Review – Shadow of Doubt by Hailey Edwards

Shadow of Doubt by Hailey Edwards
Series: Potentate of Atlanta #1
Genres: UF, Magic
Pages: 259
Format: eBook
Goodreads

Hadley Whitaker is a liar, a killer, and a chocoholic, but she’s getting better about the first two. Or maybe she’s just getting better at them.

Some days it’s hard for her to tell fact from fiction, but only one truth matters. Goddess willing, she’s going to be the next Potentate of Atlanta. Even if it means playing nice with Midas Kinase, a shifter whose mysterious past might just be grimmer than her own.

When a bloodthirsty rogue begins hunting the city’s paranormals, Hadley ropes Midas into letting her work the case. But that rope starts to feel more like a noose as they come closer to discovering not only the rogue’s identity, but each other’s darkest secrets.

necromancer, uf, secret-identity, shapeshifter, demons, vampires, fairys, part-of-a-series, strong-female-charcter, previous-trauma, secrets, redeemable-character, law-enforcement, pack, first-pov

FTC : I bought this book. I also own the audio.

Content Warning : Previous abuse of a main character.

I should warn you that this is a spin-off from the Necromancer series by Hailey Edwards. You can totally read it as a standalone but, you won’t understand the backstory of Hadley. And really, I think you need to understand Hadley for this plot to work.

Hadley is new to the city of Atlanta. The trainee Potentate, she has been given the opportunity to get away from the tragic consequences of the terrible decisions of her past but, there is a catch – she can never go home again. She has taken on a new identity, one which she must protect at all cost, whilst dealing with the murderous wraith she has bound to herself. She can never tell anyone what she has done and must keep everyone at a distance to ensure her secrets never come out. If it was only that easy…

When an unknown supernatural starts killing other supernaturals in the area, Hadley is thrown up against the Beta of the gwyllegi pack Midas. She has to play nice but, something about her seems to rub him up the wrong way. She has to be careful and keep him at arms length because, although he doesn’t know it, they’ve met before in her previous life. He knows her secrets but, he doesn’t know he does – and he can never find out. But, Midas is broken too, has his own set of secrets. He carries scars that will never heal.

She cannot reveal her past and working together seems to be a bad idea. But, as the murder rate rises, they must continue to hunt the perpetrator as a team … what could go wrong?

The world building within this book is absolutely fabulous. A magical, class based world where the supernaturals police each other via the Potentate, I was hooked from the first sentence. I thought it was particluary clever that, although this is set in the same world, it is a completely different angle and that made it even more fun. I have to say that I enjoy this world slightly more than the Greer world and Hadley is rapidly becoming a favourite.

The main draw of this book is the characters which is great because it is written from Hadley’s POV. I enjoyed being in her head, which surprised me as, in the Greer world, she came across poorly with her choices being terribly selfish and unintentionally tragic. The Hadley we get here is determined to own her mistakes, realise the incredibly opportunty she is given to move past them and be a better person. I believed in her. It helped that I genuinely believed that her original intentions were selfish, but not evil, and I believed that the consequences for her were high. She has to remain isolated from her loved ones, can’t make genuine relationships with anyone new and still has to lug around the creepy Wraith Ambrose (I love that Wraith … I love that he behaves for chocolate as I totally relate).

Although I liked Hadley, I adored Ford and I will rave about this man. Ford is put in place as the pack liason for the POA office. He is flirty, charming, protective and utterly wonderful … I loved watching their relationship develop as he brought out a good side to Hadley. I feared for his heart though ..

Midas is a man who is living half a life. To be honest, he was a little boring yet gruff. He works for the pack, in a role he was born into and doesn’t want, without ever engaging properly with the other members of the pack. His Mother makes him go on a different date each week with a pack female (most of the females are made to go on the date too!) and he suffers through it without ever opening himself up to the possibility of wanting more for himself. Then he meets Hadley. She challenges him, irritates him and, unlike everybody else, doesn’t seem to understand that he is damaged. He can’t help but be drawn.. (PS the end is just swoon-worthy). He fascinates me as a character as there is just so much we don’t know….

The suspense plot is a classic who-dunnit. Bodies keep appearing but, they can’t figure out who or why … and they really need to. Learning about the Potentate world and their processes was so much fun and really kept me reading.

I loved this first instalment and I genuinely cannot wait to read more.