I'm a sucker for anything Vampire.
When she is kidnapped by vampires she.must do anything to stay alive and find her mom and friend.
But huge secrets are revealed.
Sebastian was a little bit like Rhysand.

Pretty solid. I'd kept picking this up and putting it down, the first few chapters are so tiresome and I just didn't click with Olivia at first. After the first few chapters, we got to move into more exciting events. The plot and character development aren't the best, and there were definitely areas where I had to fill in gaps in order to connect with the characters, but I enjoyed it for the most part. It was a fast and easy read, with minimal world-building (you mostly learn during off-handed remarks from people) but enough is explained for you to follow the story. Definitely one of those books that I wish was 200 pages longer, if there had just been more time spent on the characters or the plot...

The banter between Olivia and Sebastian wasn't particularly up to my usual standards of entertaining, there were a lot of parts where he alludes to her being a spitfire or where his friends mention the tension between the two, which I never really saw. I think it was to play into the whole, enemies to lovers trope, but it felt a bit empty.

That being said, I did enjoy Olivia as a character in a completely different way. Simply because she didn't make stupid decisions. She was a bit drab at the beginning, which makes sense since she had just lost someone, but I'm so used to the rash FMC that it was kind of refreshing for her to go "Oh, you said don't leave the room because there's a horde of bloodthirsty vampires downstairs and they'll kill me? Yeah, that sounds reasonable" and then actually doesn't leave the room. There's definitely a lot of space for her to grow as a character, Garcia doesn't really do much development with her magic skills or really any sort of training even though it's mentioned several times that she probably should. Again, if this had just been 200 pages longer I think a lot more could have been developed.

I will admit that I love the name Sebastian and for that reason and that reason alone I gave this book an extra star. We all have our vices.

This book was equal amounts of great and equal amounts of wth.

I daresay the characters were well developed and the writing was great but there were some moments when the story itself got confusing and did not resonate with me at all. I really wanted to love this one. But I guess I will just have to settle for liking it.

Shadow Kissed was a fast and fun read with a slow burn (way too slow in my opinion) romance. The setting was a mix between fantasy and contemporary, which was an interesting mix.

SPICY AND SO FUN! I love a good dark romance and Shadow Kissed did not disappoint!

This book was gifted to me as an ARC, though all opinions are my own.

Slow burn? Fake relationship? Fantasy? Sign me in.
Some things were a miss for me (like very questionable vampires) but in general it was a good and entertaining read!
Thank you NetGalley and the editor for providing this earc

This book was like a strange combination of a high fantasy setting (castles, royalty, various levels of technology) and a contemporary romance. It is clearly the setup for more installments, so focused primarily on the world building here. Not a true cliffhanger of sorts, but definitely not a solitary standalone book either.

Olivia has been somewhat sheltered her whole life. As someone gifted with magic, she is in the minority. It makes her even more strange when her powers are a bit of a dud. She does not excel at combat either, so her mother, the leader of an elite group of "troops," protects her as best she can. Mostly this means she is isolated and ferried away when bad stuff starts to go down. The vampires from the neighboring kingdom end up invading, and one vampire ends up kidnapping her to their home.

As predicted, Seb, the aforementioned vampire, ends up opening Olivia's eyes a bit to the shades of gray in the vampire kingdom. Not all vampires are bad and not all humans are good. There's a bunch of baggage rolled into that single sentence, but it resolves itself eventually. There are also a bunch of reveals that I won't spoil here for you. The romance, though, that was a smaller portion of the tale, which may or may not have come from some sort of kidnapper/kidnapee situation. Only time will tell, I guess, but I enjoyed all of the characters we meet during Olivia's stay with Seb. As I said, the book doesn't fully resolve all the storylines, so I'm sure the next book will take a turn. Oh, and I should warn that there are some triggering non-consent scenes in here that may be troubling to some, primarily in the vampire/human slave dens.

I cannot wait to read the second book in this series! This was such a great read. I couldn’t put it down. This has been the best vampire book I have read in a long time. Definitely recommend!

After vampires attack her city and take her hostage, everything that Olivia has ever known is turned upside down. She must rely on Sebastian, a vampire, for protection if she ever wants to reconnect with her family and friends.

This book has ALL the tropes you could possibly want: fake engagement, slow burn, found family, enemies to lovers, and vampire royalty.

However, I have to say that the world building drew me in most. There’s a stark contrast between the mortal cities and the vampire ones, namely the vampire cities being significantly behind in terms of modernization. Though Shadow Kissed is fast paced, Garcia did an amazing job at making the two cities easy to visualize.

I loved that Olivia is presented with insecurities and questions, instead of immediately being the “strong female lead.” I can’t wait to watch her character further develop in book 2! My favorite aspect of this book though is the side characters, Erianna and Zach. They are presented in a complex and nuanced way that explores the morally grey area of decision-making.

I cannot WAIT for book 2!!!!

