For weeks, he stood by my side, twisting his words into pretty half-truths. He enraptured me with his smooth temptation, leaving no corner of my being untouched. He consumed my mind and my body, then finally claimed my heart for himself. But Caelum's true identity is terrifying enough to bring me to my knees.

This book was gross, and I don't mean the porn-heavy bits, although those were also plentiful and some of them quite gross, but not all of them. It was gross how the MC was character-assassinated in the interest of serving the author's goals of writing more sex scenes. It was gross how both violence and death were fetishized. It was gross how trauma was used as a tool by the male MC to get what he wanted from the female MC. This is a character who is supposedly centuries old, behaving like a cave man, storming out in a huff and unable to control basic emotional impulses. Leaving it to his comparably infantile 'mate' to soothe his needs with sex even when she's terrified of him. Sorry but I couldn't get past how unbelievably stupid the whole thing was. Number one issue is the gas lighting. He is the most extreme gaslighter. It’s ridiculous at times. After he’s revealed to be a Fae and having lied to Estrella the whole first book he’s insistent that it’s her problem and she should get over it cause she loved him as a human. Like what? Dude you betrayed this woman then blamed her trauma on her. Him being a “bad guy” does not in my opinion mean he can treat Estrella like trash. He hammers on about how “oh she’s just denying herself she totally still loves me” is blood boiling. Never have a read a MMC so insistent that their mate just accept the bond like it’s her problem. One of the worst parts is he NEVER tried to see it from her point of view. He’s right, she’s wrong, she needs to just accept this thing she’s been terrified of. Oh and his so called bros and members of the Wild Hunt? Also abusive bastards. The leader, Holt, is just so upset that Estrella can’t just accept the bond and stop being so selfish “don’t you know this will help out in the realm you haven’t ever existed in and have no ties to?” Asshole. While I really enjoyed What Lies Behind the Veil, the first in this series, I’m sad to say I did not enjoy this follow-on.Caldris: “You are too young to understand what we share. Just because you would take it for granted now does not mean that you will not come to appreciate me in time, as your fear and prejudice against my kind dissipates. You have a lifetime of untruths to overcome, but I can be patient for you. I have already waited centuries to feel the love we share. I would wait one hundred more.” Caelum acting like an adoring fan most of the time when it came to Estella was adorable. My favorite part is when Estella would do something completely unhinged and Caelum would walk up and be like: 😟 no, my star. What have you done, my star? I love you and want to kiss the blood from your talons but we can't do that, my love.😟👀😘

Getting information in this book was also very choppy. There seemed to be more emphasis on the romance aspect of this book then literally anything else, but when you have a book with a world and political system this complex, you should definitely be putting more energy into the detail of everything instead of your characters having sex just for the sake of having smut in your book. All the things that were wrong with the first book in this series have been amplified in this book. The mate bond is not just a crutch anymore (in the first book, the author used it to force the female MC to like the male MC), now its a fully formed wheel chair rolling the plot forward. The crass and vulgar moments between characters are exacerbated, the mind-numbingly idiotic possessiveness and jealousy between characters is also played up to the point that it felt like they'd regressed to the age of teenagers (maybe its a young author? I don't know). In fact, a lot of the emotional pin-wheeling that the characters do in this book seems to be for no reason other than to stir up pointless emotional drama and hide the fact the book has no real action driving its plot. The side characters in this added so much to the story. Holt, the wolves, and surprise faces that I won’t mention because spoilers. caldris is still as awful as he was in book one. this guy is supposed to be centuries old and yet several times basically loses it when estrella tells him she needs some more time. he's violent and demanding and i find him childish... and it just escapes my mind how i'm meant to find him a good romantic partner for estrella. i just don't like this whole 'he becomes mindless with rage' thing, it gets on my nerves. estrella is boring for the most part so she's not compelling as a main character - she has her moments of showing some sort of a personality, but they happen very sporadically through-out the book and after not caring for most of the book about her, i couldn't bring myself to care about her when she decided to show she had some personality after all. Caldris is whispered in the Nothrek wind. The legend we only speak of quietly in closed rooms for fear of provoking his wrath again. His intentions are a mystery, his desires impure, and he seeks to chain me to his side for eternity. With the Wild Hunt as his guardian, he shows us the place where it all began: the city of Mistfur and the rim where the Veil once shimmered in the wind.

I snarled, the monster feeling closer to the surface than ever before. The complete aggravation that was Jensen would drive me to do far worse before the day was up.

I absolutely loved the first book in this series (and gave it 5 stars!) so I'm a little bit disappointed that I didn't love this one quite as much... I just didn't really know who the villian was in this story. I didn't know what our end goal was for most of this story. Another reason why things felt so confused might have been because we were on a very, very long journey into the Fae world - which we had been inching toward in the previous book. So we never saw anywhere new. We actually made a round about circle to all the places in the previous book which was unbearably boring to me.Even when she hated him he still roped her into sex cause she just couldn’t deny the attraction. The mating bond was a crutch in this book. It was toxic. And I absolutely love fated mates. It has NEVER made me this uncomfortable. It felt like a way to make Estrella do things she didn’t want to because of the bond. Listening to audiobooks not only easy, it is also very convenient. You can listen to audiobooks on almost every device. From your laptop to your smart phone or even a smart speaker like Apple HomePod or even Alexa. Here’s how you can get started listening to audiobooks. The fantasy element was definitely fun after reading so much romance lately. And I loved getting to know this world a bit more. And it definitely didn’t get boring since there is so much to learn and to explore. I loved reading more about the ‘mate’ connection between Estrella and Caelum, and learning more about Caelum’s journey. But I really wished Estrella would have been a bit forgiving to be honest. Halfway through the story I honestly just wanted to shake her a bit.

For a second book, I wanted....better secondary characters, more Estrella and Caleum: fight fight fight kiss kiss kiss, the lord to die, and what is their actual plan for returning to society?

What Hunts Inside the Shadows Full Details

What Hunts Inside the Shadows Published by ‎Adelaide Forrest Also in this series: What Lies Beyond the Veil I was really looking forward to this book. I had high hopes for this author being a diamond in the rough and this series being their chance to really grow and shine. Instead, this book is one of the worst I've ever read. Overall it wasn´t a great book and I am kind of glad I finished it now. I don´t think I will continuing the series. Harper L. Woods does amazing things and expands the world in this book. We began to learn a lot about magic, then creatures and realms. It follows traditional fairy tale lore much more than many of the other popular fairy tale series. There is so much action in this book and the characters grow and develop.