2.5 stars… I was expecting more.

This book is a quick read, with a fast pace and a predictable plot. The ideas and tropes are there: fake dating, “there is only one bed”, enemies-to-lovers (kind of), a tentative at a “found family” vibe, but I found the execution to be lacking. It’s almost as if the author wanted to put as many well-loved tropes as possible in the book, without taking the time to develop them properly. The writing is disjointed at times, and while I would have enjoyed this book as a teenager, as an adult, I found the romance weak and poorly developed, and the characters were bland and lacked depth.

Fourteen days after the death of her boyfriend, Olivia is still trying to push through the overwhelming grief, when her city is attacked by vampires. Being the daughter of a powerful sorceress, and having some powers herself, Olivia must be protected at all costs. When the guild where Olivia is hiding is taken by vampires, Olivia is rescued, against all odds, by a vampire. The problem is that she is now stuck in his home as a “guest” when all she wants is to escape, find her mother and her best friend, and go home, as far away from the vampires as possible.

The fact that the pace was fast left little room for character development and proper and detailed story building. The world-building could have been interesting if it had been more developed. Some information about the mythology and history were dropped here and there in the conversations, but besides the fact that Olivia lived in the Kingdom of Baldoria until she was captured and the fact that vampires live in another kingdom not too far, we don’t know much about the world they live in. Olivia mentioned that there were 19 kingdoms, but we don’t know anything about those other kingdoms. The descriptions are scarce and vague and it could have happened anywhere really.

Olivia is an average main character. She does not change much in the book, she does not grow into her powers or become a stronger, more mature character. I found her to be juvenile (she’s only 19 yo) and delusional. She just met Sebastian and his friends (about 2 weeks ago), and she is already hoping that Sebastian's friend will help her escape their kingdom, even though it goes against Sebastian’s plan. She hopes that they will betray their friend that they’ve known for years, just so they could help a human girl they met 2 weeks ago. Later in the book, she expects Sebastian to be on board with her changing the plan to suit her needs, and leaving him behind to be arrested or killed. I don’t know if that’s delusional or naïve, but either way, I found it weird that she would hope for that to happen. Overall, we are given information about Olivia, her feelings, and her state of mind, but it’s all telling and not showing, which made it hard for me to connect with her and be interested in what happened to her.

This book was described as a “New Adult sexy vampires” book, which is misleading in my opinion. There is no spice, and the main character really feels like a teenager more than an adult.

Olivia being a “guest” at Sebastian’s house could have been a good starting point for a hate-to-love relationship, but it fell short. The fact that they had to fake a relationship also offered plenty of opportunities for the author to create a more meaningful connection between them, but it did not really work out. Sebastian is a bland love interest, and Olivia decided to pretend that she did not hate him that much in order to trick him, but she ended up becoming “friends” with him after one or two weeks. There was no burning hatred or strong dislike (besides Olivia hating vampires in general), no sexual tension, or slow-built romance. Even the dialogues and “banter” (if it can be called banter) were stilted and awkward, instead of being entertaining and they did not help build chemistry between the two characters.

The romance definitely could have been better. It is described as a slow-burn romance, but I did not really feel the chemistry or sexual tension between Sebastian and Olivia. They had a few interactions, and their goals aligned for a while, but there was nothing “special” between them. The romantic feelings or attraction between them were hinted at with a few “light” comments or heavy stares, and the next thing we know is that they apparently are in love with each other.

Review posted on Goodreads on April 11th, 2022

I’m not huge on vampire books but the cover and the description of this one had me intrigued. I enjoyed this book, the plot, the characters, and where it could go from here. One bad thing is that I didn’t know it was a trilogy until I finished the book but I’m excited I get more of these characters! The book was pitched as “New Adult Sexy Vampires” but there wasn’t too much sexiness. I can only hope for more spice in book two!

If you’re into tropes, this one has quite a few, one bed ✔️, slow burn ✔️, fake dating ✔️, found family ✔️, vampires ✔️!

Although some things in the plot were predictable, I found this book interesting and I am looking forward to book two. I loved the banter between Olivia && Sebastian, I can’t wait for more! I enjoyed the characters and how they developed through the story. I hope for more of Erianna and Zach in book two as well!

Thank you NetGalley && the author Rebecca L. Garcia for the eARC. All thoughts && opinions are my own!

I was fortunate enough to receive a digital ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Ok wow, what I love about Rebecca's writing style is that her stories just get straight into it and are so easy to follow. Not a lot of world building but you still understand and can easily form a picture in your mind.

This story follows Olivia who is an empath and sorceress and her mum (also a sorceress). Her mum is a member of the Guild (protecters of mortals against vampires) and Olivia basically is trapped at home in hiding from the outside world.

One night when a mission goes wrong and Olivia and her friend (guild member entrusted to protect her) flees to the Guild where she is then kidnapped (or so she thought) by Sebastian who takes her to the Court of Nightmares. Where discovers secrets about her life she never thought possible and stops at nothing to rescue her mum and only friend.

