The Shadow Tribe by Jaffrey Clark

Ok, today is actually my monthaversary for starting my blog!  I feel so special to have made it a month and have such great people joining me on my book journeys.  So how do we celebrate this occasion? With a book review!!  And I happen to have my second out of three (Cage Dunn shared their newest book with me, so I’ll be reviewing that soon) author supplied books.

Jaffrey Clark was nice enough to provide me copies of the first 3 parts of his Shadow Tribe series.  In each of the parts we meet a new character that makes up The Shadow Tribe, named because the members are invisible to all others without the use of magic.  This rag tag group’s skills of scrounging for food, water, and safety has left them with the perfect skills to solve the questions surrounding a mysterious newcomer to the city of Terron as well as the perseverance to answer all of the questions around why their magic keeps them invisible, how they gained it, and how they can use it to fight the evil magic that seems to be taking hold of their home.

First, a few things I didn’t love…

• There are a few typos in the book.  It’s hard to stay fully emersed when you notice little things every now and then.  At the end of book three, the fairy’s name seems to change once as well.  Not the worst thing to dislike about a book because it’s totally fixable.
• Learning Joby’s invisible comes a little late in the first book for my taste.  The stuff prior then starts to make sense, but I’m not sure that it had to come as late as it did for dramatic purposes.  Obviously this is a preference thing, so let me know if you disagree, friends.

Now, onto the things I did love…

• The first page or so is perfection.  The writing is so perfect it made me stop and sigh with the beauty of the wording.  It doesn’t stay at that level of perfection, but I’m a little bit glad because I think I’d have trouble following the story from being too enamored by the skill.
• Joby and Tara are so cute.  The story’s not finished and I’m already rooting for them to fall in love.  I was actually preemptively jealous on Joby’s behalf when Mickam is first introduced because he might be competition for Tara’s heart.
• The story is so fun.  Clark succinctly described it as a mash up of Aladdin and Harry Potter and I feel like this is so apt.  Both because it has elements of both, but also because those stories are relatable.  They have magic, but something special that draws you in as well.  And I think this story has that as well.

Short version: It’s worth the read… even if you’ll have to wait (we know I hate waiting) for the next part to be published.  Jaffrey, if you’re reading this, you know where to find me for a willing reader to Part 4.  Hit me up ASAP, I want to know what happens! 🙂