"In the darkest nights and in the blackest shadows, light shines the brightest"

Wow this story gipped my from the start, straight into the action within the first couple of chapters.

This book gave me a Lord of the rings fellowship feel with all the different individuals coming together for a quest, working together and finding a family in each other despite their different races and beliefs.
There was also a bit of politics which I really enjoy and would love to see expanded on in the next book/books.

The middle had a few pacing issues but overall really enjoyed this story, looking forward to reading the next one and seeing more of this world that we have only just tipped our toes into.

Thanks to DL Grant, LLC for the ARC

High Fantasy with dwarves, elves, goblins and magic.

A tale that grabs you quick and throws you into the misadventure, keeping you on your toes.

The cover deceived me a little. I love magic/dark fantasy/speculative/fairy retellings/urban or historical fantasy. But I am not a huge fan of high and low fantasy and from the first page it was clear I had picked up the wrong book for me. The story is pretty good, but this is not a genre I love and the characters didn’t really keep me all that engaged. If you love high fantasy a la Dungeon and Dragon role playing gamemaster tale, this is for you.

i should have loved this book. it has elves, goblins, magic, action-packed, a motley crew of different characters going on an unexpected adventure, yet i found it quite bland.

the main character was not compelling enough, and i was lukewarm to everyone. the characters fit classic archetypes and they were so plain. the worldbuilding did not offer anything new, and it felt like i had read this story before. also, i found the writing to be a bit too juvenile and unexciting. the plot follows the regular path and the characters say and act so typically. i was not surprised by any of the events that happened in the story.

i love fantasy, but this book made it seem so stale. i'm sorry to say that i found this to be too.. ordinary.

⭐️⭐️
I read this as a voluntary ARC for review.

I really struggled to get through this book. I found myself really having a hard time tracking some of the action scenes especially in the first quarter of the book. Once I reach 50% of the book I found I was more interested and there were plot twists that really took me by surprise. Although there were definitely sections of chapters that I was not a fan of. I also felt that the chapters were incredibly long and I wish they had been broken up better. There certainly were some unanswered questions and cliff hangers that I appreciated and left me hanging!

Where the Shadows Beckon is now one of my favorite fantasy books! It kept me turning the pages! The story/plot was so well written by the author! Will definitely be recommending it to friends and family! Cannot wait to read more by author Gillian Grant!!

I do love a debut, especially with a new fantasy series. There’s so much room for potential and excitement. I’d love to write a fantasy novel - and have actually started one - but the organisation it requires, and that Gillian must have to keep on top of everything, is impressive.

There is no messing about; we get straight into the action within the first two chapters, putting you right in the heart of the action.

Having said that, after the first few chapters, I found it got a little bit more “tell the reader what’s going on rather than show them”, which made it a little stop/start. There were some scenes a little drawn out, and others not long enough, which did affect the pacing slightly, but that didn’t stop it being thoroughly enjoyable. From about 15% of the way in, it becomes full on fantasy, exciting, fast, human (even amongst elves and goblins), fun, loving, hurtful, sad. It really grabs you in its hand and then you must get to the end.

Overall, I found this a very promising debut with hopefully much, much more to come.