HIDDEN (plus TAKEN and HUNTED)
Vampires of Marchwood Book 1
Shalini Boland
414 pages
Second Sky
published March 21, 2023
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Description for HIDDEN:
Falling in love has never been so dangerous…
From USA Today bestselling author Shalini Boland comes the addictive Vampires of Marchwood series. Perfect for fans of K.F. Breene, Sarah J. Maas and Tracy Wolff.
My name is Madison Greene. On my seventeenth birthday, I inherited an old mansion and wealth beyond my wildest dreams. I thought it was a joke, but as I step through the creaking door of the sprawling building, I realise my life in foster care is in the past. I’ve been chosen and my world has changed forever.
But I wasn’t told that Marchwood House hides a secret.
As I explore every inch of the crumbling property, I stumble upon a set of large, dusty boxes in the basement. When I pull back the lid and look down, I find myself staring at the most handsome face I’ve ever seen. High cheekbones, porcelain skin…
And when he wakes up and locks eyes with me, I realise my heart already belongs to him, even though my head is screaming at me to get as far away from Marchwood as possible. Because I know what he really is.
I never planned to fall in love – but it’s too late now. Alexandre has a dark and dangerous past. He needs me and I have to help him. But can a human really save a vampire?
Description for TAKEN:
Falling in love has never been so deadly…
From USA Today bestselling author Shalini Boland comes the addictive Vampires of Marchwood series. Perfect for fans of K.F. Breene, Sarah J. Maas and Tracy Wolff.
My name is Madison Greene and I was an ordinary teenager until I fell in love… with a vampire. Alexandre is tall, with a sexy French accent and mesmerizing eyes. He makes me feel protected, and he’s completely captured my heart.
At Marchwood House, our sprawling mansion nestled in the English countryside, we’re in our own perfect bubble together. But, in the blink of an eye, everything changes when an old enemy of Alexandre’s sets a trap and rips me away from my boyfriend’s arms.
The ancient demon takes me to his underground city, deep beneath the windswept desert. In the twisting tunnels and enormous vaulted caverns, there’s a bloodthirsty vampire around every corner. I’ve never been so terrified…
It seems like there’s no way out from this underground maze. My life is hanging by a thread, and every second I’m here is a step closer to death. I can’t just sit here and hope that Alexandre will rescue me.
Can I outsmart a city of vampires to escape from this hellish place? And will I ever see Alexandre again?
Description for HUNTED:
Falling in love has never been so complicated…
From USA Today bestselling author Shalini Boland comes the addictive Vampires of Marchwood series. Perfect for fans of K.F. Breene, Sarah J. Maas and Tracy Wolff.
My name is Madison Greene and my boyfriend is a vampire. And not just any vampire, one with brooding good looks and a smile that makes my heart skip a beat. As I curl up against Alexandre’s side, our hands entwined, I feel like the luckiest girl in the world.
Although our relationship hasn’t been easy. I’m human, so there were always going to be complications. But I thought we’d banished the demons from his previous life. I couldn’t have been more wrong…
Because there’s a new threat in the form of Nadia – a blue-eyed beauty who seems determined to do everything she can to break us apart. I trust Alexandre but I don’t trust her.
As I start digging into the truth to find out who Nadia really is, centuries-old secrets begin to unravel. And in order to set Alexandre free from the chains of his past, we must return to the ancient underground city of vampires to defeat Alexandre’s archnemesis once and for all.
Can I finally save Alexandre? Or will loving a vampire be the death of me?
My review
I have only read Hidden and I will definitely read Taken and Hunted in the future. I’ve loved Shalini Boland’s thrillers, and this is my first read of fantasy from her. I am more of a science fiction lover over fantasy, but i really liked the characters in this one. I felt vested in both Madison and Alexandre. I weirdly kept imagining Fiyero from Wicked. Maybe it was the playboy flirt in him. And with Madison, while she could come off a little bratty at times, her spunk really came through too.
I love the redesigned covers for the re-release of the books. I keep wanting to touch them, but alas I have an eCopy.
With two different timelines, it almost seemed like this was two different books at the start since it took a while to figure out what the connection would be (as there is always some sort of connection, right?) I am not incredibly knowledgeable of vampire lore, but I really liked the old world vibe in the past part of the book. I really know nothing about that setting, but could picture and feel it based upon descriptions. And the catch at the end of the chapters kept me wanting to read to resolve the cliffhanger.
The stage is set for the remainder of the series and if you think you will just read the first book, think again.
Author Bio:
Shalini Boland is the USA-Today bestselling author of seventeen psychological thrillers. With over two million copies sold, her titles are published by Amazon Publishing, Audible, Bookouture, Second Sky and Grand Central Publishing.
Shalini lives by the sea in Dorset, England with her husband, two teens and their increasingly demanding dog, Queen Jess. Before kids, she was signed to Universal Music Publishing as a singer/songwriter, but now she spends her days writing (in between re-stocking the fridge and dealing with endless baskets of laundry).
She is also the author of two bestselling Sci Fi and Fantasy series as well as a WWII evacuee novel with a time-travel twist.
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