Just last month, I finished The Watchers and I immediately wanted more. Little did I know, my life would soon collide with the sequel, Stay in the Light! I was so glad to get my hands on this and within 48 hours, I had finished the sequel. And what a great follow up it was.

I enjoyed reconnecting with the main character, Mina, and seeing where she ended up. While familiar characters also appeared, Ciara and Madeline, I also got to explore more of Mina’s relationship to her sister, Jennifer, and, best of all, some new characters.

I figured the Kilmartin legacy wasn’t done, and sure enough, Sean Kilmartin quickly appears in the sequel. Like his father from The Watchers, he forms a fascination and obsession with changelings. This is in all thanks to his father’s intriguing bedtime stories.

Alternating between Sean’s archaeological dig and Mina’s story helps keep this one a better pace than the previous novel. And the descriptions of everything were just phenomenal. Shine’s style of writing just really resonates with me and I find it easy to follow.

I can see the next novel being even better. Fingers crossed!

“Nothing good ever came from beneath the earth.”

I’m a HUGE fan of the 1st book - The Watchers. I gave it 5 ⭐️. It was one of the first books to genuinely disturb and scare me, and the twist was mind-blowing.

So when I heard there was a book 2 I had mixed emotions. I was so excited but I was also very nervous… because part of me wished it had been a stand-alone (it was THAT good).

I received an ARC for book 2 from NetGalley & I read the whole thing in one afternoon. Here are my thoughts:

It was decent. It wasn’t amazing. There were a couple scenes in there that were so effective in their scare-factor. Otherwise, it wasn’t as exciting as I had hoped.

I’m not sure if it’s because the magic and mystery from the first book had already been solved so the suspense & eagerness to learn more was gone… I just don’t think we needed a continuation of the story.

It seems like it’s been set up for a third book which I’m not thrilled about.

I guess my thoughts are just a little jumbled right now.

Personally, I would have loved to see A.M Shine come out with an entirely new horror book on a different subject. He’s so insanely talented in this genre and I will read ANYTHING he comes out with… but I think I’m done with The Watchers universe at this time.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

The second book in this series absolutely did not disappoint! The story was a nail biter all the way through and more pieces of the puzzle that are The Watchers were revealed. And that ending! I hope it won’t be much longer before book three releases - I can’t wait!