Member Reviews
You could most definitely start this book and dive in thinking it’s something else entirely. I was prepared for some gorgeous fantasy and while it certainly delivered, what I wasn’t prepared for was the science and deep scholarly vibes it gave off. Now I think this book is definitely best suited for a younger audience, so with that in mind, the easy and prepared story is better digested. I loved our characters development and I think this would be a wonderful introduction to this genre.
This book had an interesting story premise with a unique mix of high fantasy and science. The parasitic aspect was intriguing and unique. And the underlying message about the damage that humanity can do when introducing non-native species into an environment is an important one.
But as much as I liked the ideas, I felt the writing needed more polish. The book was well-paced and engaging in places, but slow and clunky in others. There were a few confusing points, due to gaps in information. And there were a few places where the writing felt melodramatic. Lastly, even though this is marketed for young adult readers, the simplicity of the writing felt more suited for young middle grade readers.
Good ideas. The writing just needs more polish.
While it felt like a quick read, this just wasn't for me as much as I hoped it would be based on the cover. The writing style was a bit dry and I might be aging out of this reading age group.
When Marise Leeson gets her hands on a crystal ball, she believes her knowledge of Wicca is about to expand. The magic, however, goes horribly wrong. In short order, she’s thrown into an alternate world, attacked by a dragon, and rescued by Javeer, a young male dragon in search of a friend.
This was pretty mid. I expected more from the premise.
Thanks to NetGalley & SparkPress for the early copy in exchange for an honest review. Sadly, I DNF'ed this at 20%.
I was so excited to read a dragon book but this writing was really...not capturing my attention at all. The protagonist was flat and it didn't help that she kept describing everything scientifically which I find fun but it was dreadfully dull in this book.
I instantly knew this book was written by someone who knew about parasites and I liked how that information was linked to dragons. That was a really interesting twist. The communication between dragons was also unique and something I never would have thought of.
There was an issue following the story in some places. In some places, events would jump ahead and I'd find myself having to fill in the blanks. I also found that the writing was a bit juvenile, even for YA. Marise was also a bit selfish and not very likable, but that may just be me.
The main gist of the story was fascinating even with the minor issues I had and I enjoyed it. I really would not mind following this series.
This series can be enjoyed by older children (mainly tweens) but some may find some of the violent scenes a bit disturbing so I suggest parents take a read first.
Thanks SparkPress for the opportunity to review this book
"Follow the Shadows" by Rosemary Drisdelle made my heart skip a beat when I found it. After all, dragons have always been my favourite magical creatures, and this book promised to be full of them and more. I was pulled into a world of magic, other realms, and dangerous adventures from the first page.
When Marise Leeson, our brave main character, buys a crystal ball to learn more about Wicca, she doesn't know that she is setting off a chain of events. She had no idea that her experiment would take a scary turn and pull her into a strange place called Moerden, which was full of dragons. I was drawn in by Marise's adventures and her special relationship with Javeer, a young male dragon who befriends and protects her.
In this book, the dragons were like a breath of fresh air. The author's ideas about their colours, how they talk, and how they act with each other were new and different from the normal dragon fiction stories I've read. But I have to say that the story's pace was hard to follow because it seemed to jump around a lot. In the first few chapters, we were thrown into a rush of events without much background. I felt like I was looking for important pieces of information.
Marise, our brave character, made me feel a lot of different things. She could be a little annoying and focused on herself at times. Maybe it's just me, but the things she did at first made it hard for me to fully connect with her. But as the story went on, I saw her change and grow, which made her more understandable and likeable.
I was most interested in the stories about travelling between dimensions and the dragons. The fact that some dragon groups in Moerden might go extinct because of an unknown disease sets the stage for an exciting quest. As Marise and Javeer set out to find a fix, I couldn't help but care about what would happen to them.
Even though the book is sold as YA, I thought it was more for middle-schoolers. The silly antics and cute dragon figures would definitely be a hit with younger readers. Still, I liked the fast-paced, dragon-filled adventures in the book.
In the end, "Follow the Shadows" is a magical adventure with dragons that is perfect for people who love mythical animals and want to go on magical quests. Even though there are some problems with the way the story moves and the characters, the book is a fun read for people who want to learn more about the world of Moerden. This story is worth reading if you like dragons as much as I do and like a little bit of fun.
Ok so, book starts with Dragons, which is a massive plus for me! Dragons are my favourite mythical creature EVER! However, we are then thrown into Marise's POV and from then we follow her encounters and adventures with dragons and more.
