Review: Unique Story!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 2, 2014
Book Review- Arash Vol. 1, The Shadow Hunt by Elke SchusterLivia’s life is not going as she wants.  She has to compete with her perfect step-sister.  Her boyfriend breaks up with her on Facebook.  She always deals with situations that make her uncomfortable by trying to be as invisible as she can.  She is disgusted with herself at times. She sees herself as weak but she can’t do anything about it.  She doesn’t fit in anywhere.  Little does she know that her life is about to change.The Arash, Randolph, Augustus, Will, Cassius, Ruth, Rupert, and Natalie, are on a shadow hunt looking for the newest member of their family.  A shadow appeared and they must search out the person who fits the shadow.  That person is to join their family and become Arash too.  They are beings of light.  They scatter to try and find that one person they are looking for.Natalie has a feeling Livia is the one the Arash are looking for.  She watches her for a while.  Then when she approaches Livia, Natalie instantly likes her and invites her to stay with her on New Year’s Eve.  They have a great time. As a result  Livia is introduced to the rest of the group.  She likes them, well most of them.  Cassius scares her and Ruth instantly doesn’t like her.  Rupert, however, has caught her eye.  He is sweet and funny.  Livia is happy to have them as her friends.  Everything is perfect, until Livia starts to notice some weird things about her friends.  They have no shadows, they are all rich, and they have these blue lights that appear in their eyes.  She pushes it from her mind because she fears she is going crazy like her mother.  She is happy but things aren’t as they seem.  Her new friends are keeping things from her.Ruth doesn’t want Livia to join the family and she tries to scare her away.  She almost succeeds but Livia returns.  Ruth tries everything but nothing works.  Apparently she will have to do something permanent.  Her actions almost destroy them both.When her human family tries to intercede and has Livia committed because they think she is crazy, Livia almost believes that Ruth has succeeded.  She doesn’t know if they will come for her during the next lunar eclipse.  She can only join them then.  She doesn’t know if she is strong enough to believe.This book took a while to get started for me.  It was very confusing at first.  However when the characters started coming together the story united in a more complete way instead of two parallel parts.Livia did drive me crazy.  As a main female character, she was weaker than I like.  I was glad to see her grow a backbone as the story evolved.  The story, itself, was very unique.  I liked the ending and can’t wait to read the next adventure these characters embark on.  I give it a 4 out of 5.