Helloooooo! It would appear that I took an unexpected Blog Break for the last fortnight or so – Real Life happened and I sort of totally forgot to turn the laptop on and write stuff down.

HOWEVER – I am excited to be back with a post as part of the Blog Tour for Ninian Carter’s book The Storm Of Shadows (Book 1 of the Billy Twigg Saga) which I have squeaked about in a couple of previous posts but now get to actually talk about it properly!

The Storm Of Shadows by Ninian Carter

Illustrated by: n/a

Translated by: n/a

Series: The Billy Twigg Saga, Book 1

Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Sci-Fi, Adventure

Where Did I Get It? I was sent a copy in return for an honest review in the blog tour.

Blurb:

DREAMS MAY COME TRUE. NIGHTMARES DO.

A ghastly veil of darkness is seeping slowly south from the Arctic Circle, choking the life out of the world beneath. It brings with it Typhon, a deranged abomination laying waste to any civilisation he finds. Thousands of people are dead. If he goes unstopped, millions more will follow. High school teen Billy Twigg is moments away from a death more horrific than anyone could possibly imagine. He has no recollection of how he’s come to be lying broken and exhausted in the demolished remains of a famous British landmark until a fraction of a second before he is to be killed. Then he remembers everything in a deluge of nightmarish memories that are too crazy to believe, yet too shattering to ignore. Could this unassuming young man really be Earth’s saviour?

Prepare to be enthralled by a genre-blurring page-turner that will leave you breathless with anticipation and begging to resolve the next cliffhanger!

Opening Line(s):

He was going to die.

Now.

Of that, he was pretty much certain.

My Review: I’m going to be honestly upfront about this – I liked the sound of the blurb but that cover? I’d never have picked it up.

Luckily the old adage held true here and the contents of the book were much better than the cover on the outside!

The Storm Of Shadows was fast-paced and exciting, easy to read and compulsive. I particularly liked Billy’s character because he was my favourite kind of ‘hero’ – one who hasn’t got a clue what’s going on and doesn’t suddenly, magically know how to do all the things and just accepts everything when it gets weird.

He resists the weird. He entertains it, because he thinks he is dreaming for a lot of it at first, but when stuff starts getting more real – he struggles. He doesn’t suddenly become an Action Hero, he’s still a teenager who has a crush on the girl over the road and gets picked on by the school idiots – he gets stuff wrong, he lets his heart rule his head (sometimes that’s a good thing!) and he is far from indestructible. This made the whole book better, I think, than a lot of others. Nothing bugs me more than an apparently average person getting dragged into an alternate universe and them just accepting it and magically knowing how to use a broadsword. (There are no broadswords involved in The Storm Of Shadows I must add, that was just me ranting!)

The characters on a whole are varied and entertaining, Sal had me chuckling on more than one occassion and Typhon was super creepy.

I enjoyed it being an Earth-based Sci-fi adventure, too. There was plenty of space and galactic travelling but most of the action was on Earth and I liked the familiar mixed with the unfamiliar. It is somewhat more alarming when the city being destroyed by forces of evil is one that you know.

It was a pretty quick read and, I think, easily accessible even to readers who don’t usually go in for sci-fi (and good fun for those who do!) – I’d say it was suitable for readers aged 11+ but it was perfectly enjoyable for me and I’m 30!

Looking forward to book 2!

My Rating: 4/5*

I really enjoyed reading The Storm Of Shadows and am thankful to have been able to take part in the Blog Tour. Let me know if you grab a copy!

 Sound like your kind of read?

Order a copy of The Storm Of Shadows:  Paperback £9.49/Kindle £3.61

(Affiliate Amazon Link. Prices correct at time of writing)