After reading the first book in The Talented series, Beauty and the Blade, last year, I absolutely fell in love with the world and I couldn’t wait to jump back in. Little Red Shadow not only met all my expectations, but far exceeded them. By adding to an already rich world, Little Red Shadow is a brilliant mix of old and new. There was a familiarity about the world that made it easy to jump right into the story and become immersed in the drama and hardship that immediately followed our lead, Scarlett.
Scarlett was strong, brave and clever from the very beginning. Her secrets and motivations were subtle enough that they left me guessing until the time for a proper reveal. Watching her growth as she learned to trust those who genuinely cared about her. Her relationship with the swoon worthy Benedict Pearce kept me invested from the first moment of banter. Their back and forth was perfectly done and resulted in a good deal of squealing and kicking my feet on my part.
The side characters did a great job of being supporting characters, helping our main characters move forward while not being annoying or distracting. The best parts of this book were our MCs, and the support characters did a great job supporting them.
Most of the book was impossible to put down, but the ending had me reading as fast as possible to find out what happened next. It has been a very long time since I have been so invested in the story and had that many favorite characters in a book.
5/5 stars for a book that is so wonderful that it won’t be long before a reread is in order.
⅗ Spicy
Thank you to SC Grayson for the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
The Novel Llama 