Within the Shadows by Julieanne Lynch

Within The Shadows by Julieanne Lynch

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

At the beginning of this story we find Giselle discovering her boyfriend of 4 years has recently cheated on her when she finds a dvd of his indiscretion in her school locker, reeling from the shock she calls Alex (who she refers to as her knight in shining armour), who quickly promises she will feel better once she gets her revenge at Prom. It's at prom that things really start to go wrong for Giselle. After showing the home movie to everyone, she runs out into the night, only to find a strange man watching her, as she runs away from him she bumps into Alex, who is suddenly acting strange. He then gives her the choice of going with him willingly, or being destroyed. With no choice really Giselle chooses to live.

From here on in its one plot twist after another and I worried I would get whiplash, but it was incredibly easy to follow and I couldn't put it down.

As Giselle says "In such a short period of time I had been turned into some new breed of vampire, been married, knocked up, found out my mother was seriously ill, been kidnapped by creatures of the shadow world, slept with my father-in-law, and just when I thought I had fallen in love with him, he was taken from me."

The book ends with Giselle running for her life and that of her unborn child. Running from her husband, running from shadow creatures who want her to be their Queen (not as nice as it sounds), running from people who want to take her child and use it for evil. Unsure of whom to trust she is relying only on Antoine to keep them safe.

Within the Shadows feels like the prequel to the real story yet to come, but its a story I'm glad I have read and I look forward to the next instalment.