Thank you to Netgalley and Victory Editing for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a fun read! I enjoyed the world building, and thought the take on vampires was interesting. There are two types in the book and I think this may be the first time I’ve read something with a vampire/demon mix. The banter between Olivia and Sebastian was fun. I enjoyed seeing their relationship grow; but I guess that is the natural progression when a human and vampire fake an engagement? There is some steam between the two, but no on page sex. I didn’t realize this would be a series when it was requested, but the ending was definitely a set up for more to come - and I plan on following along. And can we take a second to enjoy the cover?!

Thank you NetGalley for providing an ARC in return for my honest review.

This book was a solid enjoyable read but some aspects/tropes were better executed than others.

The one aspect that I think didn't quite work for myself was the slow burn romance.
I love this trope in general, but for this book it just didn't quite do it for me.
I did however appreciated a lot of other fan-favourite tropes like "only one bed", "found family", and "fake dating".

The first few chapters of this book were a slower read and I found it difficult to connect to the story initially, but once I continued to read I found this to be enjoyable and I quickly devoured the whole book in one day.
I'm interested in seeing how this story continues in the next book, and seeing what other world building might be added as I was definitely craving more.

This was a very interesting story. I liked that the vampires have wings, that there are two very distinct vampire groups, the bad and the not so bad. A lot of reviews talked about a slow burn romance, but I never really saw much of a romance. There was one steamy scene in a public setting and that was it. You never really knew if either party had feelings for the other. So, I wouldn’t really call this a romance. It’s more like a royalty fantasy since vampires have this hierarchy of kings and queens. Which is still pretty cool if you ask me.

With that being said, I do wish that the author went into a bit more explanation. I just didn’t feel as immersed as I would like to be. I would have liked to have had more description on the locations, the people, and just the overall feel of the world the author was creating. I felt like a lot was left up to the readers imagination. I would have liked to have seen the world the author created be a bit more fleshed out for readers.

Shadow Kissed is a good fantasy read with a spin on your classic vampire. There’s a lot of scheming taking place and you never know who to trust. It’s one of those stories where things could change at the drop of a hat, altering the course of everything. I really liked that the reader was always kept on their toes the entire time. It does end on a bit of a cliffhanger, but nothing too dramatic. So, if you are a hater of cliffhanger, like I am, this isn’t one that will leave you raging. It was well done to leave you wanting more without being exasperated.

This book was eeeh for me it wasn’t horrible but it also wasn’t fantastic. The timeline and characters weren’t fully developed, so it just didn’t fully engage me. When they said slow burn they truly meant SLOW burn. I would love to read more for the author.

Huge thank to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing read this book!!

I didn't like this book. The characters weren't developed well and it was very oddly paced. I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought it would and was disappointed.

A delicious paranormal romance with a fantastic slow burn! I have not read any others from this author but would like to now!

This is the second book I've read by Garcia. And while there were times that I found the dialogue a little cheesy or eye-roll worthy, I ended up flying through the story and excited to read the next one! Garcia does a great job within her writing where a reader can become deeply enthralled in the story, without realizing you've read half the book since sitting down! Her books are incredibly fast paced and she does a really good job with making the world building easy for the reader to understand. I'm super excited to read the next one, this one had a great cliffhanger!

This one was a middle of the road read for me. It started off a little slow, and the slow burn romance just didn't click for me.

What I Liked:
🧛‍♂️ The world building in this was great. The idea of a mortal world and a vampire world existing at the same time works really well. I also loved that there are sorcerers who can actually be just as powerful as a vampire. It all just works for me.

🧛‍♂️whenever there are strong friendships in a book I really appreciate it. Draven’s friendship with Olivia and Erianna and Zach’s friendship with Sebastian are really critical plot points for both main characters. Without these friendships, they wouldn’t necessarily make the decisions that they end up making.

🧛‍♂️I was happy with Olivia’s story arc and how her character develops and grows throughout the book. She deals with a lot of major revelations but manages it all pretty well as far as I’m concerned. I wish some things developed faster but I’m guessing that’s because there is already a book two in the works.

What I Didn’t Like:
🧛‍♂️Where’s the spice? 🌶 From the cover alone I thought this would be a sexy spicy dark read with vampires and secrets. It has a bunch of that but pretty much none of the spice. They don’t even kiss until around 80% in.

🧛‍♂️There are some creepy ass vampires in this book. Not scary, but creepy….like selling mortals on a auction block, popping out of nowhere creepy.

Final Thoughts:
🧛‍♂️This book was a bit of a slow burn (although the burn was more of a minute flame). I’m hoping the next book is the series really kicks it up a notch, which I think it will based on the ending and how something we’re playing out with some side characters.

This was a major miss for me. It felt chaotic and just… I didn’t love it and I had restless high hopes for it.

Thank you netgalley and the publisher for an arc for review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an early review copy of this book!

If you’re looking for found family, enemies to lovers, vampire romance this may be the book for you. For me it checked all the boxes in terms of interest points, but I will say out the gate I didn’t love the writing style of this book. I found it a little clumsy at points and sometimes I struggled to understand exactly what was going on. I did still enjoy the book and the social issues in the book were really well laid out. I also enjoyed the love interest and court intrigue so overall it was a decent read. Plus, it’s on KU so always bonus points for that!