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In Shadows
In the fall of 1832, London, England, Ariana Dallenhauf begins an unlikely journey into the dark reaches of the unknown. Her guide and mentor, Dimitri Rochester, takes the young woman and attempts to transform her into what he deems more worthy, an immortal; for Dimitri Rochester is the shadow that consumes light; he is an artful killer, a vampire. Although Ariana is reluctant, she has no choice but to follow Dimitri into her new existence.
While adapting to her new life, Ariana discovers that her assumptions about Dimitri are wrong and her feelings for him have changed into something more passionate. In gaining a better understanding of what it means to be a vampire, Ariana discovers her history with vampires goes back further than she ever imagined, for she is in the middle of a legend and has become part of its unfolding story.
While adapting to her new life, Ariana discovers that her assumptions about Dimitri are wrong and her feelings for him have changed into something more passionate. In gaining a better understanding of what it means to be a vampire, Ariana discovers her history with vampires goes back further than she ever imagined, for she is in the middle of a legend and has become part of its unfolding story.
Kindle Edition
First published October 26, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 15, 2011
The story opens in a town where strange disappearances are rumored but dismissed as “old wives tales.” It becomes apparent very early on that the stories are very true. Dimitri travels and hunts with his brother, Trevaun, sometimes even making a game of it. During a challenge of who can kill the most, Dimitri abducts Ariana Dallenhauf upon her leaving a social event, and determines to make her his protégé.
When Ariana awakes to her new life, she finds it difficult to adjust. Although her abilities come oddly easy to her, some of which even Dimitri is astonished by; she has a hard time parting with her mortal life much to Dimitri’s annoyance. She soon discovers a whole new world before her, however, one that existed right beneath her nose that is as complex as it is frightening. But with Dimitri by her side to guide her, it’s bound to be an exciting, eye opening experience.
When Dimitri and Trevaun are summoned back to the d’Avange castle by their uncle, the Grand Ruler of the Vampire Realm, to investigate a possible conspiracy, Ariana soon learns there is more to her than meets the eye, and the source of uncovering the mystery lies at D’Avange castle.
I liked following along with Ariana as she tried to make sense of this new world she found herself in and of her instructor, Dimitri. It is obvious that he is a man hardened by his past. But as he and Ariana interact, a certain softness is revealed.
I also found myself a little on edge when it came to Trevaun and his wife, Katrine. They are a ruthless couple that takes utmost pleasure in scouting and killing their victims. I often times felt the panic of the couples they targeted when they found out they were staring down the mouths of predators and they were the prey. Since I love a little darkness in my reading, it was very entertaining!
Overall, the story had a bit of a jerky beginning, but was quickly found its footing. I felt it was a little slow paced, and at times a little too descriptive as far as detailing every step and movement each character made. But I enjoyed it nonetheless. Foote is very good at describing even the smallest detail, which transported me back in time and made it easy for me stay firmly rooted in the story. The story took some interesting and unexpected turns as well, including dark magic and demonic influences that melded nicely with the vampire lore. I highly enjoyed trying to unravel who was behind the conspiracy, feeling like a bit of a detective and suspecting everyone in play at one time or another. The action sequences were lovely and delightfully gruesome. But if you are expecting an epic love story, you won’t find it here. Instead, I found the connection between Dimitri and Ariana to be very fitting of the times and generally very sweet and endearing. In short, Dimitri is a complete gentleman, which I loved.
I recommend In Shadows to anyone looking for a story that combines mystery, revenge, love, friendship, and, of course, vampires. It’s truly an enjoyable read.
When Ariana awakes to her new life, she finds it difficult to adjust. Although her abilities come oddly easy to her, some of which even Dimitri is astonished by; she has a hard time parting with her mortal life much to Dimitri’s annoyance. She soon discovers a whole new world before her, however, one that existed right beneath her nose that is as complex as it is frightening. But with Dimitri by her side to guide her, it’s bound to be an exciting, eye opening experience.
When Dimitri and Trevaun are summoned back to the d’Avange castle by their uncle, the Grand Ruler of the Vampire Realm, to investigate a possible conspiracy, Ariana soon learns there is more to her than meets the eye, and the source of uncovering the mystery lies at D’Avange castle.
I liked following along with Ariana as she tried to make sense of this new world she found herself in and of her instructor, Dimitri. It is obvious that he is a man hardened by his past. But as he and Ariana interact, a certain softness is revealed.
