Shadow Souls

[goodreads]

Title: Shadow Souls
Author: L.J. Smith
Genre: Paranormal
Rating: 3/5
# pages: 480
Date read: September, 2010

Elena Gilbert is once again at the centre of magic and danger beyond her imagining. And once more, Stefan isn't there to help! Elena is forced to trust her life to Damon, the handsome but deadly vampire who wants Elena, body and soul. They must journey to the slums of the Dark Dimension, a world where vampires and demons roam free, but humans must live as slaves of their supernatural masters. Damon's brother, the brooding vampire Stefan whom Elena loves, is imprisoned here, and Elena can only free him by finding the two hidden halves of the key to his cell. Meanwhile, the tension between Elena and Damon mounts until Elena is faced with a terrible decision: which brother does she really want to be with?

I was gratified to see that most of my complaints about The Return, #1 didn't repeat themselves in this book. There was a lot more "meat" to the plot, and the characters slowly gained in complexity... actually, I think Matt got the shorter end of the stick here, since he was absent for so much of the book.

I rather liked the Dark Dimension, and seeing another part of Damon and Stephan's world. And I'm intrigued by the secrets everybody seems to be keeping.

It's become very obvious by now that these books are NOT meant to be read alone. There are strong links between the different books in the series, and while the cliff-hangers aren't quite as bad as in the original series (not this cliff-hanger anyway), they're still there, and there are a lot of issues still left open. I'm not curious enough that I'm rushing out to get hold of the next one, but I'd probably be happy enough to read it, should my publisher choose to send it my way.