This book has all the tropes
- One bed
- Enemies to lovers
- Found family
- Fake dating
- Slow burn romance

Theres very minimal spice but given how the story went it makes sense. I'm hoping the next book comes with spice and more romance and hoping to see Olivia become a bit stronger physically and mentally.

I honestly cannot wait for the next book in this epic new fantasy series!!

Thank you Netgalley and the author for a review copy of Shadow Kissed.

I went into this really excited and was a little let down by the delivery and I feel so bad saying that.

This was more a 3.5-4 star read.

I love a vampire book, but I found this one to have a great premise and such promise, but I feel the writing and world building let it down. The writing tells rather than shows. A lot of information through dialogue rather than showing us through other means.

Lots of great tropes in here - one bed, enemies to lovers, possible found family, revenge/political intrigue, hidden royals, finding yourself and coming into your powers.

The enemies to lovers relationship needed some more work. I felt their first meeting was cut short, we time jumped and didn't get to see them introduce themselves and it almost felt forced that they were enemies. I think if this was given another 100 pages to flesh out characters, relationships and a bit more world building, this could be a wonderful 5 star.

There are elements of this book that I really did enjoy. When we finally got some spice/smut, I was so excited but it was short lived and the only real scene we got was right near the end of the book. I am hoping for more in book 2.

Although I did not rate this as high as other fantasy reads, I am still excited for the next book, especially after the ending.

“Would you prefer if we bottled blood and kept the mortals in stables and fields?”
“Are you comparing us to animals?”
His cheeks dimpled when he smirked.

✮✮✮✮✮

Olivia, sorceress, is never alone. She’s basically a prisoner in her own home, with her mum making sure a member of the Guild (the protectors of mortals) is with her at all times. One night, the alarm sounds and vampires are attacking the city. Mid-ambush a vampire grabs her from above and she awakes in the City of Nightmares. He claims to want to help her, but since when did vampires protect anyone? Olivia must trust him and his friends, but when the truth comes out, she wants to run.

Can I just say - CLIFFHANGER ALERT! I need book two of the trilogy in my life like now! This book was the perfect fantasy. The worlds were so real, the characters were to die for and it was page-turning until the very end! Except it’s not the end! Talk about driving me crazy. Rebecca really does know how to leave us wanting more! Also not sure if I’m Team Seb or Team Draven at this point…

Recommend for any fantasy and vampire lover!

Big thank you to NetGallery for giving me a digital copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

We have Vampires, found family, royalty, and chosen one trope among many other crowd-pleaser tropes.

Our main character is called Olivia who is an empath and sorceress, when her mother is taken by rogue vampires she does everything to get her back. In her journey to find her friends and mother, Olivia uncovers secrets about herself and those closest to her. Learned that the people closest to her have been lying to her. The only people it seems Olivia can rely on is a group of vampires, which are the thing she has been taught to avoid at all costs.
I really enjoyed the back and forth between Olivia and Sebastian, although I didn't see a love connection between them which I think is what the author was trying to build. I was hoping for an angsty vampire romance and the book did not achieve this for me. The romance fell flat.

My main criticism of this book is that it lacked world-building and the story was predictable. Although the book tried to have twists, I guessed them all pretty early on and never found myself shocked.

This book was really fast-paced and an easy read, I'll look definitely be reading the next book as I'm very excited to see how things progress and hopefully see the characters grow. This book is nothing new or mind-blowing but enjoyable nonetheless.

I may have read this book digitally but I liked it enough that I'll be picking it up physically for my bookshelf. I absolutely adore the cover.

I have many thoughts on this book! It was a quick read and it got a bit more exciting towards the middle of the book. The ending has me hooked (and frustrated).
I wanted more of Sebastian and Olivia - they didn’t really have a lot of dialogue and when they did you had to kind of piece things together for yourself. It was a good slow burn and such a tease. Enemies to lovers, one-bed trope, found family...
I thought it was good but I wanted more depth to the characters and story.
I will definitely read the second book because I need to know how it plays out - I wasn’t expecting it to end so briefly!

DNF
Did not like the writing style at all and found the plot to be cringeworthy - maybe just not my cup of tea.

This deserves all of the stars in the world! I loved this book so much. I would highly recommend it to everyone

This is my 2nd Rebecca Garcia book. I will be starting Heart of a Witch soon. I started reading an ARC of Shadow Kissed while in the middle of reading another book. The other book was immediately abandoned because I could not put this book down. I loved it from page one. I liked the world-building and learning the history behind the vampires and sorceresses. It has been a minute since I have read a vampire book, and I loved this one. I immediately fell in love with Sebastian. I was hoping Olivia would fall madly in love with him. The chemistry between Sebastian and Olivia was steamy and their banter was fun. There were lots of twists and turns. I love it in books where people from different species who are unlikely allies band together. Sebastian was protecting Olivia but Olivia questions his motives. I did like that even though this book was fantasy with kingdoms it had a contemporary feel with cars and cell phones. I also really enjoy it when characters come into their own power and become who they are meant to become.

