“SHADOWLANDS,” by Kate Brian, Hyperion, Jan. 8, 2013, Hardcover, $17.99 (ages 14 and up)
Rory Miller is the one that got away. The one that survived. Now Steven Nell, the man Rory thought was a great teacher but who is really a serial killer, is on the loose. Rory may have escaped, but so did he. And Steven Nell doesn’t like to leave things unfinished.
With Nell running free, Rory and her family are in danger. The only choice is to enter the witness protection program with her father and sister, Darcy.
It’s hard enough being wanted by a dangerous serial killer, let alone picking up and moving to a new town with a new identity. Darcy and Rory have grown apart and their father has been a stranger since they’re mom died of cancer years before. But Juniper Landing is a beautiful vacation island where carefree teens spend their days surfing and partying on the beach. And soon Darcy and Rory start to fit in.
Just as the Millers are starting to feel comfortable, feel safe, feel like a family, another teen goes missing and old fears return.
I love books that I go into thinking I know what will happen only to find out I was completely wrong. “Shadowlands” is one such book. Though I did figure out some of the plot elements later in the book, I found myself completely surprised by others.
“Shadowlands’” opening chapters are dark and terrifying. Nell’s calculating manner and Rory’s amazing fight and strength will left me breathless and completely off guard. Within one page, I was hooked.
“Shadowlands” ends abruptly with a revelation worth reading your way to — don’t skip to the end, it will ruin it for you. The book stands alone. However, it’s the first of a planned trilogy, which has me wondering where author Kate Brian will go from here. If the next two novels are even close to this one, we’ll be in for intensely satisfying reads.