I also found myself a little on edge when it came to Trevaun and his wife, Katrine. They are a ruthless couple that takes utmost pleasure in scouting and killing their victims. I often times felt the panic of the couples they targeted when they found out they were staring down the mouths of predators and they were the prey. Since I love a little darkness in my reading, it was very entertaining!
Overall, the story had a bit of a jerky beginning, but was quickly found its footing. I felt it was a little slow paced, and at times a little too descriptive as far as detailing every step and movement each character made. But I enjoyed it nonetheless. Foote is very good at describing even the smallest detail, which transported me back in time and made it easy for me stay firmly rooted in the story. The story took some interesting and unexpected turns as well, including dark magic and demonic influences that melded nicely with the vampire lore. I highly enjoyed trying to unravel who was behind the conspiracy, feeling like a bit of a detective and suspecting everyone in play at one time or another. The action sequences were lovely and delightfully gruesome. But if you are expecting an epic love story, you won’t find it here. Instead, I found the connection between Dimitri and Ariana to be very fitting of the times and generally very sweet and endearing. In short, Dimitri is a complete gentleman, which I loved.
I recommend In Shadows to anyone looking for a story that combines mystery, revenge, love, friendship, and, of course, vampires. It’s truly an enjoyable read.
December 30, 2011
This book was a really great read and I just could not put it down!
The story starts off in a town set in the 1800's where people tend to disappear for no apparent reason. People just seem to write off the disappearances and assume that nothing out of the normal is going on.
Ariana was one of these people until her world was turned upside down. She was charmed away from her friends and family by a vampire named Dimitri. He gives her the choice of immortal life or death.
Dimitri becomes Ariana's guide threw her new life as a vampire. Ariana takes a bit to adapt to her new life, but she is a fast learner. Teaching Ariana new skills has become a daily routine for Dimitri and his feelings toward her start to change. The same goes for Ariana though, as she starts to second guess how she actually feels about her new guide.
There are a ton of plot twists in this book, and I loved that. Ariana's new life is very much linked to her old one by history. This new found information could very well be the most important thing to happen to the vampire realm in a long time
Attimes it did seem that the tory was moving slowly, but the author's attention to detail makes up for this. The beginning of the book is a bit bumpy but the author seems to get a feel quickly and it all just starts to flow together nicely.
This story is filled with intrigue, battle, love, trust, compassion, and good old detective work. And of course, a romantic story filled with vampires! I recommend this book to anyone looking for a great story of inner battle and triumph.
The story starts off in a town set in the 1800's where people tend to disappear for no apparent reason. People just seem to write off the disappearances and assume that nothing out of the normal is going on.
Ariana was one of these people until her world was turned upside down. She was charmed away from her friends and family by a vampire named Dimitri. He gives her the choice of immortal life or death.
Dimitri becomes Ariana's guide threw her new life as a vampire. Ariana takes a bit to adapt to her new life, but she is a fast learner. Teaching Ariana new skills has become a daily routine for Dimitri and his feelings toward her start to change. The same goes for Ariana though, as she starts to second guess how she actually feels about her new guide.
There are a ton of plot twists in this book, and I loved that. Ariana's new life is very much linked to her old one by history. This new found information could very well be the most important thing to happen to the vampire realm in a long time
Attimes it did seem that the tory was moving slowly, but the author's attention to detail makes up for this. The beginning of the book is a bit bumpy but the author seems to get a feel quickly and it all just starts to flow together nicely.
This story is filled with intrigue, battle, love, trust, compassion, and good old detective work. And of course, a romantic story filled with vampires! I recommend this book to anyone looking for a great story of inner battle and triumph.
March 24, 2012
The author sets the scene in London, 1832. Rarely can an author effectively transpose her work to another time and another continent and succeed in creating a believable narrative. Unfortunately, Ms Foote, like most others, doesn’t get there. Instead the style sounds as if it was written by an able American author who can’t quite differentiate between American and England styles. This is a shame: if the story was set in present-day America (and I can’t see any reason why this shouldn’t be so) the author would have accomplished the creation of something with a more honest and realistic voice and style. We have phrases like ‘check on you’, ‘I just need a moment’, and ‘I guess’ – you’d have trouble finding phrases like this in present-day England, never mind the London of nearly 200 years ago. I acknowledge that historical accuracy (ice for champagne? In the middle of London in 1832?) isn’t of paramount importance here, but if the author isn’t making use of the voice, style and atmosphere of her chosen place and period.
