Winter's Shadow (Winter Saga #1)

by M.J. Hearle

Publication: 1st June 2011

Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia

Pages: 424

Genre: Fantasy/Paranormal

Age Appropriate: Young Adult

Blake Duchamp...

He's all that Winter Adams can think of. Ever since their fateful meeting at Pilgrim's Lament. Ever since he looked at her with those emerald eyes. Ever since he saved her life.

But Blake isn't all that he seems. There is a strangeness about him, something dark and otherworldly. Something dangerous. In his attic is a secret he would kill to defend, but Winter seems to have a special ability to make him forget his duty. And he is her only protection against the gathering darkness.

The only problem is, to protect Winter, Blake must risk exposing her to an even greater danger. Himself.

My Thoughts.

I absolutely loved this book, the concept isn't something that I've particularly read about before and that's what made this a quick and easy read that I simply did not want to put down, unfortunately things like work and sleep got in the way.

I loved that the author had you waiting till around about the halfway point of the book till you discovered who and what Blake was, and I was surprised it was an original idea that I've never come across in all the time that I've been reading this particular genre of books, and that's the genius of this book you don't want to put it down until you find out what's going on and kudos to the author for this.

Winter our heroine is taking photos in a rundown church for the school newspaper when she catches sight of a boy outside standing at a grave, after he notices her staring at him he disappears next thing Winter knows the roof starts to collapse and when she wakes up she finds herself outside with the the mysterious boy with the vivid green eyes.

He introduces himself as Blake and after giving her a lift home after her bike wouldn't start she finds out that he's just moved into town, into the house known as the most haunted house in all of Hagan's Bluff, mysterious as he is Winter can't stop thinking about him even days after, her best friend Jasmine tries to encourage her to go to his house and ask him out but is knocked back especially after he finds her inside his house when he wasn't there (Winter has the ability to open any locks just by touch), she finds a box of old diaries from the 1800's and a family portrait of a woman and her two children from the turn of the century, the boy in the portrait looks familiar but Winter can't quite put her finger on it.

I loved the glimpses into the past it added a bit more to the story and was really interesting, and you definitely are wanting Winter and Blake to get together in this book I love them as a couple, Jasmine is a lot of fun and we get introduced to a new boy at school Sam who at the mention of Blake really wants to meet him, and we find that Sam has a lot of secrets of his own.

The ending of this book was heartbreaking, the secret that Blake was keeping, the real reason that Sam was in Hagan's Bluff and the sacrifice at the end that was so sad that it just makes you want to get stuck into the next book straight away.

I give this 4.5/5.