No Shadow Without Light Kindle Edition

by Luke Gracias  (Author), Ralph Rebello (Editor) 

Thank you to the author, the editor, the publisher and NetGalley for the complimentary reviewer's copy. I am choosing to leave a fair and honest review.
I really wanted this to be a good book. I love historical/archaeological thrillers. Unfortunately, I was sorely disappointed.
The story moves slowly. The characters are paper thin. And the author clearly has no clue how English grammar, particularly when it comes to speakers in a story, works.
As I'm sure everyone remembers from elementary school grammar classes, a writer should always begin a new paragraph when a new speaker begins to, well, speak. Mr. Gracias failed to do this, making it nearly impossible to get who is saying what to whom with a single reading of a paragraph. Some authors will occasionally combine speakers, but they usually don't do it for the whole book.
Because of the bad grammar, the paper thing characters (don't even get me started with the good girl/evil girl stereotypes), and the lack of decent pacing results in a single star.

1 star out of 5

https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Without-Light-Luke-Gracias-ebook/dp/B09HSHPGZ3

UNPOPULAR OPINION:

I did not know this was part of series so I did not understand what happened before or the references. I did like the historical and adventure aspects but it just was not for me. Disappointing given all the other reviews.

Thanks to Netgalley, Luke Gracias and Authors Upfront, First Edition for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Already Available: 10/5/21

No Shadow Without Light is the brilliant follow up to The Devil's Prayer. Picking immediately after the first book, Siobhan races against time to find the remaining pages of Devil's Prayer before her sister, the Devil's daughter gets there first.
The amount of detail in this book is unbelievable, adding medieval history and incorporating the Covid pandemic as well as climate change into the story. The story spans over six years, multiple continents and throws in enough twists and turns to keep you hooked.
Both this and the first book are brilliant reads.

Special thanks to Authors Upfront and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

Going into this book, I didn't think I was going to like it. It seemed it was about a Devil's Bible with evil revolving around numbers like 666, but the more I read, the more intrigued I became because author Luke Gracias is also an Environmentalist Specialist and has all these degrees in Environmental Engineering and then when I heard there was such a thing as The Devil's Bible, I couldn't put it down. The genre scared me a little that it was a book on Christianity and my first thought was count me out, but I'm so glad I read on. So many interesting facts!

Books like this scare me, and I like to be scared.!!!

No Shadow Without Light by Luke Gracias

979-8499076194

376 Pages
Publisher: Authors Upfront
Release Date: October 5, 2021

Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery & Thrillers, Religion & Spirituality

In the first book in the series, The Devil’s Prayer, Denise Russo was almost caught copying a page from the Devil’s Bible. She is chased but soon is found hanging from the bell tower in from of thousands of Easter Week spectators.

This book picks up where the first book ends. Her oldest daughter, Sioban, wants to finish what her mother started – find the twelve pages of the Devil’s Prayer. God and the Devil made an agreement that what whichever side had more of the pages will affect the human population. Inspector Luca Reginalli from the Amalfi Coast becomes involved when the Vatican task him with finding the “Nun’s oldest daughter.” With only that much information, it seems likely to fail. He uses resources and finds the Russo family. He meets Jess, the daughter of the Devil, and Grandmother Edith but no Sioban.

The description of Noah being humankind and the Ark being the earth is a reasonable theory. Noah was charged to bring two of each species onto the Ark. The assumption that if he brought four elephants on board, there would not be any room for gazelles is a parallel for what humans are doing to the earth, we are using resources that should be available for other species.

This was an excellent book and made me truly think of the current circumstances of the earth. The story was fast paced, it was written in the third person point of view, and the characters were developed. This was a wonderful sequel to The Devil’s Prayer. If you like action-packed, globe-trotting books with a fight of good versus evil, you will definitely like this one.