The ending was suspenseful as the story was ending. It stopped at a point and I just wanted to keep going. I can't wait for book 2 in this series.

There were some themes that are some of my favorite tropes that were in this book- found family, frenemies to lovers, fake engagement. I highly recommend this book, it read really fast and captivated me the entire time. I inhaled this book in just a few days and could not wait to pick it back up as I had time to sit down and read.

Thank you @NetGalley @VictoryEditing and @RebeccaGarciabooks for a digital copy of the Arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

Olivia her faith is bound by her blood, but is always hidden from her. But when she is captured by a vampire called Sebastian, she gets to know more about her dark faith, one she has never wanted to have. But can she escape her faith or should she surrender herself?

Expected a little more than I got but it’s the first book in a series so I’m optimistic for the future ones. Great tropes within - found family, slow burn, only one bed, fake dating, and excellent banter.

This book has it all - Vampires, slow burn romance, found family, banter, and my favourite trope 'the one bed trope'. This story does also have the 'fake dating' trope, which I'm usually not a huge fan of but I did like it throughout this story. There wasn't as much spice as I thought there would be, which was a bit disappointing but the plot made up for it.
I did feel like there could have been more world building and back information given to the story, as I was left a bit confused at times. The book is faced paced, which was great and made me whizz through the book.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
4/5 STARS

New adult paranormal slow burn romance. Think Twilight but with sorcery and a kingdom setting. There was an enemies to lovers trope, fake dating, vampires, found family, and royalty. Everything to keep the book moving and entertaining.

I really enjoyed this book. I thought the world building was great. I connected with the characters (Sebastian was my favorite). It was easy to read. The short chapters kept it moving and interesting.

I will be reading the next book when it comes out!

Thank you so much Netgalley for sending me an advanced copy of Shadow Kissed by Rebecca L Garcia.

I was so excited to get into this book, but I feel like it was marketed completely wrong. The novel is branded as sexy and saucy, but it certainly isn't. There is no sex scenes and barely any sexual tension.

The story is solid and I did enjoy it, but the fact it was promoted as something completely different made it very difficult for me to enjoy as I had signed up for a completely different novel. There's very little world-building done which creates confusion and raises questions to which answers were rarely given.

I enjoyed the love interest, Sebastian, he was very cheeky and their banter was really enjoyable to read.

Overall, I don't think I will be continuing this series.

LOVED this book! I read this one in one day, I just couldn’t put the book down. The tension between Sebastian and Olivia is perfect. I love the vampirism in this book (it’s not cringy like other books I’ve read in the past. Definitely recommend this book!

The vampire comeback continues!

I completely devoured this book in one sitting and stayed up until 3AM to finish it.

While the first few chapters of exposition/plot set up weren’t *perfect*, after the first 15%, the rest of the story moved quickly and contained some of our fave NA romantasy tropes including:

-fake dating
-only one bed
-hot vampires
-wingspan
-FMC with untapped powers
-found family
-political intrigue
-a ballroom scene filled with slow burn *tension*

There wasn’t really any spice in this book, just tension and steam…but the bonus chapter bridging the gap between books 1 & 2 really steps up the heat!

And the author, Rebecca Garcia, has said that the trilogy will get darker and spicier with each book releasing throughout 2022! So I can’t wait to see what happens next!

This was a quick and easy read. Didn’t quite connect to the story as much as I would have liked to. The pacing was a little off for me. However, I’m hoping to read the 2nd!

I read this book as a voluntary ARC. I very much enjoyed this book. It was fast paced and caught me in the story quickly. I enjoyed Olivia’s attitude and the rawness of her emotions and grief. I did not expect some of the plot twists, which I enjoyed. I was hoping for the romance to kick in but am guessing it will come in the next book!

okay so first of all, thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this arc!!

phew– where do i start?
if this wasn't an arc, i would have probably dnf'ed it around the 20% mark. and i kept feeling that way throughout the rest of the book, which was unfortunate, because i really liked the idea of it.
first of all, everything felt a little rushed, and i didn't get why because it's a series and things could've gone at a slower pace. it didn't feel believable, and that's saying something from someone who almost exclusively reads fantasy.
secondly, the dialogue felt forced at times, as did the relationships between the characters. there was no real chemistry between the mc and love interest, and i didn't really care about any of the characters.
maybe this all bothered me a little because i'm more used to, and tend to enjoy more, slower books. and it probably is just a me-thing, considering lots of reviews speak of how much they loved this book!

so– i give this book 2.5 stars, because i liked the idea. because i like what this world could be in future books, and i see the potential. the execution of it just lacked a little for me, and that's okay, because other people DID enjoy it and to each their own!