Shadow Reaper (Shadowlands Series Book 1) by Amos Cassidy is an incredible book that had me right away. It is a fantasy that is full of twists, turns, and lots of surprises. It is not for teens, this is an adult book! It has monsters, mysteries, action, adventure, it does have sex and implied sex, (but nothing overboard), there are demon like creatures or angels? A mystery indeed. I liked this book a lot and can't wait to start book two. The plot was great and the characters were well developed. The end was complete but left opening for sooo many possibilities for many directions and many books to come, can't wait! ( )

(A free copy was received for review after nominating this book during its Kindle Scout run)

Genre : Urban Fantasy in an initially post-apocalyptic/survival/horror setting. New Adult or Adult audience ? Not romance though there's a fair number of sexual encounters, near-encounters and hints of attraction including some F/F and M/M, usually doesn't linger on description though relevant body parts are plainly named.

Narrated in the past tense with two point of view/protagonists, the female main one in first person, the secondary one her twin brother in third person.

Some catastrophe about 20 years ago brought Earth in contact with other worlds with disastrous results. Pockets of humanity hide from assorted horrors and survive in a devastated landscape, the protagonists' own community of about 500 hides in an underground shelter that is increasingly failing. The heroine is a Reaper, a member of those teams that go to the surface to scavenge and occasionally need to fend off or run from monsters.

I liked the initial setting and the set of characters, almost all of them are however made no longer very relevant about half-way through, as in a last-ditch effort to find supplies the heroine pushes beyond limits she was until then forbidden to cross, and stumbles into the beginnings of hints and answers about the nature of the catastrophe, and that of the denizens of those other worlds. And becomes a fairly pampered piece of fresh meat in mostly posh surroundings, drawing a lot of attention because of an unique supernatural ability she develops rather than her by now hopelessly outclassed natural badassery. While not particularly badly done, this second half definitely no longer had the atmosphere that led me to nominate the book. ( )