***Huge thank you goes out to Net Galley for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review***

Happy first book review of 2019! How is it that I already feel behind in accomplishing my book reading goals for this year? But at the very least I get to kick off this reading season with not only a fantasy novel, but one I actually enjoyed!

No, The Shadow Kingdom by C.J. Inskon isn’t perfect, but what it gets right is pretty spectacular. The synopsis and idea behind the story is what draws many in. Heck it’s what drew me in and though the details are murky and jumbled especially when it comes to the magic system, had these things been addressed I think the book would have been even greater. From here I think the only thing the author can do is push forward with the series and hopefully fill in those details and small plot holes in order for the series to end on a high note.

Elliott West – She is the current in a long line of Watchers. Her family are the ones who stand on top of a lighthouse facing an ocean canal called the barrier strait that leads to the Kingdom of the Shadow Lands; a place were a curse is said to have fallen causing all color to be drained from the world. Plants, animals, people, nothing has color. This supposedly happened over three hundred years ago and the fear still is that someone from the Shadow Kingdom will attempt to get to Elliott’s world of color, presumably causing the curse to spread and her job is to basically sound the alarm if that should happen. Yet, in those three hundred years no one has tried.

GOOD POINT: I like that the first setting we see is a pseudo modern world. Though the place is clearly made up by Inkson, we can assign our own version of our own modern world on top of it, which is a nice way of making it relatable.

Despite the fact that her family’s job has become obsolete, Elliott or Eli, insists that she will be the next Watcher while her friends leave their small town to go to college; onto bigger and better things allegedly. While having a sort of mini reunion with said friends Eli is kidnapped by a clan of Thor people from the Shadow Kingdom (The clan names in this book are not easy to pronounce or spell so I’m just going to do my best) who believe her to be blessed by the color gods and they believe she can restore their color. They want to eat her basically.

This is where the story introduces the reader to a dark and mysterious, yet strangely staggeringly attractive man like character. His name is Tren and for reasons it seems he’s not even fully aware of, he helps Eli escape the Thor people. They manage to get to the next town of Yrike, I believe that’s what it’s called. Anyway, Tren has them stay in a seemingly abandoned cottage at the edge of the city and then promptly disappears to run “errands” leaving Eli to her own devices. But before he leaves he makes a hard demand that she remain inside the cottage until he returns. Of course because we want to see Eli as a strong character she refuses to listen and leaves the cottage.

GOOD POINT: I am glad Inkson tried to make Eli strong. However, to me she came off as more whiny and like a brat at times. Granted I fully supported her leaving that cottage because dude was gone all day and he gave her zero information as to what was happening. Trust for a stranger only goes so far my dude even if you did help her escape. Anyway, I think Eli’s character needed some tweaking, but I can appreciate what Inkson was trying to accomplish with her.

Of course because she steps a single freaking foot outside she is immediately kidnapped by a guy who I assume is a disgraced cop trying to prove himself still capable even though it is clear he is waaaaaay past his prime. Eli is delivered to the Duke. According to the ant size amount of information Tren was willing to share we understand the Duke to “not be a nice guy” when in reality, he’s simply an opportunist. I mean lets be real, he seized his moment and in a way got a nice deal out of the interaction.

Tren and Eli bumble along through the foreign terrain getting captured yet again, this time by a Brazilian like clan of people. We don’t ever learn what they would have done to them, the implication is of course death, but we really don’t know. This is because the Thor clan miraculously catches up to them and attacks the Brazilians in order to get Eli back. They manage that for a while until the Brazilians retaliate and Eli is able to crawl away only to be stopped by one of the Brazilians and gets stabbed. I presume the idea is this was going to be the outcome even if the Thor people never showed up, but I don’t buy it. The guy was pissed because they had nabbed these people that lead this other clan to attack them. I’d want to stab her too.

She ex machinas her way out of that predicament by being saved by yet another clan, this one of magicians. She asks about Tren and they say she is the only one they found, but he’s more than likely alive because he is a Mimir (Basically he’s hard to kill). This is enough of a reason for her to declare that she alone will go back into Brazil and rescue him.

GOOD POINT: I liked that she was willing to go back and rescue Tren. This alone showed that Eli was a strong character. But then I felt the author spoiled that by having her whine during basically all of her solo adventure and then wait four days, yeah FOUR DAYS, to actually go into the camp and get Tren’s butt out of there. Come on Eli, that was ridiculous and such a waste of time! You said you wanted to get home as quickly as possible, how did this help you?

