Embraced by the Shadows
by Mayra Calvani
Published by Twilight Times Books(to come)
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Reviewed by Vanessa Lee
When she was ten Alana fell in love with a painting she saw in a bazaar in Istanbul. At the same time, someone else fell in love with her, though she wasn't even aware of his existence.
Twelve years later, Alana has just gotten the job that seems perfect for her, one that caters to her love of all things vampire, and she's sharing a wonderful apartment with her best friend. Life seems pretty good. Then she meets Sadash, the strangely familiar man who haunts her dreams and knows more about her than he should.
That is when things get complicated, for Sadash cannot only fulfill Alana's vampire fantasies, but he also holds the key to events in Alana's past that she would rather leave forgotten. When he forces her to examine them, he changes her life forever.
I found this book to be an enjoyable read, but slightly unbalanced. It seemed to take forever to establish characters and settings and in several of the earlier chapters, nothing really happened and several descriptions were repeated. Once the action started, however, it moved almost too fast, definitely keeping my interest, but making it seem as though it didn't quite fit with the first part.
Still, the characters and plot are intriguing, and once the action starts it's very exciting. I read the last half in one sitting because I needed to know what happened next and how it was all going to work out. I wasn't disappointed.
Though it is a vampire book, Embraced by the Shadows is not so dark that fans of the more lighthearted "paranormal romances" will be turned off, but neither is it so light and fluffy that fans of more traditional vampire fiction will be disappointed.
Armchair Interviews says: In Embraced by the Shadows, the author strikes a good balance between the two extremes and creates a pleasurable reading experience.