Book Review: Shadows by Paula Weston

Title:  Shadows
Author:  Paula Weston
File type:  paperback
Release date:  January 3rd, 2013
Genre:  NA, paranormal romance, angels

Love. Nightmares. Angels. War. A fast-paced, compelling debut novel from a fresh new voice in YA.
It’s been almost a year since Gaby Winters was in the car crash that killed her twin brother, Jude. Her body has healed in the sunshine of Pandanus Beach, but her grief is raw and constant.
It doesn’t help that every night in her dreams she kills demons and other hell-spawn. And then Rafa comes to town. Not only does he look exactly like the guy who’s been appearing in Gaby’s dreams, he claims a history with her brother that makes no sense.
Gaby is forced to accept that what she thought she knew about herself and her life is only a shadow of the truth – and that the truth is more likely to be found in the shadows of her nightmares.
Who is Rafa? Who are the Rephaim? And most importantly – who can she trust?

I started reading this book last year, when it first came out but when I found out it's coming out in paperback in 2013 set it aside even though I read 60%. And I had to read it from the start when I finally got it, which I didn't mind since it was engaging from the start. 

Shadows is a story about Gaby Winters who's been dreaming about killing demons since her brother lost his head in a car crash, only to find out those aren’t only dreams, but reality. She turned her nightmares into a story which brought Raffa into her life. Raffa is a Rephaim, a descendant of horny angels. He tells Gaby she is also a Rephaim, only on other, good side.  But Gaby is not buying it until some other Rephaim come and snatch her best friend Maggie. This sort of reminded me of Angelfall, when those angels took Page from Pennryn only Pennryn handled it better while Gaby was pretty clueless the whole time. 

Raffe is a bad boy and he didn't catch my eye since I've read about a lot of bad boys in the past. Wish I could say more about him. I'm sure a lot of people will like him. He just wasn't anything special, at least not for me.  Hope Weston will show his different side in the sequel, or at least reveal some of his secrets. 

Angel books are usually a big no-no to me. So far, I've only liked two angel novels- Unearthly and Angelfall. Others just seem to juvenile or messy. Shadows is somewhere in between. I liked it enough to pre-order the sequel.