The story opens with a scene involving a woman being chased down by vampires. The use of the past tense here gives a slightly stale feel to the action. The atmosphere is a little disappointing; it’s a rainy evening in central London, and the streets are quiet – it should be brilliantly creepy but stilted language doesn’t help. ‘Her desire for safety was paramount.’ It’s pretty obvious that the woman wants to be safe – but how do her feet sound against the cobblestones, what do those greasy old streets smell like? The author confuses the issues further by sometimes referring to the character as ‘she’ and to offer a change from this, sometimes as ‘the shop assistant’ – this method isn’t terribly effective and if anything ensures that the reader is holding the character at arm’s length.
Despite some awkward turns of phrase (‘He lifted him up and flew into the dark night, quickly drinking his blood and also breaking his neck, so he would stop screaming.’) there are also some gems, like ‘subtle as a shadow’. When the author concentrates on clarity, keeping sentences short so that the story can speak for itself, some of her promise as a story-teller really shines through. And this is a story- rather than character-led novel.
But, as always, a strong edit would have been incredibly helpful to iron out some of these thoughtless sentences: ‘Two prostitutes stood on the street near a brothel trying to entice people. He came up to the women and smiled at them. One of them, a prostitute with blonde hair, invited him closer.’
And later: ‘Throughout the night, both Ariana's father and Nathaniel looked for her. The two of them were bereft by her disappearance and searched exhaustedly, but it was to no avail. Try as they might, they could not find her. No one would have ever guessed what truly happened to her, or that they would never see her sweet innocence again.’
There is much to like, however, such as the petty squabbling of the vampires, which makes them seem more animal and also more human. A protégé is taken on, a ‘huge’ responsibility. We are told that things didn’t work out so well when Dimitri last took on a protégé. This provides a tasty bit of foreshadowing.
The story the shifts gears and we are given Ariana, the ingénue’s perspective, which is a welcome change. Again the reader is surprised with some good detailing; the new protégé connects with her lost lift with her fiancé through the item of clothing she wore when she was last with him. This is an honestly touching moment. In fact, the story is always strongest when told from Ariana’s perspective; she is being introduced to the vampire world, just as the reader is, so we can discover and commiserate with her – but it would be good to have a greater difference between her still half-mortal world and their depraved one, with different voices and more atmosphere.
People are always ‘sensing’ and ‘feeling instinctively’ – these sentences should be watched out for – if the author is doing her job, then she will be able to trust that we, the reader are doing ours, too; we will know when the characters are sensing something because we sense it too. For example, ‘She obviously knew very little about being a vampire, but felt instinctively that Dimitri would be a good teacher.’ The author has already done her work here; we have watched Dimitri watch his pupil carefully, and we already know that he’ll be a good teacher. So the sentence becomes redundant. The author should trust the reader in other ways too - we know already that there is a tension between the idea of vampire as beast and vampire as sophisticate, so when the author belts us over the head with this idea, saying ‘He was an enigma of sorts, because he was both a gentleman and a beast’ we feel like rolling our eyes. Furthermore, the author won’t allow the reader to make our own judgments on the natures of these vampires she has created, as the narrative voice throws around words like ‘evil’. The author is perhaps unconsciously setting herself up in opposition to her reader by over-riding the reader’s natural feelings, rather than working with them.
When the author if forthcoming with details, they’re generally interesting and thoughtful. Too often we lack them though, which lends a slightly unbelievable air to the action scenes: i
‘He was transforming into a gigantic demon … Dimitri had hanged into an enormous dark demon that seemed to phase into shadow. Large horns began growing out of his massive head and his eyes glowed, red as if on fire. His teeth were long and sharp and he looked terrifying. It was as if the devil himself was standing before her.’ This isn’t enough; he has red eyes, big teeth, horns and he’s large. But what’s his skin like? Does he smell? What happened to his clothes? How big is ‘gigantic’ – 8 foot or 25? Can she still see the remnants of Dimitri in the demon?
Other weaknesses involve a lack of differentiation in voices of characters. Each sounds almost identical, and so again the reader misses out on details and atmosphere. My edition didn’t have page numbers, but the author names her chapters, which I found distracting: it feels pointless and quite Enid Blyton-esque to call chapters things like ‘A Strange Development’. On the other hand, the formatting is attractive, which is something of a rarity in this brave new world of eBooks.
In terms of structure, the story has a nice bookend feel as Ariana goes to see her mortal family once more. On the other hand, the suggested climax to the story never really pays off. The storyline is sound but we miss out on character and atmosphere – and these could make an ordinary, decent-ish story into something magical. Again, one feels that the strength of writing isn’t there – yet – to back up the strength of ideas. It’s difficult as a reviewer to spend as much time on the positive as the negatives. But there are positives here, and for such a new writer, I have every belief that the author can improve on her strengths and diminish her weaknesses in future outings, and thanks to the glimpses of real promise shown here, I for one will look forward to that.