Another side quest happens that really served no purpose other than to set up the romance between Eli and Tren. The beginning of the book teeters on the brink of this, but doesn’t come crashing down with full force until this moment. It was lack luster in my opinion. If you are going to pen the trope of insta-love you may as well go whole hog. Yeah, they’ve known each other longer than most YA couples (A whole two weeks!) but still, you either have a nice slow burn or you do a sleazy lust fest, when your story lands somewhere in the middle it can become stilted with no excitement or tension. This is what I felt when I realized that was where the love story was headed.

They reach their destination (finally) and low and behold [SPOILER] Tren was lying the entire time. I knew this pretty early on, but I thought “all right, lets have fun and give him the benefit of the doubt” nope. Though his reasons are honorable, he still pretty much sells her to the highest bidder (as she loving puts it) while he is haggling the price for her. This results in heartbreak of the weakest kind.

I felt for her, but the way she reacted was strange to me. She did act like a woman betrayed by her true love, but instead acted like a teenager who realized that her crush asked someone else to prom when she was certain he was going to ask her. It didn’t ring true as a “true love” situation. Granted, I’m just speculating, but I get the feeling Inkson was wanting readers to buy into Eli and Tren being really in love. It was hard to feel that fully the way it was presented.

Once Tren gets what he wants, he leaves and she is now the Queen’s prisoner, but wait! Suddenly her two best friends (you know the ones I mentioned way in the beginning of this? yeah those two) they magically show up having learned the ins and outs of this foreign land easy peasy and rescue Eli. I’m glad that Inkson established that these two characters went off to college otherwise I would have no choice but to label Eli a simple country bumpkin who couldn’t handle anything new. And this is the cliff hanger we end on.

As far as the writing, it was solid and I enjoyed where the story could potentially go. Despite my lack of enthusiasm of the characters I didn’t not like them. I just think they can definitely be improved upon. For example, it is possible for a male character to come across as mysterious, but not hold back vital information in order for the female to fully understand her situation. I realize he ends up betraying her, but there were things that would have been alright to tell her so as not to have her go bumbling around and getting kidnapped all the time. At what point do you just give in and tell her certain things? Come on man.

I’ve already expressed my issues with Eli.

The other thing that was hard to ignore. The blatant lack of consistency with the setting and magic system Inkson created. I realize these are the author’s creations, but having things flow is important for believability. If your world is devoid of color, you can’t see the silver or gold of the walls, so you won’t be able to tell that that is what they are. You can’t see beautiful light hitting off of anything because all there is is white and black and sometimes shadow. Black absorbs light and if any light hit the white bits, you would be blind. And then the author straight up says that something is silver. I get that gray could exist here, but not silver. Nope.

As for the magical system, that was all over the place. There is magic, but it is only used by magicians and Mimirs (as far as we know). One taps into something called the wellspring, which we learn is where the curse is from, and the other uses runes. Since the magicians weren’t a big part of this novel, their magic didn’t get toyed with as much, but oh my goodness, the runes. I felt like whenever Inkson needed something a certain way she just invented a new rune for it. I get it, it’s easy to do that, but oh so lazy and sloppy too. The cloak thing really bothered me and it really didn’t make sense either.

I think these are things that would have been and should have been easily caught by an editor or even a beta reader. I think the next time around Inkson should have someone read it and just ask, “if there’s no color how does this work?” until all those flaws are fixed. And I think it would be best to draft an outline of the magic system so as not to make your readers confused about the parameters.

In the end I actually did like this book and I fully intend to see where the series goes.

BAD POINT: How can you live in a world without purple!?

4 Out of 5 Stars

My first point of contention - this book is horribly formatted. Perhaps it's because it is an ARC, but the line structure was really difficult to read, so that was this book off to a bad start. 

The prose is...fine, I guess. I don't hold prose to be particularly important to me with regard to enjoying a read, I am fine with simple prose that just does the job, but man, this author definitely used two adjectives when none would have done. To pick a quote from early in the book:

Dark clouds had moved in, the sun setting beneath them, sinking fast into the sea, glittering gold and bronze across the water. The sea was still relatively calm, rising and falling in slow swells beyond the break, waves crashing against the shore in steady, rhythmic beats.

That is a long time spent describing the view. In many aspects of my life, I believe that more is more, but with regard to purple prose, less, much less, is needed. 

I literally could not have cared less about Elliot/Eli/our protagonist. I don't really think she had any personality at all. She is very passive and doesn't take any action the entire book. She's *special* though. Super special. (picture me rolling my eyes here). 

