Audiobook Review: The Shadow Hour by Melissa Grey

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The Shadow Hour
The Girl at Midnight #2
Author: Melissa Grey
Narrator: Julia Whelan 
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Released: July 12th 2016
Publisher: Delacorte Press | Penguin Random House Audio| Living Language

A battle has been won. But the war has only just begun.

Everything in Echo’s life changed in a blinding flash when she learned the startling truth: she is the firebird, the creature of light that is said to bring peace.

The firebird has come into the world, but it has not come alone. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and Echo can feel a great and terrible darkness rising in the distance. Cosmic forces threaten to tear the world apart.

Echo has already lost her home, her family, and her boyfriend. Now, as the firebird, her path is filled with even greater dangers than the ones she’s already overcome.

She knows the Dragon Prince will not fall without a fight.

Echo must decide: can she wield the power of her true nature—or will it prove too strong for her, and burn what’s left of her world to the ground?

Welcome to the shadow hour.

The Shadow Hour is a good sequel to The Girl At Midnight. I am glad I was able to listen to the audiobook as I also listened to the first novel of this series. I loved how I was able to picture Echo in my head as the story was being read on my way to work. The Girl At Midnight was a bit of a cliffhanger and I liked how I was able to jump right in where the story left off. What I liked best about this sequel is that it provides me a recap of the previous story. Come on, who remembers every details after waiting for a year?

Echo's life has been a roller coaster ride. She has learned the truth about her real identity and her world is turned upside down. She is the firebird; the one to bring peace to this world she lives in. Now in this sequel, we follow her into a journey of discovering, as in self-discovery. Echo's character grows while she learns to accept her conditions and abilities. I love how she takes it with dignity and moves on. She is more fierce than ever before and braver as she faces many challenges and nails them with ease. Even though some of these challenges are dark and scary.

Although The Shadow Hour lacks battles, it is full force into Echo's development. It's like watching annoying Sansa grow into a badass and fierce character, the one everyone now loves. Honestly, it is exactly like Sansa's character development. And the only thing you can do is cheer! In addition, The Shadow Hours goes in depth into the history and we get a better picture of this world. So if you like historical and mythical story, then you should pick this story. However, I am still not a fan of the love triangles and boy, does this book covers this. Yet, it seems like Echo is finally clearing up her mind and heart when it comes to romance.

I quite enjoyed the pacing of this audibook, but really enjoyed the ending much better than the first one. There were times it threw me off, as this story contains many characters and I had to put my thinking hat on to remember them. But the more you listen, the more it takes over and a movie begins to play in your head. Overall, I really enjoyed this story as well as the audiobook. If you don't have time to read it, then I would recommend to listen to it, as Julia does a great job narrating this story.