I loved the dragons in this book and the standard colourings and the communication methods etc, I found it actually a refreshing take and something a bit different to the normal Dragon fantasy :)
I liked the premise, I enjoyed the story but did in places find it hard to follow, I felt like it kind of jumed around a bit. I think this may have been due to the pacing, from the very beginning I felt like the whole plot was very rushed. In the first 3 or 4 chapters we have met and encountered and experienced A LOT but with little to no context. We go from dragons, to humans, to crystal balls, to strange witchy type people who sew with human hair then back to dragons and magical transportations and honestly I couldn't help but feel a little lost most of the way through this book, like I was always missing a piece of information or chasing a piece of information.
I did find Marise to be a tad annoying but like most things this is an entirely personal and individual opinion, I bet lots of people love her :)
That being said, this is a personal and subjective opinion, it is quite likely that I just prefer a slower pace and an abundance of information. A lot of people prefer a faster pace with a bit of room for imagination.
I would definitely recommend giving this a read especially if you love dragons (which I hope you do because they are awesome) and quirky plot points :)
Thank you @netgalley for sending me an ARC of Follow the Shadowa in exchange for an honest review!
The premise of this book soundes very interesting, but unfortunately it was a let down.
The book progresses quite slow. The first 100 pages are pretty boring to be honest. The rest also didn't draw me in.
The lore is great, that's true. The plot with the interdimensional travels and the dragon illness was very intriguing. Especially considering how hard it was to cure the disease.
The dragon characters are nice to read bout, though there's nothing that makes them stand out.
The protagonist though...
Marise is self-centered and irresponsible. The first thing she thinks about when her tutor goes missing is to steal his crystals. She lies to his wife to get them during his memorial. Even when her dragon friend, Javeer, gets hurt and she thinks he's dead, the first thought she has is of taking his sphere so she can go home. It's so egoistical, especially since he was always by her side. After the tutor really dies, she still lies about finding him to his wife. She says she didn't find him, even though she saw him die (she does this because she needs her help fast and doesn't wnat her to stop and grieve), which is just so terrible. As she grows, she starts to care about people, which makes her easier to emphatise with. She had quite some development, but she was so horrible at the beggining that nothing can really make me invested in her.
Also, she is childish but at the same time she's stated to be wearing "a lacy black bra", which makes me confused about her actual age.
I'm sure this book was someone's cup of tea, it just wasn't mine.
TW:death, murder, poisoning, disease, parasites, fire.
I really wanted to like this book. The description sounded really interesting and I couldn't wait to read it. Sadly it fell flat for me.
It wasn't what I was expecting based on the description and although YA it felt very young teen which I'm not really into and I couldn't finish it. I'm sure younger readers would enjoy this though.
As always, I very much appreciate NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book. The premise of this book is interesting, however, I could quickly tell that I am not the target audience for this book. While marketed as YA/Teen, it reads more as a children’s book, both through the style of writing (which was more simplistic) and development of the plot and characters. As such I wasn’t super into the book and was expecting more. I think this would do well as a children’s book, but not as it is marketed now. Younger me would have liked it for sure. My rating attempts to reflect me thinking back over it with that mindset.
Thank you SparkPress and NetGalley for an eArc of this book!
3.5/5
First off, I'm a sucker for dragons so this was an insta request just by the cover alone. It's quite gorgeous and I love its color story. (Also a sucker for every shade of green..)
Secondly, this is GIVING strong 'The Neverending Story' vibes to me - which I was also super into. It is whimsical and fun. I felt like I was thrown into some childhood shenanigans with Marise, however that is kind of where her character stopped and stayed for me. The dragons appear more fleshed out and character driven than our MC.
This novel, I would say, isn't my usual go to as far as target audience. After reading it, I found I was wanting more character growth and that I kept waiting for world building that just didn't really happen. I think that this novel is more targeted to younger audiences so I'd kind of classify it as a middle grade. YA seems a bit too high perhaps.
3.5 for a fast-paced dragon adventure.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me access to this arc.
4 stars / 5 stars
Things I loved:
Absolutely love the cover, it’s so cute
Loved the adventure in this books
Fast paced
Things I didn’t love:
Needed a little bit more world building and character development
Thank you for the opportunity to read the eARC for this book. All thoughts are my own.
Follow the Shadows was a 4 star read for me. Overall the storyline and characters were lovely. I was immediately drawn to Marise and even more so to Javeer. It isn’t a cozy book because there is some danger and intense situations, but overall it's a mystery that is pretty neat to watch unfold. It seems there might be a furthering of the series and I will definitely continue reading Marise’s story as she locates some missing pieces to her found family.
This was definitely a lot different than I expected. I was expecting a moody, atmospheric witchy story that involved dragons. This wasn't that, and is probably better suited for a much younger audience, but I still enjoyed this story. I really liked the concept of humans being the invasive species, since we pretty much are in reality.
