Allen Houston

Deceptively smooth read with an interesting world, great characters and plenty of creep. It ends on a major cliffhanger, so I played it safe and ordered both books 2 & 3 right after I finished.

If ever a horror story could be described as delightful, this is it. A seamless segue from the first book, this grabbed me immediately and added me to both the Dusk Riders and the staff at Blackwood so I could feel a part of every scary moment of action. Anyone loving a full-on creepfest should get book one, then dive into this with the third book (I'm 100 pages into that)at hand so they're ready to continue the tale. One of the best middle books I've ever read.

While Nightfall Gardens is a very different story, many of its elements reminded me of the Chimera books by Phil Gomm, which is why I classify it as Cozy Horror. In addition to this, one of the characters, Deiva, instantly made me think of Miss Havisham from Charles Dickens' Great Expectations. On top of that, the Blackwood family curse begins with the Greek myth about Pandora, and Lily Blackwood, who is primarily affected by the curse, isn't perfect. Her character flaws become apparent show more right from the start, and she makes mistakes. She makes the kind of mistakes that almost get her killed several times. Suffice it to say, I enjoyed this book.

My one problem with it, however, is that it just ends. There's no cliffhanger or any other event to make a good stopping point for the 1st book in a series. To make it worse, the story has only just begun. It's really more of an introduction than anything else, and there's still so much that is left unknown. In other words, there's no real resolution to anything. Had I read this first book when it was originally published, I would have had to wait to read the 2nd book. Chances are, I wouldn't have bothered, because, while the story is great, I'm not invested in it yet. I'm not left worrying about what might happen. A cliffhanger isn't necessary to cause that feeling, but there needs to be some kind of ending that makes me want to pick the next book up.

Luckily for me, and any of you who haven't yet read the book, the 2nd and 3rd books are available. We don't have to wait. Like a 2nd episode of a never before watched TV show on Netflix, I'll likely read at least the 2nd book, not because it demands to be read, but because it's available, and why not? It has the potential to be even better than the 1st, since the story can get under way now that the introductions have been made. I recommend giving Nightfall Gardens a chance. It's not a long book, and so, if you decide it's not worth continuing, you've only lost a couple hours of time. I don't think you'll feel that way, though. If it weren't for the ending, I would give the book 5 stars. show less

Having previously read The Nightfall Gardens trilogy by Allen Houston and enjoyed them immensely, I was really keen to read his new release. The Nightfall trilogy, being dark fantasy, fit nicely into the fantasy genre but this new one is a bit different. The Shadow Of All Things is a mix of fantasy, urban fantasy and sci fi but at the same time is set in the real world as we know it.

The opening chapter drew me in right away. You won't find that slow drawn out character introduction and world show more building that you come across all too often in fantasy here. Instead the reader is thrown right into the action from the very start and it's consistent throughout the whole book. There's always something happening and the characters on both sides, good and evil, are well written.

The characters cross into multiple parallel universes that really capture the imagination. The characters in these universes feel very Alice in wonderland: strangely dressed, quirky, creepy but also larger than life in terms of appearance. Although these characters were predominantly on the evil side, and as a reader we hate to like the bad guys, I have to say that these characters really appealed to me. I enjoyed the vivid descriptions and the visuals the writing created in my mind.

I have to say though that I much preferred The Nightfall trilogy over this one but that's more of a personal preference thing as dark fantasy is something I enjoy more than urban fantasy. It was still a 4 star read though and definitely one I would recommend. It was unique and fun and I'm looking forwards to the next instalment. show less