Shadow Boxer by Jen Greyson

Illustrated by: N/A

Series: Alterations (Book #2)

Published: Alexander Cole Publishing Group, 7th January 2014

Edition: eBook

Narrated By: N/A

Length: 301 pages

Genre: Adult, New Adult, Science Fiction, Time Travel, Fantasy

Where Did I Get It? Kindly received for review from Jen Greyson

Summary (from Goodreads): Fatigued from her latest mission where sleep was only a fleeting blip in time, Evy Rivera will see no reprieve. Urgently, she must again travel back in time to ancient Rome. Now, she’s tasked with saving her lover’s daughter before Evy’s misogynistic mentor ensures the girl’s death. Worse, Evy must push aside her heart-wrenching desire to reconnect with Constantine to focus on her task.

Every step draws Evy deeper into the mysteries and lies surrounding her lightning rider ability. Once her assignment in Rome is complete, she’s ripped away from Constantine and hurled through infinity. Evy’s warring mentors send her on a far different mission. With nowhere to turn, she must align herself with the man who despises her in order to befriend Nikola Tesla and keep his patents out of the FBI’s clutches. But her heart aches for Constantine. Will she be able to push her feelings aside and complete the alteration before it’s too late?

Opening Line(s):

Based on the last two, I’m getting an increasingly bad taste for Tuesdays.

~

My Review:

Shadow Boxer throws you headfirst back into Evy’s topsy-turvy world with barely a moment to catch your breath. Following on from where Lightning Rider left off, Jen Greyson takes us off on another adventure through time taking twists I completely hadn’t seen coming at all.

I love the relationship between Evy and Constantine and how it both changes and remains the same despite the Alterations in time that Evy has made and makes. Their hot and cold frustration with the uncontrolability of Evy’s time travel is almost perfect – a very human response that grounds the crazy storyline as well as the two characters. I can’t wait to see where the next book takes them and I really hope it’s to a happy ending because they are one of my favourite fictional couples.

Shadow Boxer takes us back to the time of Nikola Tesla and the love that has gone into creating his character was stunning. Even as someone who only knew the bare basics about him from GCSE and AS-level physics, I could tell lots of research had been done to make his character true to life (obviously with some time-line tweaks for the story) and this just shone through. The whole storyline around Tesla was exciting and intriguing and I shared Evy’s wonder and respect for his inventions and discoveries.

The playout of story between Evy, Ilif and Penya was fantastic too. At the end of Lightning Rider you felt like you had it all figured out and then BANG  you get two-thirds of the way through Shadow Boxer and you’re back to not having a clue where anyone stands. The twists thrown in are clever and I love how carefully everything is entwined and how pieces are falling into place bit by bit.

It’s a proper ‘You can’t just stop there!’ ending as well, it’s going to be a frustrating wait for the next book to solve that cliffhanger! I demolished Shadow Boxer in just two days because I couldn’t put it down. The first book in the Alterations series was good, but the second is even better.

My Rating: 5/5*

You can read an extract from Lightning Rider, the first book in this series here if you want a sneak peak before you buy. I recommend giving the series a go – it’s good fun!