There was a lot about this I really loved - the characters were engaging, even if Kaylin's "grown up and away from terrible childhood alone in the harsh slums of fantasy city" is a fairly common set-up. I also liked the setting and the different peoples and politics among them - once I figured them out. I did think there could have been a bit clearer setting out of the various races and what they were at the beginning, and even as the book went on, there seemed to be some lines of dialogue that were needlessly opaque. (It also occurred to me that I hadn't read an adult book for a while, but I cheered myself up with thought of having followed the plot of All Clear with only the expected amount of confusion!)

Definitely liked it enough to read more.

Not a bad first book but it was slow moving and tedious at times with too much 'filler' action. I'm on the fence about continuing the series.

I picked this up not expecting a lot. The cover led me to expect a YA or a romantic light fantasy. I would say this is better characterized as more adult or high fantasy, but I believe younger audiences would still enjoy it. It is not a romance at all, if that is what you are looking for, this is not it. I was pleasantly suprised and will be getting the second of the series shortly. It is detailed, and if you are looking for something that moves quicker in the beginning this is not for you. You do have to commit to the book, the beginning has a lot of set up and detail, but I did not find it a problem and enjoyed how Michelle Sagara brought it all together in the end.

The story deals with a woman who has joined The Hawks, a military faction, after having been orphaned and living on the streets in the Fiefs as a child. She explores the mystery of marks that mysteriously appeared on her skin as a child and what they mean while investigating a number of child deaths in the fief of Nightshade that took place when she was a child and started happening again now she is an adult.

Social factions are divided by species of human and human/animal combination species. This type of theme can be a cheesy, but Michelle Sagara handled it pretty well. Social castes are separated based on species and economics.

I would recommend this book, ignore the cover of the book. The cover misrepresents it.

I have been pushing this book around for three weeks and only managed to will myself through 50 pages. I just feel confused and overloaded with information and can't keep the characters straight. I am sure there is a good story in there trying to get out, but it's taking too long for me to take an interest.

Counts towards the Cliterary Genius 2017 June part of the challenge: read a book suggested by another member of CG.

Seven years ago Kaylin fled the crime-riddled streets of Nightshade, knowing that something was after her. Children were being murdered — and all had the same odd markings that mysteriously appeared on her own skin.…

Since then, she's learned to read, she's learned to fight and she's become one of the vaunted Hawks who patrol and police the City of Elantra. Alongside the winged Aerians and the immortal Barrani, she's made a place for herself, far from the mean streets of her birth.

But children are once again dying, and a dark and familiar pattern is emerging.

3.5 stars. For the most part I enjoyed reading Cast in Shadow. The reason it doesn't quite get 4 stars from me is because at times I felt like not enough was explained and that led to a bit of confusion a few times. I think way too much information is withheld from the reader and the main character. I did really like the different character races in this book and it seems like a promising start to the series. I considering continuing on to the next book, however I am hesitant after reading the descriptions and reviews of the next 9 books in the series. It seems like a lot of people have gotten frustrated with the lack of movement in character development and plot. And apparently this series is pretty void of any romance. That would probably be a plus to some, but not for me. As long as it doesn't take over the story, I like to have a little romance sprinkled into the books I read. There is apparently supposed to be a love triangle building, but according to other readers, 10 books into the series it is still pretty non-existent. So for now the next book in the series will go on my may-or-may-not read list.

Review also posted at Writings of a Reader

Sentence fragments. Abundant. Qualifying and redundant. Slightly repetitive. In the same sense that Roseanne Barr was slightly mouthy.

I have read this once before and wasn't enchanted. I reread it because my mother enjoyed it, and I thought I'd give it another chance. Apparently, I'm a glutton for punishment.

There are a few things I can tell you about the main character with total confidence: she is always late, she failed every non-practical class in her education, did well in languages, rarely grooms or cleans her home, and never sleeps enough. I know this because the author told us these things either explicitly or implicitly 5 or 6 times each. This book could have been half as long if Sagara's editor had used his/her red pen more effectively.

I didn't like the main character, I didn't care about her, and that went with her whole stupid world. I found the narrative style repetitive and the sentence fragments irritating. I did ask my mom if she eventually developed a romantic relationship with any of the males apparently available, and she said "Not as of book 5 or 6." Book 5 or 6?!

I think I was so disappointed because I enjoyed Sagara's first Children of the Blood series. On the other hand, it's been years since I last read them. Maybe I should read them again and see if my opinion has changed.

It took a bit of work to actually get through but by the middle of the book, it breezed by. Granted, the phrases/sentences can be jilted and jumpy and sometimes Ms. Sagara waxes poetic far to much for me, but it's the character's that sort of pull you into it and less of the author's writing style.

I am a fan of Severn, so I hope to see more of him. It will be interesting to see what develops between the three of them (this is intentionally vague so that I don't spoil anything, but if you've read this book, you know who I mean and what I'm saying!) and how Kaylin will grow up.

Overall, a good enough effort to have me wanting more.

Our FMC is Kaylin. She is a "Hawk" in Elantra society, which is a mix between a spy and a detective, they are the eyes of society and only one branch of the Law. Kaylin has a troubled past. When she was only 10 years old, mysterious tattoos appeared on her arms and legs around the same time that bodies with similar markings were found in her neighborhood. The murders eventually stopped the same night she fled into a different district. Now several years have passed and the murders have started again. She is in a position to investigate them. The investigation takes her back to her old neighborhood and dredges up painful memories involving her new partner.

I'm so excited for book 2! This one was much better than I expected. Elantra is a very interesting world - there are races with wings (Hawks), people that resemble lions, dragons, and I'm not sure what the Barrani are supposed to be, and then there are the mortal human types like Kaylin. So the world building was cool, and the character building was well done too. Kaylin has her issues but is hard not to like her. I will admit it took me a little while to get into the book. It wasn't that there was a lack of action, rather the way things were laid out at the beginning was a little disorienting. You have to fully immerse yourself and hope that things will be explained in time. As the book progressed, those issues worked themselves out, so be patient. I enjoyed it and am looking forward to the next book in the series.

DNF.

Garbage.

Which idiots decided to publish this book??

Its so bad I'm not even rating it.

98 pages in, I was wondering how I had convinced myself to read as far as I did. At least 3 times during the course of reading this, I checked to make sure that this was the first book in the series. Something just felt really incomplete about it, as if I were starting the story in the middle and didn't have all the information I needed for everything to make sense.

If I were an editor, I would have required the author to have a prologue which shows us what happened to Kaylin 7 years ago and gives us a definition of the relationship between Kaylin and Severn. The first chapters are a total information overload without providing enough detail to really get to know the different races, social structure, or setting. When it came to picturing the characters in my mind, it was a total blank to me. Some kind of glossary/index would have been really useful when trying to figure out the definitions and identities of some of the characters.

Lastly, I didn't agree with the punctuation placements of commas and semi-colons in this novel. Their placement really interrupted the flow of how someone would really say that statement, and I found it highly distracting. I hope she improves on this in later books, but I won't be reading to find out.

This book was really frustrating to try to read, but as much as I love writing reviews, I don't always rely on the reviews of others when making a decision to read a book or pass on it. If I'd seen some of the reviews first, I probably would still have picked up the book.

The one thing this series has going for it is the really amazing covers. This book is a great example of why you shouldn't judge a book by its cover.

There are so many different races and factions in this book you would have to have photo graphic memory to remember who is apart of which one. There is also a lot of political background that needs to be taken into account for each faction. The series has huge potential it was just a pity it had such a confusing start as it would put a lot of people off finishing the 1st book.