[3B6]≡ Download The Scent of Shadows Sign of the Zodiac Book 1 Vicki Pettersson 9780060898915 Books

The Scent of Shadows Sign of the Zodiac Book 1 Vicki Pettersson 9780060898915 Books

Download As PDF : The Scent of Shadows Sign of the Zodiac Book 1 Vicki Pettersson 9780060898915 Books

The Scent of Shadows Sign of the Zodiac Book 1 Vicki Pettersson 9780060898915 Books

This was rather new for me for this genre. I haven't read books about this aspect of the paranormal before. I got a slightly different edition of this book years ago when Amazon was still able to give quite a number of books away for free on their terms for the Kindle. It contains the first few chapters of book two at the end. There were a few times in this first book when I thought some sentences were missing because I didn't know something happened until someone said it did. Then I realized when it happened from what was actually written in words. I won't bore you with a plot summary as I know other reviewers are fond of doing that. The characters are real, for the most part, but with a book in this genre, some unusual characters who are rather outrageous are to be expected. I appreciate that this book has chapter demarcations. Chapter demarcations make it easier to see how close you are to the end of a chapter or to find a stopping place when you need to do so. If you like paranormal based books with a bit of angst and sarcasm, I think you'll like this book. Have at it! I can't wait for the next one.


Tags : The Scent of Shadows (Sign of the Zodiac, Book 1) [Vicki Pettersson] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. When she was sixteen, Joanna Archer was brutally assaulted and left to die in the Nevada desert. By rights,Vicki Pettersson,The Scent of Shadows (Sign of the Zodiac, Book 1),Harper Voyager,0060898917,Fantasy - General,Fantasy fiction,Fantasy fiction.,Good and evil,Las Vegas (Nev.),Nevada,Occult fiction,American First Novelists,American Science Fiction And Fantasy,FICTION Fantasy Contemporary,FICTION Fantasy Epic,FICTION Fantasy General,FICTION Fantasy Paranormal,Fantasy,Fiction,Fiction - Fantasy

The Scent of Shadows Sign of the Zodiac Book 1 Vicki Pettersson 9780060898915 Books Reviews

The Scent of Shadows is a dark Urban Fantasy focused on superheroes and vengeance. Joanna Archer is trying to live a normal life after she was brutally raped and beaten as a teen. Now, it's the day before her twenty-fifth birthday and nothing is going right. She's on the blind date from hell (probably literally), her millionaire father announces that she's not his daughter and disinherits her, then her sister is killed. If that's not enough, a homeless man tells her she's a superhero and needs to come with him immediately or risk being framed as her sister's murderer. Happy Birthday!

I liked the first half of The Scent of Shadows much better than the second, even though it's more character driven than I usually like. Joanna is going about life in a way that she thinks is best. She's a bit disconnected, preferring to stay behind her camera, but she's convinced herself it's for the sake of her art. The only person she's really close to is her younger sister, Olivia, who is her complete opposite, yet her anchor. Joanna learns a lot about herself and the world around her once she meets Warren and he tells her about the signs of the zodiac. After her blood filled birthday, she must become someone new in order to stay alive and protect others. It's all very dark and not very optimist, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

The second part of The Scent of Shadows was a bit rough for me. It's where all of the action picks up and Joanna actually gets to try out her new abilities and fight the Shadows. However, my brain was preoccupied with the fact that she was just whisked away to the alternate reality where the Lights and Shadows have their headquarters. They went through a lot of trouble to give Joanna her new identity and make sure that it's flawless so no one would get suspicious, but they take her away from the real world for some unknown amount of time without any explanation or cover story in place. It's not like she's some unknown person in her new life; people will notice she's gone! And there's no indication as to how much time has passed. Perhaps it was a single night, in which case, no one may notice she's gone. But it felt a lot longer than that. I was hoping this would be explained once the fight was over and she was returned to the real world, but that doesn't pick up until three months later.

The Scent of Shadows has an amazing premise a band of superheroes for each sign of the zodiac, and a Light and Shadow side that are warring. Joanna is, of course, different than anyone else and part of a prophecy, so that wasn't anything new, but everything else was unlike anything I had read before. Despite my confusion in the second half, I do think this was a promising start to the series and I was eager to learn more about this world.
Even for a first effort, this book had a lot of holes with the characters, world-building, and basic details of the story.

Joanna Archer is a young heiress who, on the eve of her twenty-fifth birthday, finds out that she is a superhero (and not just any superhero, like the most special of the special superheros ever). The details of the world are a little vague (every major city has a troupe of superheros, and I couldn't figure out if she was just super special in Vegas or super special anywhere). Like, what if a superhero wants to move? Or what if a new city is founded -- Las Vegas hasn't been a big city for very long. Why are their adventures chronicled in comic books and how is that consistent with secret identities? Are there comic books for each major city? How major does a city have to be to get superheros? Is it reevaluated every ten years with the census results?

Okay, I'm getting a bit sidetracked here, but there are still important questions that are unanswered by the end of the book. Questions like Why would anyone think that hiding as their own famous dead sister was a more secure secret identity than just being a person who was completely unassociated with them? Why would Joanna's mother think she was safer if she had absolutely no one to tell her about who she was and what was going to happen to her and why would she double-down on that strategy after Joanna was attacked?

I hoped that all my questions would be answered by the end of the book. I realize this is a series, but I was so frustrated by the end that I don't feel like continuing. The comic book aspect just doesn't make much sense at all (Why would either side want their adventures chronicled in comic book form, especially the ones who are dedicated to the eradication of everything that is good? Are the baddies sitting around and reading these things?).

I think the author was trying to do something fresh and new here, but too many details got away from her -- including relatively simple ones.
This was rather new for me for this genre. I haven't read books about this aspect of the paranormal before. I got a slightly different edition of this book years ago when was still able to give quite a number of books away for free on their terms for the . It contains the first few chapters of book two at the end. There were a few times in this first book when I thought some sentences were missing because I didn't know something happened until someone said it did. Then I realized when it happened from what was actually written in words. I won't bore you with a plot summary as I know other reviewers are fond of doing that. The characters are real, for the most part, but with a book in this genre, some unusual characters who are rather outrageous are to be expected. I appreciate that this book has chapter demarcations. Chapter demarcations make it easier to see how close you are to the end of a chapter or to find a stopping place when you need to do so. If you like paranormal based books with a bit of angst and sarcasm, I think you'll like this book. Have at it! I can't wait for the next one.