Im waffling between a two and a three star rating, to be honest.

River of Shadows promises to be a dark fantasy romance, and I feel like it struggles to be any of those three things in a compelling way. Like the elements are there, but the execution could be better.

That being said, I enjoyed the general story. I thought the plot points were compelling, even when the writing could have been better executed. I liked Hanna, especially because she’s a tall, curvy badass who’s into martial arts and fashion. She also has a moment in the book where she essentially says, actually I AM like other girls, which I thought was refreshing. She’s a girl’s girl, and I’m here for it.

The rest of the cast of characters were also generally fun. I really loved the other women in the story, and wish there had been even more of them, to be honest. Maybe in he next book. And Death, although he generally only had one personality trait, was pretty hot. So there’s that.

The creatures, the travel through the land of the dead, and the Finnish mythology were very cool, and really made the story for me.

Unfortunately, there were just too many things standing in the way of me loving this book. For starters, the book is written in first person present tense, which just usually isn’t for me. I think that while it worked narratively in some places, it just fell flat in others, and pulled me out of the story.

There was also an overwhelming number of pop culture references that didn’t land for me. They were rampant in the first half of the book (it felt like every few pages), and then they just stopped halfway through. Innuendo got the same treatment, and while I love a good innuendo, the narrator often pointed out every single one just to make sure the reader got it. At one point, there’s even a fourth wall break of sorts, where Hanna addresses the reader directly about one, even though there’s no precedent for this.

Lastly, there were SO MANY TYPOS. I usually forgive a book having one or two, because even the most professional team is still human. But the errors in this book were just disappointing. One or two sentences didn’t have final punctuation. A quotation mark randomly appeared in the middle of a sentence. Two words were used in the wrong order. An instance of double negatives occurred twice, which also makes me think it was a case of poor grammar/editing, rather than a typo. (Both sentences were essentially “no *blank*, no *blank*, nor no *blank*.” NOR and NO cancel each other out.)

I just wish there was a little more attention to detail. Especially since this is a special edition (and it’s NOT the first Bookish Box edition I’ve found egregious typos in).

I really thought this story was interesting, and the series has promise. I just hope to see things tightened up as the story is told. I want more character development!!!