hand. Gaby is a character that is just trying to find herself and because of that, she is easy to relate to. She's just a normal girl trying to live a normal life. Rafa, on the other hand with have your emotions all over. His up and down moods, and his impeccable timing of leaving right when he shouldn't will have you rolling your eyes at him! 

Paula Weston's Shadows is a great read, and I cannot wait for Haze, book #2 in The Rephaim series, set for Fall 2014.

Because I enjoyed Shadows so much, and the lovely people at Tundra Books want others to love it too, we are giving one lucky US/Canada reader a copy!

a Rafflecopter giveaway