We have Tren, the main love interest, which is basically his entire personality. Literally, every trope that you're thinking of, applies to these two. She sees him, and *gasp*, he rescues her and is mysterious all over the place, and *spoilers* they get together. 

There are two tribes in this book, the Lojkin, and the Rajkin. I disliked the portrayal of both - I think if an author is going to touch upon the 'primitive tribe' trope, they should reallllly watch out to ensure it's not offensive. This was...pretty offensive. 

It's fine. The book is fine. I've read worse, but also a whole heap of things much better. In the oversaturated market of YA novels, it needs to better than this. 

All in all, when I was reading this I was thinking that this was probably the first book that this author has written and that it suffers from baby author syndrome, and/or it needed a better editor. After finishing, it turns out that this is C J Inksons fourth book on Goodreads, and all of them published in late 2018. Perhaps she would do better writing one book well rather than four poorly. This book, by all means, isn't abysmal, it's just not very good, and ultimately you can find many, many books with this plot, and these characters. The world building around the lack of colour was minimal and ultimately didn't pay off anything particularly special. 

The Shadow Kingdom by C J Inkson -

An interesting story about a world without color in a cursed kingdom. While reading the book I was reminded of the stark beauty of Ansel Adams famed photographs.

I enjoyed the book and the main characters, Tren and Eli —but their personalities and relationship could be developed more. As much as I liked the book, the ending was abrupt and a bit disappointing. Maybe if the reader were aware of other events leading up to the end— interjected throughout the story, instead of being told of weeks of events in a few paragraphs, it would’ve brought the end to a better closure.

The Shadow Kingdom is a hard book for me to review because the first half is so different from the second half.
The story follows a sentry named Eli, who lives in a color world near the border of the cursed black and white shadowlands. One night she is kidnapped and brought into the shadowlands and begins a long journey to get back home.
I loved the world building. Inkson does a good job blending old world black and white with new world color. The different kingdoms and their separation made sense. The different clans and races felt really original and I had fun learning about them through the story.
The first half was action packed and fast paced. It was interesting and I wanted to see how everything came together.
The second half switched tones into heavy angst and whiny tones. Suddenly Eli went from sympathetic and compelling, to jealous and crazy. The journey home stopped being important and Eli's interest in Tren became the only plot point.
Once we're in girly land, we stay there until she is rescued and the reader is subjected to a full chapter of exposition about characters we have no connection to and have no interest. It was a convenient ending that did not feel true to the story.

1.5 stars. Where are all these 5 star ratings coming from on Goodreads, and did we read the same book? Because this was a hot freakin mess.

There were some things about this storyline that I found really interesting. I liked the concept of a land that has lost its color due to a curse or unknown magic. And I think the story had slight potential.

If you are looking for a really different fantasy read, you aren't going to get that with The Shadow Kingdom. This has your classic troupe of characters, the beautiful unknowing, smart, strong female MC who is the snowflake. The male "side kick" who is undeniably hot, mysterious, sometimes and asshole, sometimes not. Then there is the obvious romance that is going to blossom between the two, only to end with some sort of plot twist. The story mainly revolves around them with the exception of the beginning and the end.

I wasn't expecting a paranormal read for this. Eli's job doesn't make sense in a world that might have technology. There was mention of cars and electricity but no phones, so it was hard to pinpoint Eli's world. So when she is thrown in the land of no color (it's almost like a reverse Wizard of Oz in that concept), I am still struggling to understand what kind of world she is in there. From what we learn about the curse, it has been around for a century or more. We go from a modern world to a straight up fantasy world that has magic and no technology. At least I think? The world building had so much potential and was on the cusp of something...but I think got muddled. Also we got a lot of history and context through Eli and it was rather confusing because this land is new to her so how does she know all of this historical stuff. Made no sense.

The characters were forgettable. Eli was suppose to be in her early 20s but she acted like a 15 year old girl. She was so dramatic and whinny. I didn't understand her role in her world. It sounded like she was suppose to be this nordic badass woman watcher...but in a land with technology, why do you need wall watchers? She just seemed sub par compared to her friends who had left for college and made something more of themselves. Inkson made it sound like Eli was born to be a Watchman, but it didn't make sense. Eli also cried a lot. And there is nothing I had more than a female MC who cries constantly but in the next line we are told they are so strong minded and willed. I am fine with a good cry, but when they start to shed tears over everything...gosh...I just can't anymore.

