A Monster Like Me by Pamela Sparkman

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Content: A brief scene that involves childhood rape



“I love the peculiar silence of shadows. They exist, but leave no mark.” 

Zeph had been a child, thrust into a war that wasn’t his. When he was older, he discovered he had landed on the wrong side of everything.

He’d been fighting for sweet revenge, because of lies he’d believed—and those lies proved to be his ruin. Falling into despair, Zeph decides living is too painful. So, he writes his final act with poison and chooses to end his story.

But Fate has other plans for Zeph and when he finds himself in the hands of his enemies, he has to decide: Does he want to live? Or does he want to die?

Or maybe that choice is no longer his to make.

Ruled by shadows and armed with secrets he never intended to share, Zeph will be put through his toughest battle yet: the war within himself.
 

When I read The Moon Shines Red. last year I was quite impressed with it. It really filled my need for a good historical fantasy with that fairy-tale type feel, so I was looking forward to reading this sequel. This time around the story is focused on Zeph, who was more of a villain type character in The Moon Shines Red. I mentioned that he was a really layered character in my review for that book, and that I could sympathize with him to an extent, so I was interested in seeing how he could be redeemed in this book. Also I wanted to know why he was the way he was. This book did not disappoint in that aspect at all. I got every answer I was looking for. Some of them were quite disturbing. Be warned there is a brief scene that involves childhood rape.

This is a story about love, forgiveness, and redemption and those are themes that I'm naturally drawn to in stories. It was nice to see Zeph grow from the tortured soul he was into someone at peace, able to love, and be loved by others. It was also nice to revisit Elin, Lochlin, Arwyn, and other characters that were in the first book. There is also the addition of a new character in this book that I liked, but wasn't really sure he was needed in the book. I guess that would be one of the criticisms I have about the book. The character just didn't really seem to go anywhere other than offer comfort to someone.

In the end I loved Zeph and his story. Maybe not as much as I loved The Moon Shines Red, but this was still very enjoyable.

Thanks to NetGalley and the author Pamela Sparkman for providing me with an ARC of this book.