Shadow Hills, Anastacia Hopcus’ debut novel is intriguing to say the least. Fifteen year old, Persephone (Phe) heads off to a boarding school in Massachusetts in hopes of finding answers about her sister’s death.
A variety of strange events start to possibly shed some light on what happened to her sister, Athena but raise a million new questions in the process. These events lead Phe on a journey that doesn’t really lead to definite answers, but does take her down a path that allows her to deal with her grief, be able to connect with people again, and find love in a hot guy named Zach.
Hopcus does a brilliant job of creating suspense in this work that gets a bit darker than most paranormal romances, even scary in places. The plot is great with twists and turns the whole way. However, I felt some of the characters could have been better developed, especially Zach. He didn’t feel real to me. I didn’t even get a clear mental picture of him and he was the male protagonist! I also thought the dialogue felt stilted in places and that the author sometimes gave too much detail in places it wasn’t really required.
The plot was great, the premise brilliant. (There is much more to it than a girl going to find answers about her sister’s death and the supernatural elements aren’t the ones that you see over and over in this genre). I really liked this book, to love it some of the technical issues would have to be stronger, for me. Remembering this is debut, I think we can expect great things from Hopcus in the future.
P.s. –I researched but found no information on a sequel.
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