Synopsis:
Born into a cage of silk, Ada has never mistaken luxury for freedom.
Her aristocratic family has already planned her life: marry the man her father chooses, obey the rules of high society, and enjoy every comfort except choice.
Then the Shadows come for her.
The secret criminal order usually recruits from the forgotten: orphans, outcasts, children no one will pay to reclaim. Noble daughters are worth more as ransom than recruits. But when Ada’s ransom goes unpaid, her abductor makes a different choice.
She keeps her.
In the Shadows’ hands, Ada learns to lie, steal, and kill. They forge her into a weapon aimed at her own bloodline. But as her first mission draws near, Ada must choose: carry out the role they carved into her—or risk everything to escape.
If she runs, the Shadows will punish the only two people she loves: the girl she once saved from death, and the woman who has made torment feel like devotion.
Among the Shadows, mercy means treason. Love invites ruin. Ada’s heart may kill them all.
Review:
More and more I don’t really read blurbs or plot details before I read books, so when I picked up K.J. Fieler’s Shadow Runner, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. I was very pleasantly surprised to find a thoroughly engaging story that pulses with energy from start to finish. Ada, the protagonist of the novel, is sympathetic and extremely likeable, taking the reader on a journey from her life as a young girl full of privilege and naivete to a young woman willing to do whatever it takes to protect those she values. I had a blast reading Shadow Runner and I’m absolutely looking forward to Fieler’s follow-up.
As Shadow Runner starts, Ada is a young girl living during an unspecified time period, but definitely Victorian England in a gaslamp era before modern conveniences. In the first few chapters, I felt like the tone of the story had a Secret Garden-quality to it — Ada is a girl who almost is all alone in life in spite of her father living in the large house with her after the death of her mother and her nearly-born baby brother. Soon, Ada’s life completely changes as she is kidnapped and inducted into a secret organization operating at the fringes of society.
A large chunk of the book may actually be construed as a dark academia of sorts as Ada has to prove herself against fellow initiates, even when the stakes are against her. Through it all, the woman who abducted (or saved?) her, Nadine, acts as a de facto mother to Ada. Readers will be able to spot the Stockholm Syndrome that Ada falls into, but Ada doesn’t really see it on the inside of the relationship. In fact, that aspect of Ada was one of my favorite parts of the book.
Ada isn’t perfect. She screws up — a few major times in fact. But, her humanity and morality save her when those mistakes would doom other characters. One time in particular, when Ada is undercover as a young girl’s governess later in the book, she believes she is correct in how she acts towards the girl, (since her own trauma informed her own upbringing), but she is told off about it by the girl’s brother, offering her the beginnings of a glimpse into why her life might be a tad screwed up.
There is a fantasy element to Shadow Runner, but at this stage, it’s slight and acts more like a convenient (but extremely dangerous) transportation system. The heart of the story is Ada and her arc from innocent little rich girl to a fighter, spy, and potential assassin for hire (if she ever decides to, that is).
I’m glad I switched up my TBR list and picked up K.J. Fieler’s Shadow Runner and I’ll be awaiting the sequel, titled Shadow Hunter (no release date confirmed as of now).
Reviewer’s Note: K.J. Fieler and I both wrote short stories for the anthology Chronicle Worlds: Legacy Fleet in 2019. Our involvement in that anthology did not affect my review of Shadow Runner in any way.
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