As much as I enjoyed the concept and the characters - especially the dragons - the execution lacked a little, which for a younger audience I guess might not be as much of an issue, but as a reader in their twenties, there were a couple of things that brought down my rating of this book. For one, we got very little backstory before being thrust into the new world. The overall plot was quite thin and shallow, never really delving deeper than surface level. It all felt a little too easy. Things that Marise should have had to work for were handed to her - whether it was physical objects she was looking for or information she needed. I would have enjoyed her having to work harder and get creative at some points.
What I will say is that the character development Marise went through was not only believable but relieving. Considering we started with her not really caring that her tutor had gone missing and helping herself to his possessions in his office while lying to his wifes face about what she was doing there, I wasn't exactly enthused to spend an entire book with her. By the end of the book, she was actually likeable, which is hard for a lot of authors to achieve in such a short book.
I also know very little about Wicca, but it's very apparent that the author does, and it's always interesting to read about something when you can just feel how much somebody is genuinely interested in the topic.
If you enjoy light fantasy books, Wicca, and, of course, dragons - you'll enjoy this little adventure.
this was okay, but read a little juvenile and i didn't feel connected to the characters or what happens to them at all. i can see other reader enjoying this a lot tho!
— thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the free digital ARC.
This was a pretty cute story with a unique premise, but it wasn’t exactly for me. From everything I’ve seen it was marketed as YA, but I would more put it as a middle grade story, so it read a lot younger than I was expecting and it was pretty fast-paced. I do think younger readers would like it a lot more than I did, though!
Thank you Rosemary Drisdelle, SparkPress and Netgalley for this free ARC in exchange for a review.
Early on in this novel, I was put off Marise when she's excited to inherit two shiny orbs from her tutor who is missing and might be injured or dead. That lack of morals doesn't make for a relatable protagonist. Even though she briefly understands what she's feeling is wrong, she continues, as if obsessed. She visits his home, where his probable widow is nice enough to let her look for study papers and tests, and get her lab coat. She finds one of the orbs, and sneaks it out hidden in her lab coat, showing that she knows this shifty behaviour is wrong, but she's doing it anyway, despite the fact that this elderly man just recently went missing and is presumed dead.
At least she eventually regrets taking the orb.
The dragons seem to have more distinct characterization than Marise.
When they find the dead dragon in the cave, it isn't mentioned whether or not it's orb is there. I guess we're supposed to assume it isn't, but not specifying this seems odd. Later, Bonner is the one who asks if there was an orb, though it's strange Marise never thought of that.
One of the things I really enjoyed were the funny, endearing parts between Marise and Javeer, including after they find out he has the stagger. What she does for him is great. I also enjoyed how this is a story about a human helping sick dragons, and that the way the dragons and humans communicate is unusual.
Overall, despite the things above which I would have worked on, this fantasy adventure novel held my attention, so whether or not I'm able to get an ARC, I'll read the sequel.
A strong YA novel with actual character growth that doesn't feature an overpowered or "perfect" protagonist.
In fact, Marise starts out looking unpromising as a protagonist. She comes across as self-absorbed, not very empathetic, ignorant, and a bit lazy, though no more of any of these things than a lot of teenagers. And she continues throughout to be slow on the uptake; I predicted most of the major plot points well before she figured them out, but because the author hasn't presented her as some kind of exceptional prodigy, this largely works. Through the book, she grows in courage, empathy, effectiveness and problem-solving ability in a believable way.
She needs all of those things, because after her biology tutor (a retired professor) mysteriously disappears, she surreptitiously takes something of his that he'd kind of promised to her - a sphere that she intends to use as a crystal ball in a Wiccan rite. It turns out to be from the tail of a dragon, and transports her to another world, where she gets caught up in trying to solve a dragon health crisis (caused by short-sighted, selfish humans, which means that some of the dragons want to kill her). She builds friendships, overcomes obstacles, takes risks, goes through considerable physical hardship without whining about it even once, and (eventually) figures out the solution.
The challenges are varied, but keep on coming at a good pace. Some of the worldbuilding is better than other parts; I wasn't convinced that the river acted much like a real river, and there's a cave with the river running through it that's inexplicably warm, for example. The pre-publication version I had from Netgalley needed a bit more polishing from a copy editor before release, though it's better than a lot I see. But the emotional heart of the story is sound, and it's a true coming-of-age story free from annoying tropes. There's no romance for Marise, for example (she doesn't seem to be particularly interested in that for herself, though she encourages it for her dragon friend). She doesn't have green eyes, or if she does the author doesn't mention them. And she's an ordinary hero, not a Chosen One, who chooses to stay and help the dragons at her own risk, even though she could walk away and return to her life in our world.
I like that kind of hero.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me an arc in exchange for an honest review. The following opinions are my own.
I just want to say firstly that the cover is gorgeous. I liked this story but I'll admit that I found some areas lacking a bit. I wanted more a development of Marise's character. What her hobbies might be etc. The world building also could have been developed more. But overall I did enjoy the adventure and the dragons biology of parasites? Something I never would have thought of.