Shadowed Strength by Wendi Wilson

Thanks to the author and We ♥ YA Books! for a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

This was a sweet story that covered a multitude of issues facing our young adults today. Issues with self-esteem, bullying, self-control, and fear. These are put forth in a terrifying but realistic approach to the attempted rape of the main character, 16-year-old Melanie. Being overweight, she had to deal with the mean girls that will always exist to make people that do not conform to society as perfect, miserable. This affects their ability to grow into self-confident human beings.
Jeremy comes into the picture as the strong protective friend that is literally too good to be true. He comes on strong and soon he and Melanie are “couple-of-the-year” material with hormones only 16-17-year-olds seem to battle. They have times when the sexual tension is quite intense though they’ve only been together a short time.
I really enjoyed the idea behind the story and I loved the lack of dialogue tags. The characters were so well defined that I knew who was speaking without the “he said” she said” tags. That being said, I spent a lot of time thinking the actual dialogue was unrealistic.

“Don’t ignore me, baby. I want you so very much.”

With tears filling her eyes, she decided to plead with him to leave her alone. She didn’t know what else to do.

“Please, leave me alone. Please.”

“Oh, how I love it when you beg. You don’t know what it does to me.”

“Stop texting me!!!”

“My only love sprang from my only hate- Romeo and Juliet. You may think you hate me now, but you will love me, soon. We are the perfect match, you and I. I know what you need, Melanie. You need a strong hand to lead you into the throes of ecstasy. I can teach you so, so many things about the pleasures of pain. I will teach you those lessons in the very near future.”

Having said this, I am in love with the characters and I am looking forward to seeing how much Melanie will grow in strength and personality and hope she will be able to see how strong she is and not feel that Jeremy is the only reason to be strong.

4 stars