Shudder The Shadow & Ink Series Book #1
Dark Monsters Fantasy Romance MF/ FF
Independent
Dec 6, 2022
Kindle
276
Amazon
Corbin has ignored the voice most of her life. Until the small, dirty wooden box arrives, that is. Convinced it’s just more junk to add to her mother’s ever-increasing hoard, she finds herself caring for this inanimate object more than she should.
When she takes it upon herself to pry it open, the voice grows louder. Shadows dance on the walls at night, flies cling to the windowpanes, and what’s worse, others begin to notice.
Drawn to the mysterious entity that’s haunting her, the line between her reality and this new one blurs. Every day, her imaginary friend becomes more and more real, and with her mother’s history of mental illness, Corbin fears the worst.
Six has always been there. Waiting. Watching. Gathering strength.
He only desires one thing: her.
Between the encouragement of her closer-than-best-friend Jordan and the aching need to be near the box that fills her every waking moment, it is becoming more difficult to pretend it’s all in her head. Little by little, Corbin cannot resist diving into the deep, dark abyss with her nightly visitor, but at what cost?
Some doors should not be opened.
Can this one be closed?
Reviewed by Linda Tonis
Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team
Corbin Greene is twenty-one in art school and has never had a childhood. At a young age her father left her, and her mother and her mother spiraled downward to the point that Corbin became her caregiver at a very young age. At the age of eighteen she was given the power of attorney and custody of the woman who should have been the one caring for her and supporting her but unfortunately Corbin became the mother and her mother the child.
Every night since she was young Corbin would hear a voice, a voice she refused to acknowledge wondering why her make-believe friend did not go away when she got older like other children’s make-believe friends did but her voice is still there every night. Her mother is a hoarder making walking through the house or sitting on the furniture in the living room a constant battle, a battle that she can’t win and a battle where her mother just keeps piling things up.
Corbin’s best friend and sometime lover Jordan is the one person she trusts to talk about her living situation and who is always there for her. She keeps the voice or her shadow as she refers to it a secret even from Jordan. When her mother presents Corbin with a wooden box, dirty and covered in red clay with rusted hinges, the voice that only spoke to her at night is now a constant presence. The voice reveals its name, Six, his love for Corbin and his promise to never hurt her and to always be there for her.
Corbin finally faces the fact that behind the voice is a being, a being that comforts her and pleasures her and a being she readily accepts. The box has made things more intense, and Corbin becomes more and more attached to it. When an incident occurs between Corbin and Jordan causing Corbin to push her away while they were together in her bed Jordan leaves. For the first time Corbin confesses to her about the voice and that when she opened her eyes it wasn’t Jordan’s face she saw. Now Corbin’s biggest fear is that she is mentally disturbed like her mother and Jordan is determined to prove that she is wrong.
When I first started this book, I decided it was okay and that I liked it, as I continued reading it, I realized that I was totally engrossed in the book and loved it. What is behind the voice, what is it, why does it express love and why does it insist that Corbin was always his but that she needed to accept him. Questions left unanswered till next time and I hope that next time is soon.