Guest reviewed by SCD
The story opens with a scene involving a woman being chased down by vampires. The use of the past tense here gives a slightly stale feel to the action. The atmosphere is a little disappointing; it’s a rainy evening in central London, and the streets are quiet – it should be brilliantly creepy but stilted language doesn’t help. ‘Her desire for safety was paramount.’ It’s pretty obvious that the woman wants to be safe – but how do her feet sound against the cobblestones, what do those greasy old streets smell like? The author confuses the issues further by sometimes referring to the character as ‘she’ and to offer a change from this, sometimes as ‘the shop assistant’ – this method isn’t terribly effective and if anything ensures that the reader is holding the character at arm’s length.
Despite some awkward turns of phrase (‘He lifted him up and flew into the dark night, quickly drinking his blood and also breaking his neck, so he would stop screaming.’) there are also some gems, like ‘subtle as a shadow’. When the author concentrates on clarity, keeping sentences short so that the story can speak for itself, some of her promise as a story-teller really shines through. And this is a story- rather than character-led novel.
But, as always, a strong edit would have been incredibly helpful to iron out some of these thoughtless sentences: ‘Two prostitutes stood on the street near a brothel trying to entice people. He came up to the women and smiled at them. One of them, a prostitute with blonde hair, invited him closer.’
And later: ‘Throughout the night, both Ariana's father and Nathaniel looked for her. The two of them were bereft by her disappearance and searched exhaustedly, but it was to no avail. Try as they might, they could not find her. No one would have ever guessed what truly happened to her, or that they would never see her sweet innocence again.’
There is much to like, however, such as the petty squabbling of the vampires, which makes them seem more animal and also more human. A protégé is taken on, a ‘huge’ responsibility. We are told that things didn’t work out so well when Dimitri last took on a protégé. This provides a tasty bit of foreshadowing.
The story the shifts gears and we are given Ariana, the ingénue’s perspective, which is a welcome change. Again the reader is surprised with some good detailing; the new protégé connects with her lost lift with her fiancé through the item of clothing she wore when she was last with him. This is an honestly touching moment. In fact, the story is always strongest when told from Ariana’s perspective; she is being introduced to the vampire world, just as the reader is, so we can discover and commiserate with her – but it would be good to have a greater difference between her still half-mortal world and their depraved one, with different voices and more atmosphere.
People are always ‘sensing’ and ‘feeling instinctively’ – these sentences should be watched out for – if the author is doing her job, then she will be able to trust that we, the reader are doing ours, too; we will know when the characters are sensing something because we sense it too. For example, ‘She obviously knew very little about being a vampire, but felt instinctively that Dimitri would be a good teacher.’ The author has already done her work here; we have watched Dimitri watch his pupil carefully, and we already know that he’ll be a good teacher. So the sentence becomes redundant. The author should trust the reader in other ways too - we know already that there is a tension between the idea of vampire as beast and vampire as sophisticate, so when the author belts us over the head with this idea, saying ‘He was an enigma of sorts, because he was both a gentleman and a beast’ we feel like rolling our eyes. Furthermore, the author won’t allow the reader to make our own judgments on the natures of these vampires she has created, as the narrative voice throws around words like ‘evil’. The author is perhaps unconsciously setting herself up in opposition to her reader by over-riding the reader’s natural feelings, rather than working with them.
When the author if forthcoming with details, they’re generally interesting and thoughtful. Too often we lack them though, which lends a slightly unbelievable air to the action scenes: i
‘He was transforming into a gigantic demon … Dimitri had hanged into an enormous dark demon that seemed to phase into shadow. Large horns began growing out of his massive head and his eyes glowed, red as if on fire. His teeth were long and sharp and he looked terrifying. It was as if the devil himself was standing before her.’ This isn’t enough; he has red eyes, big teeth, horns and he’s large. But what’s his skin like? Does he smell? What happened to his clothes? How big is ‘gigantic’ – 8 foot or 25? Can she still see the remnants of Dimitri in the demon?
Other weaknesses involve a lack of differentiation in voices of characters. Each sounds almost identical, and so again the reader misses out on details and atmosphere. My edition didn’t have page numbers, but the author names her chapters, which I found distracting: it feels pointless and quite Enid Blyton-esque to call chapters things like ‘A Strange Development’. On the other hand, the formatting is attractive, which is something of a rarity in this brave new world of eBooks.
