Circle of Shadows (Circle of Shadows Series, book 1)

By Evelyn Skye

Blurb: 
Sora can move as silently as a ghost and hurl throwing stars with lethal accuracy. Her gemina, Daemon, can win any physical fight blindfolded and with an arm tied around his back. They are apprentice warriors of the Society of Taigas—marked by the gods to be trained in magic and the fighting arts to protect the kingdom of Kichona.

As their graduation approaches, Sora and Daemon look forward to proving themselves worthy of belonging in the elite group—but in a kingdom free of violence since the Blood Rift Rebellion many years ago, it’s been difficult to make their mark.

So when Sora and Daemon encounter a strange camp of mysterious soldiers while on a standard scouting mission, they decide the only thing to do to help their kingdom is to infiltrate the group. Taking this risk will change Sora’s life forever—and lead her on a mission of deception that may fool everyone she’s ever loved.

Love, spies, and adventure abound as Sora and Daemon unravel a complex web of magic and secrets that might tear them—and the entire kingdom—apart forever.

Review: 
I received this book in a FairyLoot box, I possibly would have chosen this book in a book store because the story sounds good and the cover is quite attractive and enticing.

So this book is about people having special powers and being part of a set of tribes. Which is pretty cool being honest.

The book starts of with an exhibition act in front of Empress Aki, where Sora and Daemon have planned a little trick with fireworks. I found this scene quite funny and typical of rebelling students.

Sora and Daemon should be trying quite hard with their studies so they get a decent job or at least the ones they want. Their two friends that they hang around with (can't remember names it was a long time ago that I read it and I'm only just getting round to writing the review) were actually really interesting I found that the friendship between all 4 was really strong and you can see this throughout the whole book.

The relationship between Daemon and Sora is quite complicated because you can tell that they love one another but they know it is forbidden so try to hide their feelings for one another. It obviously comes out at some point within the book but I won't say when or what happens.

I feel slightly sorry for Sora because it feels like her relationship with her parents is quite forced and she treads around them quite lightly. She still hasn't got over the death of her sister, either has the rest of her family, which I can understand as they obviously feel guilty about her death. Sora seems to struggle the most with guilt and this shows towards the middle to the end of the book when she starts opening up to Daemon after certain events. I like that throughout the book you find out how her sister died and the events that happened around her death.

There was quite a few moments in this book that were really interesting and captivating but then at other times the book seemed to drag on. Also while reading the story, it didn't really develop much and there wasn't much action to really keep you that interested. The amount the story developed compared to the size of the book was really disappointing, I'm not too sure whether I'd read the next book in the series. I will see what happens closer to the time, but I know I won't be pre-ordering it.

This book is really good for friendships, character development and history on events. But it's not great for action and well developed stories, I just feel like this book is lacking a great amount of action as it was quite slow at times.

I'd recommend this book to people who don't mind slow books, great friendships, complicated love, traitors, twists, and oriental history.

Favourite Character: Sora

Read: 24/01/19 - 08/02/19

3 stars out of 5

Written by Sammie

Check out Sammie's review of FairyLoot - January 2019.

Check out Sammie's review of book 2: Cloak of Night.