No Shadow Without Light is a sequel to the Devil's Prayer which I have read and thought rather good if you believe all that mumbo jumbo stuff. Well, NSWL raises the game somewhat. Why is it that Catholicism and the devil are inextricably linked when it comes to films and novels? Perhaps you need a few chants in Latin to get the right atmosphere? Anyway, I digress. Both Luke Gracias and Archbishop Justin Welby have supped on the King's shilling of oil and gas exploration, now they profess a new faith. I am surprised Greta Thunberg wasn't a co-author of NSWL as it's a tale of apocalypse now. So, if you need a devilish slant at how the world's going to hell in a hand basket, this book is for you. Frankly, I found the narrative a bit 'painting by numbers' in its style but it did give us an interesting jaunt around the Amalfi coast. It was amazing how all the ancient secret passages with their traps and follies still worked after hundreds of years of no use. Just a year and a half away from our apartment in the sun caused havoc with no water in the U bends! The ancients new stuff we obviously don't but perhaps they didn't have U bends either.
This is quite a lengthy book and not without its boring moments. I don't think it's as good as the previous novel so I will be giving it a 3 star review. I think it may achieve greater success as a film though.

Worth waiting for! This book completes the story that began in The Devil’s Prayer in 2016, and I would advise readers to start there.
This has taken me an age to read, not because it is boring or dull, but because it is such a journey of discoveries! Each chapter has a photograph, a brilliant idea, but, each time I had to break off from my reading and read about it on the internet, thus spending many more hours than anticipated when I started this read. But, it was worth it, some really astonishing and downright scary facts revealed themselves, I can fully comprehend why faith was so much stronger in Mediaeval times, and the fear of Hell and damnation brought people to heel.
At times, this felt like a macabre touristy guide to the unexplained sounds, sights and haunting of places concerned with the Roman Catholic faith. Throw into this mix The Knights Templar, Red Monks, Genghis Khan, and a chase that starts in Australia, then reaches Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, Singapore, Italy and Sweden, amongst other places, it is a very fast paced and exhausting novel to keep pace with.
The story concerns Siobhan and Jess, one being on the side of the Devil, the other is trying to save the world. The missing pages are designed to spread hope and misery by the opposing forces, and the hunt is on to collect them all, for either good or evil, the person with the most pages will decide the fate of the world. That is how the first book started, this second book shows more ‘ green and ecological morality’ action. As Mankind increases, the green world will disappear, nature will be destroyed in order to make way for humans. It’s a siren call to wake up to the damage we are doing to this planet, to save the animals and woodlands, that are increasingly being removed in order to make room for mankind, who seems incapable of understanding of the harm we are doing by our greed and reckless plundering of the Earths resources.
This is such a bang on trend book, especially as we are only a few days away from COP26, taking place in Glasgow, to discuss these very issues.
There is the ugly reality of life on Earth, and that contrasts with our search for the Stars, this book is truly a prayer of despair and hope.
I loved this book, I was very intrigued with the idea of how Covid-19 might have come about, there has been a lot of research and soul searching in this book. It all seems to make perfect sense, but will we listen to the message it contains? That remains to be seen.
My thanks go to Netgalley and publishers Authorsup front, for such an exciting and thoughtful read.
A well deserved five star read, that was a overall pleasure to read!!

This was a very slow read, not because it was boring, but because I had to “digest” it. It is basically the story if Siobhan, the Nun’s oldest daughter. Her sister, Jess, is the Devil’s daughter. But it is also the search for the twelve pages of The Devil’s Prayer. It is filled with adventure, but also filled with history, descriptions that take you into the story and also takes place over six years. Definitely fascinating reading with a heck of a plot. Thanks to Net Galley and the Publisher for an ARC for an honest review.

This is a good blend of historical fiction and facts. It spans the time from the Crusades to the present. Although the author makes a good job of the recap of the first book, it might be more beneficial to read the Devil's Prayer to get a full grasp of the whole thing.

The hunt is on, and Siobhan is racing to find the missing pages of the Devil's Prayer before her sister Jess. Her soul literally depends on it. Her loyalty and her trust are tested. It's come to a point where she doesn't know who is her friend or who is her enemy.

