Me ranting about The Shadows Between Us in 500 words

This was possibly the best book I read in all of 2021. Shadows Between Us promised to deliver a slytherin-esque romance, and it went beyond my wildest imaginations. I loved how Alessandra and Kallias were truly gray characters, they cared about a select few and truly hungered for power.

In most books I read, the main character eventually mellows down to fight for the good, or the character is shown as a heartless evil monster, so this was a refreshing change. I loved Alessandra's relationship with her friends Hestia, and Rhoda. I truly fell in love with Hestia, and her journey to becoming more confident and being herself instead of copying Alessandra was beautifully written.

At times the world-building was a bit confusing for me, was there just an entire continent with these different lands that Kallias took over, or was it separate pieces of the land itself? If anyone has read this book and has the answer please let me know, world-building is my absolute favorite and I hate having two different ideas in my head.

The descriptions of the fashion in the book, however, were so good I could have read a 500-page novel on just that. Alessandra makes her own dresses, which is the most girlboss thing ever, and each one is so beautifully described I could see them. I especially love how her boldness shows through her clothing choices, like how we see her wear an all black outfit with pants (how scandalous) to a ball where everyone else wears green to please the king.

And her growth is shown through her clothes to, we see her truly in love with Kallias when she throws a ball dedicated to his late mother, and wears a dress honoring her showing how even though she has never met the Queen. She deeply respects the Queen (unnusual for our manipulative heroine) because of her relation to Kallias.

The Shadows Between Us pulled me out of a month long reading slump, and after finishing it, I found myself right back at that first page. This is an awesome book, and I would reccomend it to anyone who likes morally grey characters, and fake-dating tropes, or is in Slytherin. (This book should totally be a rule book for Slytherin, be like Alessandra, and if you can't be like Kallias, a classic hard on the outside, soft on the inside bad boy)