Tren is dull. He has the whole mysterious thing going for him, but he is otherwise just as forgettable as Eli. We learn very little about him and his life and his people. Instead he broods most of the time. Just like Eli, he is also a snowflake. Someone important and powerful but we never learn why. Also his magic made no sense and it's rules kept changing. He was reluctant to give away runes but knew they would wear off anyways...so why is he reluctant if he knows that is going to happen. Also his cloak goes from being able to do one thing to now a few different things, that make absolutely no sense. I have no clue how it works at all.

I don't really understand who the bad guys are either. Is it the Lojkin who desperately want her back in order to sacrifice her? The Rajkin don't give af if she lives or dies or who she is. And this Queen, we have no idea what she wants other than using Eli to break the curse. Also I wanted to know more about the Lojkin and Raykin. Who are they, what is their history, why did they become who they are, what we did get was a bit confusing and didn't make sense. Also if the Mimir people are all powerful and magical, how the heck did they get enslaved.

That convenient rescue ending made no sense whatsoever. So her friends just happened to have also made it alive to this land, and learned to navigate things and somehow were able to track her down, oh and somehow managed to break her out of the cell she was in. Yeaaaa, okayyyyyyyy.

I don't know that I would recommend this to anyone. With some better editing, better world building, better character development, this has the potential to be something so much more interesting.
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It starts in the world of color, Eli is kidnapped away from it to be brought over to the Shadow Cursed kingdom, a land that 300 years ago lost its color and lives in black and white.

This book started slow, then was fast paced for a while and started to bring the two main characters together. When I was at 90% the story comes to a plot twist where Eli realizes that she is more important than she knew.
At this point I knew this would go into a second book and was just reading to end it...well at 96% there is another change in events and ends abruptly. That threw me off.
We will see what happens when the second book comes out.

I received this ebook copy from the publisher and NetGalley for an honest review.

The Shadow Kingdom is a fast paced, eclectic construction of comparisons. The contrast between a world of colour with a world in B&W, conincides with the building of character - particularly the character relationships with others and themselves. Very interesting - and not overplayed concept.

This started off as a story with an interesting concept. However, I think this falls a bit into the delivery hole - the idea is great, the execution could be explored. Despite that, I enjoyed reading about a world without color and the lengths people who go to protect color - it portrayed how beautiful and important color was to our lives.

Imagine a land where all the color was sucked out, leaving its people with shades of black and white. Many years ago, a Shadow Curse was cast on an island, draining it of its color and leaving the people alone and in the dark.
Elliot West comes from a line of Watchman, tasked with keeping watch in case there is any sign of the Shadow Curse spreading into her homeland. It has been centuries, and no watchman has spotted anything.
That is until Eli is kidnapped and brought to the Shadow Kingdom.
Omigod I really enjoyed this book. It was a bit confusing at first but soon turned into an addictive read that I couldn’t put down.
I loved Eli’s character growth throughout the story. At first, she was scared and helpless with no real backbone. I got annoyed at her easily. As the plot went on and she was faced with more challenges, she became a stronger version of herself.
The book has you guessing until the very end! I honestly didn’t see it coming which is rare for me. I really enjoyed CJ’s descriptive writing and can’t wait for the next book!

Thank you NetGalley for this wonderful Ebook!

Fresh and different, The Shadow Kingdom is an engrossing way to spend a snowy afternoon snuggled under a blanket with hot cocoa by your side.

We start in todays modern world, on an island called Tallon, where our heroine Elliot (who goes by Eli, please!) goes on a day outing with a couple of friends. Eli is one of a long list of generational Watchmen keeping an eye on the straits that separate her island country from the Shadow Lands, a fabled evil place that is completely devoid of all color. Eli falls asleep as she and her friends lie on aeach in front of a cave. She wakes to a hand holding a wet cloth to her face as she loses consciousness, and we are off on our adventure!


This tale has everything; exotic lands and people, bad guys and good guys, royalty and peasants, and a handsome mysterious stranger. The action is continuous and the excitement keeps you turning the page until well after you should have gone to bed. Everyone is a fascinating character that you want to know more about, but the story keeps things moving along, and that's ok too.


Satisfying surprises, eye-brow raising twists and turns, right up until the absolutely ho-hum ending, which was a bit of a disappointment considering the rest of this wonderful book. Will it stop me from pining for the sequel? Not a chance. I'm eagerly waiting...

Elliot West stands vigil as watchman on the lookout for signs the Shadow Curse may be spreading across the Barrier Strait to her small northern isle. But in all the centuries since the curse was cast, no one, including Eli has seen a thing and even she is beginning to wonder if it’s all some grand hoax.