In terms of structure, the story has a nice bookend feel as Ariana goes to see her mortal family once more. On the other hand, the suggested climax to the story never really pays off. The storyline is sound but we miss out on character and atmosphere – and these could make an ordinary, decent-ish story into something magical. Again, one feels that the strength of writing isn’t there – yet – to back up the strength of ideas. It’s difficult as a reviewer to spend as much time on the positive as the negatives. But there are positives here, and for such a new writer, I have every belief that the author can improve on her strengths and diminish her weaknesses in future outings, and thanks to the glimpses of real promise shown here, I for one will look forward to that.
Guest reviewed by SCD
February 10, 2012
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I am one of those people who loves the idea of using history as part of a book. The problem for me is that while I like history as a backdrop for some reason it almost never completely works for me. Either the historical elements don't seem that necessary (either the book could take place at any time and it wouldn't matter, or the author just didn't do enough specific research in their time period to really draw me into the setting). Even so I am sucker for historical books, so even though a lot of them never completely satisfy my reading appetite, I keep trying them out and I probably always will.
I think the first thing I should mention is that the reader should continue through even though the beginning starts off bumpy. I am one of those readers who once I start a book I can't put it down even if I hate (don't ask me how many books I have read that I absolutely hated, trust me you don't want to know the number). But for those of you who need to be sucked into a book rather quickly, this one does not exactly accomplish that. I felt like the beginning was a bit disjointed and it took a while to not only pick up on the action side of things, but also for me to feel a real connection to the characters.
That being said, one the book got started and the action started to pick up I found it easy to identify with a lot of the characters. Seeing as how most of the characters are vampires, there actions are not exactly, how should I put it, moral? Which hey, is part of the appeal of vampires, and part of the reason we as readers enjoy vampire novels. Following along with Ariana is really what made the book for me. She starts off as a human and then becomes a vampire and is introduced into a world she could have never imagined existed. This makes it easy to identify with her as well as bring you to a pretty good understanding of the world building from her point of view.
While Ariana made the book for me, there was one other element in the book that peaked my interest and made me want to find out what was on the next page. Even though a lot of the book is focused on Ariana and her learning not just about the world she now lives within and her powers, but there is also an element of mystery going on. I love a book where I spend a lot of time trying to figure out where the book is going to go, who did what, what the mystery is, is there some kind of conspiracy going on. This book did a good job of hooking me into the mystery.
Overall this was a pretty okay book. It was a short read and it was an enjoyable read, even though the beginning started on the slow side. Other than that I would recommend it to people who like fantasy with vampires, or for those of you who like books that carry a historical element within them.
I am one of those people who loves the idea of using history as part of a book. The problem for me is that while I like history as a backdrop for some reason it almost never completely works for me. Either the historical elements don't seem that necessary (either the book could take place at any time and it wouldn't matter, or the author just didn't do enough specific research in their time period to really draw me into the setting). Even so I am sucker for historical books, so even though a lot of them never completely satisfy my reading appetite, I keep trying them out and I probably always will.
I think the first thing I should mention is that the reader should continue through even though the beginning starts off bumpy. I am one of those readers who once I start a book I can't put it down even if I hate (don't ask me how many books I have read that I absolutely hated, trust me you don't want to know the number). But for those of you who need to be sucked into a book rather quickly, this one does not exactly accomplish that. I felt like the beginning was a bit disjointed and it took a while to not only pick up on the action side of things, but also for me to feel a real connection to the characters.
That being said, one the book got started and the action started to pick up I found it easy to identify with a lot of the characters. Seeing as how most of the characters are vampires, there actions are not exactly, how should I put it, moral? Which hey, is part of the appeal of vampires, and part of the reason we as readers enjoy vampire novels. Following along with Ariana is really what made the book for me. She starts off as a human and then becomes a vampire and is introduced into a world she could have never imagined existed. This makes it easy to identify with her as well as bring you to a pretty good understanding of the world building from her point of view.
While Ariana made the book for me, there was one other element in the book that peaked my interest and made me want to find out what was on the next page. Even though a lot of the book is focused on Ariana and her learning not just about the world she now lives within and her powers, but there is also an element of mystery going on. I love a book where I spend a lot of time trying to figure out where the book is going to go, who did what, what the mystery is, is there some kind of conspiracy going on. This book did a good job of hooking me into the mystery.
Overall this was a pretty okay book. It was a short read and it was an enjoyable read, even though the beginning started on the slow side. Other than that I would recommend it to people who like fantasy with vampires, or for those of you who like books that carry a historical element within them.
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