Shattered Secrets

I was fortunate enough to have a Q & A with this author through the #ReadOn that I co-host. She is such a sweet lady and I really enjoyed asking her questions. I have provided a full review of the book below.

Ok so this book was beyond good. The only issue I had with it is the author attempted to cram a little to much into it. I think some people will find parts of it hard to understand. But I found it engaging and wonderful. I have been a fan of the author since the Darkness Falls series. And I love this one even more. Abigail is a very strong lead and doesn't take anything laying down. Derick is a wonderful male lead and has feelings which most ya males do not. This book was full of both seriousness and humor as well as some steamy pg scenes. This story will make you laugh out loud, cry, and scream for more! It should not be missed!

[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]

Way back I reviewed Krystal Wade’s debut trilogy Darkness Falls. I fell in love with her style of writing and have been eagerly awaiting her next work. Shattered Secrets didn’t really sound like what I’d normally pick up but since I enjoyed her previous work I requested it on NetGalley anyway. The world-building was just as good, the characters were reasonably well fleshed-out and the plot was very fast-paced but in the end I just didn’t like this one as much. It’s still good, mind you. But it’s not as good as the first series.

My only real ‘problem’ with the story was Abigail, the narrator. She’s rather naive and constantly screwing up her own life. She tends to run headfirst into danger and although she can be intelligent at times (observing her surroundings when she was kidnapped) there are times I wanted to slap her. To be fair she does get better as the book progresses but because of her early behaviour I wasn’t quite able to connect as well emotionally. I wasn’t a huge fan of either male lead or the love triangle but at least both characters were well fleshed-out. The love triangle is generally well done but I would have liked to see something different.

The plot was incredibly fast-paced, though. There were twists and turns around every corner as more and more information was revealed. What is Abigail really? And how can she stop an impending apocalypse when everyone is telling her to do something different? There are a fair amount of subplots that add tension to the main plot but it never really gets confusing. That’s good because if it was confusing you’d be totally lost by the time you got to the end of the book.

Since most of the book is about Derick and Abigail discovering who they are I can’t give a solid judgment on the world-building but so far it’s really good. Krystal Wade has actually thought up some unique ideas for her magical beings and mixed them in with existing ideas to create the type of rich fantasy world I’ve come to expect from her. You really can’t fault her world-building.

All in all, this book was pretty good. I’m definitely interested to see what happens next in the Book of Red series.

I give this book 4/5 stars.

really enjoyed this book. I like how it started off with excitement right away. I knew that it was going to be action packed all the way through and keep the story moving. There are lots of twists in the story which also keep it interesting.
Abagail and Derick are an interesting pair. I'm still not sure if I totally trust Derick...I think I should, I think he really is a good guy and wants to protect her, but for some reason I'm not totally trusting of his character. Maybe because so many others betrayed Abagail.
I look forward to seeing how their tale continues and whether she takes her place of power on her home plane.
I would not purchase this for my library due to the feeling that start to be expressed between Derick and Abagail in the condo. Otherwise it would have been a good read for my fifth graders.