Blog Tour: Shimmer, by Paula Weston

Title: Shimmer (The Rephaim #3)
Author: Paula Weston
Publication Date: March 8, 2016
Genre: Fantasy

Gaby thought her life couldn't get more complicated.

She's almost used to the idea that she's not the teenage backpacker she thought she was. She can just about cope with being one of the Rephaim--a 139-year-old half-angel--whose memories have been stolen. She's even coming to grips with the fact that Jude, the brother she's mourned for a year, didn't die at all.

But now Rafa--sexy, infuriating Rafa--is being held, and hurt, by Gatekeeper demons. And Gaby has to get the bitterly divided Rephaim to work together, or Rafa has no chance at all.

4 Stars

Thank you Tundra Books for sending me a copy of this book for review!

I've been completely smitten with The Rephaim series since I first read Shadows back in 2013. Mind you, I had been going through a very painful books-about-angels phase, so you'd think I wouldn't still like this series. Perhaps not unexpectedly, my love for this series has not dwindled one bit, and I found myself enjoying this book far more than others I've been reading as of late.


Shimmer starts off with our snarky, fierce protagonist Gaby, who is just as likable and just as admirable as ever. She has grown considerably from the first book, and her character development really has been very intriguing to follow. She has just enough cheekiness in her to make her interesting, and just enough logic to prevent me from pulling my hair out of frustration. And trust me, many characters have made me want to pull my hair out from their sheer stupidity.

At the beginning of the novel, there's a handy-dandy list of characters which divides them into their corresponding sides: the Rephaim and the Outcasts. Thank god for this list, because there are so many characters that I would have been confused for a majority of the novel. I think this can be considered one of the weaknesses of this series as a whole--the fact that there was just too many characters that were important to the plot that many of them came off as flat and undeveloped. I found it hard to care about many of them, to be frank.

Much like Gaby, I demanded answers, and although everything pertaining to the Rephaim is still a bit fuzzy, I can see the puzzle pieces slowly coming into place. I appreciate the subtle way in which Paula is detailing this world for us, as opposed to merely throwing all the answers at us.  

While the pacing is more on the slow side compared to the other novels, I quite enjoyed the build up between fights, the heartbreak, and the tension and struggle and angst the characters were forced to endure. (Not that I'm a sadist or anything.) The writing vividly captures these sufferings succinctly, and illustrates the tone of the book very well.

I fairly enjoyed this well-anticipated thriller of a novel. I do not regret at all getting emotionally invested into the world of the Rephaim, and I don't think I will ever be able to abandon this series. Paula, I consider your third installment in this series to be a success.