I had such high hopes for Shadows of the Mortal Realm by Shay Lee Giertz.  The overall plot sounding promising, and I loved the twist she had given to the realm of Hell, and the demons inside of it. 

The high hopes I had for this book were not realized.  Before I do get any further into this review, I want to say, I did not finish this book.  I made it about 50% of the way through the entire thing, and then I just couldn’t do it anymore.  I can see how this book would appeal to people, but my biggest problems with it, is that by the time I was halfway through the book, I still didn’t care about the characters.

The best part about this book, in my humble opinion, is chapter 1.  It was so interesting how she included demon hierarchy, the bit of background info, and the interesting characters that were immediately introduced.  However, as chapters do, chapter one ended and we were introduced to a character named Marcy.  Marcy is a shadow being I guess, I am not 100% certain on the terminology, and her job in life is to manipulate human minds.  However, the more time she spends with humans and in the human realm, the less she wants to manipulate them, and the more she wants to live her life with them.

Then we are introduced to Tor, who is another demon, but a might higher ranking one.  His job, is to kill Marcy, because she is developing powers that are uncertain.  The author very much tried to write a morally grey character with Tor, and she did do that, but it wasn’t necessarily in the way that you loved them.  More in a self-serving way where you could kind of see where they were coming form.  Obviously as the book continued, you could see the groundwork developing for a relationship between Tor and Marcy, and then there was also a third character in there to kind of make a love triangle, and I could not stop myself from groaning.  Because this is a book that truly doesn’t seem like it might benefit from a relationship, or a love triangle.

Overall – As I said, I did not finish this book.  I gave it until about halfway, but I still wasn’t interested in the characters, and I had no emotional connection to them.  That being said, I can see how other people would love this book, and would obsess over it.  I just am not one of those people.

Shadows of the Mortal Realm (The Mortal Realm Series Book 1) – Shay Lee Giertz

Cost* – eBook is $2.99.  Paperback is $12.99 This book is included with Kindle Unlimited

*Cost is based upon what the book cost when book review is published