Shadow Town (Maggie Lane Chronicles, #1)

 

  

By day, nineteen-year-old Maggie Lane is property manager of Pearl Estates, a posh housing community owned by her father and occupied by Shadows. By night, she's a waitress at a local dive. When a girl at her night job disappears, she dives into Scooby mode. She might be able to handle a missing waitress on her own, but when a new Shadow moves in next door and turns her into a blushing, flirting, love-crazed girl, her need for answers unearths nightmares from her past and monsters of the here and now. It's possible her bad attitude might not be enough to carry her through.
New Adult paranormal romance Shadow Town is the first novel in the Maggie Lane Chronicles.

Review

****The author provided me with a copy of this book for my honest review****
Maggie is your typical nineteen year old girl, she manages the uber exclusive Pearl Estates that's owned by her alcoholic, abusive father and filled with people that she refers to as Shadows. There are a few regular humans who live in the community that she helps out financially by working in a skeevy bar because she refuses to touch her inheritance. Her life is turned upside down when a new Shadow moves in, then a waitress/friend goes missing, secrets from every ones past come out along with lies that change everything. What are the Shadows? Who took the waitress and why? Can Maggie figure all this out, deal with a new relationship and find the strength to get over the demons of her past? I absolutely loved this book, from the first pages I was hooked with Maggie's sassy sarcastic I don't give a crap exterior that hides this scarred girl with a protective streak a mile wide and a penchant for helping children. Maggie is different from the typical new adult/young adult heroine while yes most of the men in the story do lust/want her there is an actual reason for it, she is a beautiful girl with a good body, but she also has this great personality and is a fighter to the core. There are a lot of male characters in this story each one of them has a different and distinct personality that adds a little something to the story. My favorite ones were Damon and Branden, the love interest, and the best friend they were understanding of all Maggies quirks and just let her be whom she needed to be while at the same time offering her the support she did not know she needed. There is such a wide cast of characters in this book that I could on for a long time about each and every one of them; there are evil people, misguided people, crazy people, creepy bartenders, lots of Shadows, hot cops, teenagers and a sweet yet feisty grandma lady, plus more people each of them touched in someway by Maggie. I enjoyed getting to know all the different characters in this book, I loved how the author wrote them to have such stand out personalities that even as the story progressed you weren't confused, there could be a scene with half the characters in the room and I would not have to stop when one of them would speak and think "who is that again?" The beginning of the book was a bit slow because of the world building and then later on it slowed down again, I actually liked it this way because as I said before I liked the characters so for me it was nice to get to know them and then later on to see them be normal, well normal for them. My only problem with this book was the ending there was a cliffhanger, Ugh how I loathe the time between now and when the next book comes out, all I can say is Robyn write fast for the love of my sanity I don't even care if the book is edited when you send it to me just as long as I get my Maggie fix :)

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Soul Walker

  

I need to get you to the hospital." He was taking responsibility for me. Only my parents had that job. I stretched my hand out in protest, but the lack of depth perception had my trembling fingers grazing his overheated neck. I swore his whole body shook.
When five-year-old Anna Pierce is offered a chance to have nightmare-free nights for the small price of her voice, she jumps at it. Silence has to be better than all-consuming dreams about blood and death and fangy monsters. The bargain she strikes comes with a secondary benefit, visions of a person's future potential. The combination of visions and silence changes her very nature and soon she's diagnosed with autism. Twelve years of living in her head comes to a screeching halt the moment Peter Davis pulls her out of an icy river.
Her new life has her twirling, tiptoeing, and crashing through unfamiliar territory, one filled with a cranky grandma, a knocked up cousin, an unpleasant cousin, a bunch of mostly good vampires, and the boy who rescued her.
To top it all off, the deal she made at five is no more. Anna is expected to talk, to figure out her resurfacing nightmares, and to control her ever-growing powers. And she'd better get it done soon because if the good vamps want a piece of a living, breathing Touched girl, the evil ones simply want. They'll take Anna for their very own.

Review

****I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review****

When Anna was a young girl she had horrific nightmares, at five years old she is given a deal, no more nightmares if she stops talking. Anna keeps her end of the deal; she doesn't talk not even when her parents die on a rafting trip with her. She is rescued by a mysterious boy named Peter and has to move in with her Grandmother. Her nightmares come back, she has to start talking, deal with an off the wall family, finds out vampires do exist and they come in shades of gray. I really enjoyed this book and respect Robyn for inserting accurate and uncomfortable information in a book could have been just another YA vampire book. Anna is genuinely autistic, her parents have always been there to protect her and when they die she is left trying to find a way fit into society. You can tell that her Grandmother is uncomfortable and doesn't know how to react to Anna and while her cousin Betsy can have her catty moments her and Sara show that they love Anna. The rest of the characters in the story are mysterious, funny or just downright scary. The storyline was original and heartfelt. The writing itself was very good, the scenes fit together perfectly and the pace of the book was just right. My only problem with the book was some of the wording and terms used, it just didn't sit right with me and brought it from a solid five stars to four. Soul Walker is an original book that stands out in the growing sea of YA vampire books.

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