The Shadows Between Us

Alessandra is tired of being overlooked, but she has a plan to gain power:
1) Woo the Shadow King.2) Marry him.3) Kill him and take his kingdom for herself.
No one knows the extent of the freshly crowned Shadow King’s power. Some say he can command the shadows that swirl around him to do his bidding. Others say they speak to him, whispering the thoughts of his enemies. Regardless, Alessandra knows what she deserves, and she’s going to do everything within her power to get it.
But Alessandra’s not the only one trying to kill the king. As attempts on his life are made, she finds herself trying to keep him alive long enough for him to make her his queen—all while struggling not to lose her heart. After all, who better for a Shadow King than a cunning, villainous queen?

Many thanks to Edewleiss and Feiwel & Friends for an eARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. Quotes are taken from an unfinished version and may differ from the final product.

Even though I’m not generally one for romance, between the blurb and the description of this as “Slytherin romance,” I knew my little black heart just had to read it.

Because if there’s not a threat of homicide, is it really love? Besides, we Slytherins deserve a happily ever after, too. Ours is just sometimes a little bloodier … and maybe the people around the happy couple should be concerned. But still.

The Shadows Between Us is a dark, twisty tale of manipulation and politics with a delicious slow burn, enemies-to-lovers type trope that pleased my Slytherin soul.

I need more romances like this, because this just worked for me. I love the twistiness, the underhandedness, the one-upmanship between the couple. And the side characters? Brilliant. More Slytherin romances, please.

❧ I knew from the opening page that I was absolutely going to love Alessandra, and boy did I ever.

She’s a character after my own heart. Everything about her just screams Slytherin. She does what she wants, but in a very cold, calculated manner. She schemes, in the most delicious of ways. She knows exactly what she wants and knows how to get there and will let nothing and no one get in her way.

I mean, the book just casually opens with the fact that she stabbed the first guy who ever broke her heart, sooo … you know, obviously a character that’s easy to root for.

If you don’t like characters with questionable morals, you’re not going to like Alessandra. But for the rest of us who love stabby underhandedness? She’s a perfect antiheroine who knows exactly how the game is played. And if she doesn’t like the rules? She manipulates them until she does.

❧ Despite being a dark book, there’s a lot of body positivity and sexual freedom, which I was totally here for.

I mean, Alessandra enjoys sex. And really, who doesn’t? But in this world, it would be improper, of course, for a female to be “soiled” before marriage, obviously. Not that that stops her, and why should it? The way the book approached it, I thought, was very tasteful. There’s no graphic sex scenes, but it doesn’t shy away from having the conversations, either. I’d love to see more of this in YA, as an example of how you can be both sex-positive and not edging your way into erotica (even though there are some steamy scenes).

Alessandra sort of fills a “woke feminist” type of role, which I would normally shy away from in a historical-feeling world, but the way she approaches it feels refreshing without breaking out of the confines of the world in which she resides.

This probably has everything to do with her character. She’s the sort who naturally pushes the envelope, but is very calculated in the way she does it. She works within the confines of the system she was born into, while still doing what she wants. At court, she encourages small disobediences that make all the difference, like suggesting one of the ladies end her mourning period early, considering it was an arranged marriage devoid of love.

While she’s changing things, so knows just where and how hard to push the envelope so that change happens little by little without everything collapsing in on itself and society revolting, and it was lovely to see how this impacted the other characters and their own transformations.

❧ There’s a little LGBTQ side romance going on here, and I appreciated how normalized it was.

A big deal wasn’t made about the fact that a guy was courting a guy. It just … was. It was handled in much the same tone and voice as the fact that men were courting women, and I liked the fact that the character was included, but also that he wasn’t treated any differently than his counterparts.

❧ I can’t say too much about the romance (because that’s sort of the point of the book), but I can say that it’s a slow burn romance between Slytherins.

And boy how I shipped this. I mean, okay, I was down for the assassination plot, too, and it’s such a dangerous game that both parties are playing (because of course the Shadow King is just as dark and underhanded), but that sort of just made the romance all the more exciting?

Alessandra and the Shadow King are equals in every sense of the word (you know … except in title?), which made the little game they were playing all the more exciting, because they both knew how to play it.

The only thing I can say is that the Shadow King is not what you might expect. He started off frustrating me (and Alessandra, of course), but getting to know him little by little was an enjoyable and surprising journey.

❧ The side characters in this book just absolutely sold it, and I fell in love with all of them.

They’re not all Slytherins, but hey, we all have our faults, right? Even the obvious Hufflepuff among them somehow won my heart with her little arc. They were the light to the darkness of the rest of this novel, and they served their purpose freaking well. I couldn’t wait to get to more of their scenes, because the banter was just delicious, and they all had things going on in their lives that I just couldn’t help root for.

Given the setting of this book (which is almost entirely spent in the castle, which is a bit of a microcosm in itself), there’s a lot of political affairs and social climbing going on, and normally that feels tired and draggy to me in books, but here? These characters made it somehow enjoyable?

Okay, I like scheming and subverting expectations (no surprise there), so political upheaval is my thing. But the tedium of court life and courting and such? Blargh. Yet here, I loved navigating court life with these characters, and all their different struggles, from arranged marriages to courting to widowhood. They made what could otherwise be a dull affair into something fun, and I loved it.

❧ There is a lot of focus put on what Alessandra is wearing, and her outfit is detailed in pretty much every scene she’s in, and I just … don’t care.

This will be great for you fashionistas out there. I mean, to be fair, her outfits sound absolutely stunning and extremely gorgeous. But that’s just not me. I’m not interested in it. Knowing that she dresses nice and is fashion-forward is enough for me, and it bores me to tears, personally, to read about her clothes over and over again.

❧ As far as the plot goes (or what little there is outside of the romance) is predictable and leans heavily on tropes.

Thankfully, it was the romance and personality that I wanted to read in this book, so this wasn’t a huge problem for me. I didn’t expect there to be much of a large overarching plot outside of the romance anyway. The little whodunnit in the background was sort of obvious, and I guessed from early on in the book who the culprit was.

Alessandra also falls into the “so pretty, everyone falls in love with her” trope, and it’s one of my least favorite.

Alessandra had so much going for her already that, honestly, she didn’t need all these beaus competing for her attention. I loved her already the way she was. I didn’t need to listen to everyone and their brother tripping over themselves to woo her to prove her worth.

What are some of your favorite romance tropes?