Luca is an Italian policeman who finds his friend in a bizarre situation where his hands and feet are tied and a cryptic message pinned on his person. He is tasked to investigate this mystery.

He goes to Australia to get some answers, but Siobhan isn't there. The Red Monks are still after her and she is determined to find those missing pages by leaving the country. Eventually, she crosses paths with Luca and they start to try to solve this puzzle. They come up against various dangerous obstacles and they discover that some of their so called allies are not who they seem to be. The enemy appears to always be a step ahead. Who to trust? That is the question. Will they win the race with time and stop a disaster?

The content is very descriptive, even the most gruesome and sickening episodes. It's very well recounted and there are some lessons to be learnt. The messages sent are strong. Be more humane and respect nature. Some of the events are actually close to what's happening in the world around us today. Greed, selfish attitudes and envy are all detrimental traits which could destroy the future generations. It's not only an enlightening read, but also a great story.

This book is the long-awaited sequel to The Devil's Prayer by author Luke Gracias, which started originally as a low-budget film script in 2014 and evolved into an exciting debut novel in 2016. Gracias has a master's degree in Environmental Engineering and worked as an Environmental Specialist for over 25 years. In 2007, he started a film production company which had some success in Bollywood. One can see the film influence in his writing which brings all the cinematic excitement of other tales of 'adventure quests' such as The Davinci Code and the Indiana Jones movies.

In these two stories, there is an epic battle going on to save humanity, with God (the Light) and the selfless on one side and the Devil (God's shadow) and the selfish on the other. The stories are a mix of adventure, history, thriller and horror with some pretty graphic violence. I would recommend reading The Devil's Prayer first, as this second novel builds on the first.

The plot: According to a pact made between God and the Devil, once the human population surpassed 6,666,666, which came to pass in 2006, the side of good must find seven of the missing pages of the Devil's bible by 02/02/2020, with one page to be released each year. If they fail in this quest, humanity is doomed. The Devil's Bible is a true relic of medieval times, huge in size, containing 322 sheets, from which 12 sheets have been removed--supposedly containing the Devil's Prayer. The quest has fallen to Siobhan, a young woman whose mother left her home in Australia to become a nun after making a deal with the devil. There are many conspiring to stop Siobhan, including her sister Jess, who we've learned is the Devil's daughter.

The plot is gripping and exciting with lots of twists and turns. The human selfishness depicted has to do with how we are abusing and destroying the earth at the expense of all other living creatures and any future life for our children and grandchildren. Gracias includes many startling and disturbing facts about climate change in his author's notes. This is just one of several books published this year that are raising the alarm. What can our generation do to stop this destruction? Maybe start by supporting politicians who are trying to make important changes.

The author has included many beautiful photos of the sites depicted in the story which really enhance the reader's enjoyment of the various settings. The author says his sister Francis came up with the idea to include photos so kudos to her. I also admire the cover art very much.

I received an arc of this new book from the author in exchange for my honest review. It was available to download from both NetGalley and Amazon Kindle Unlimited. Many thanks for the opportunity.

Thank you to Luke Gracias and netgalley for the opportunity to read this book. I have looked forward to this sequel to The Devil's Prayer for so long and was not disappointed. The story was fast paced and kept me turning pages late into the night. But the message contained in this book was something I didn't expect and has affected me greatly and in, what I hope, is a very positive way. There are no other books I can compare "The Devil's Prayer" and "No Shadow Without Light" to. They are both very worthy of a movie in my opinion. They are two of the best and most unforgettable books I have read.

I enjoyed the first book in this series. Although the story is professionally written, I felt like the author was preaching to the reader instead of telling a story. I loved all the pictures as references to the story. I think the story could have been told in a much shorter novel.

Thank you to Luke Gracias and netgalley for the opportunity to read this book. And wow what a book it was. I was so looking forward to this book, it was definitely worth the wait. It had me on the edge of my seat. I couldn’t put it down but didn’t want it to end. I think the two books would make a great movie. Absolutely brilliant and so worth 5 stars and more.