soul of shadow – GoodeyReads

Rating: ★★★★
Audience: NA Urban Fantasy Romance
Length: 400 pages
Author: Emma Noyes
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Release Date: March 10th, 2026
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

The thrilling sequel to Soul of Shadow, a contemporary romantasy for fans of Twilight, and Teen Wolf, where love, magic, gods, and monsters collide with devastating consequences – featuring beautiful color, designed endpapers and a foil case stamp for a stunning package.

I will make myself strong.
I will find Elias.
I will kill Elias.
I will never trust a boy with my heart again.

These are the vows Charlie Hudson made the day after Elias Everhart betrayed her, nearly killing everyone she loves most. One month later, revenge is still her priority, even as she navigates a harsh new reality: one where her brother and friends can now see Asgard, making them just as susceptible to its dazzling delights – and deadly dangers – as she is.

But when two bodies turn up in the forest outside town, and Elias waltzes back into her life with an offer to help find out what’s happening, Charlie finds herself accepting his offer—but only because feigning an alliance is her best chance to figure out how to kill him. And if it feels like the more time she spends with him, the more her heart softens, it must be a trick of the unusually warm fall air. Because there’s no way she would make the grave mistake of falling for Elias Everhart twice… right?

Thank you Macmillan Audio for the gifted audiobook.

BETTER THAN BOOK ONE.

I wasn’t sure I was going to read this one but then it came across my email and I decided I wanted to try it and here we are! I did like it more than the first (which usually doesn’t happen) and I’m invested enough to finish the trilogy. I liked the evolution of the plot and thought the general situation was overall engaging. That, or it just happened to catch me at the right time, and that’s fine too!

The romance worked for me too. There was a better slow burn dynamic to it and I liked the push and pull between them. Kind of an enemies to lovers to enemies to lovers scenario that I am here for.

There’s still some scenes I didn’t mesh with or didn’t quite work for me and that’s okay.

Overall audience notes:

NA Urban Fantasy Romance
Language: mild
Romance: heated make outs
Violence: moderate
Content warnings: under age drinking, near death experiences, murder

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Rating: ★★★
Audience: YA Urban Fantasy Romance
Length: 352 pages
Author: Emma Noyes
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Release Date: July 29th, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

A thrilling Norse mythology inspired contemporary romantasy sure to excite fans of The Vampire Diaries and Atlas Six.

Charlie Hudson just wants to get through junior year. Since the death of her twin sister two years earlier, she’s drifted through life, going through the motions at school and parties and even at home. The spark that once burned so brightly within her has all but flickered out.

Until her classmate goes missing in the forest, leaving nothing behind but a pair of shoes and strange symbols carved into a tree.

Drawn to the disappearances by forces she can’t explain, she finds herself investigating the mysterious, alluring newcomer in town, Elias Everhart. With piercing eyes and sharp wit, he dances around her questions, only intriguing her further. Elias has a secret. More than one.

But what Charlie doesn’t know is that those secrets will lead her to a place she never a world hiding in plain sight, made of magic, gods, and monsters – and a first love fated to fall apart.

In Emma Noyes’s Soul of Shadow, truths and temptations lurk in the darkness, and for Charlie, the only thing more dangerous than facing her past, is the boy with the power to change her future.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for the gifted audiobook.

GOSH DARN IT.

This is *my bad* for not reading the summary and realizing this was an urban fantasy. i can sometimes get past that fact when they are in another realm for long periods of time or it’s woven in well, buuuut I didn’t find that here. Charlie and her friends were written in such a manner that it came off as “trying too hard to be cool,” with vaping, drinking, partying, etc.

And this was pitched to me as a *shadow daddy* book (I don’t love that term) and I also don’t love that term referring to teens??? It all felt iffy.

I didn’t hit a hate reading level on this, just a sort of disconnect. The Norse gods were an intriguing aspect and I wish we’d have seen more of them (though maybe that’s a book two thing?? but this book didn’t convince me to read book two??).

It’s not poorly written by any means, it’s just not a book for me. I thought the audiobook narration was good too, so if you try it out, I do recommend that format.

Overall audience notes: