First Light

Shadowlands, Book 1

By: Elizabeth Hunter

Narrated by: Ava Lucas

In the Shadowlands, strangers wear familiar faces, myths are reality, and lies hide behind the most beautiful stories.

Lachlan Murray disappeared without a trace. As his girlfriend, twenty-nine-year-old Carys Morgan refuses to accept the police’s explanation—that he simply left her. She travels to Scotland to seek help from Lachlan’s twin brother Duncan, and learns she was right—Lachlan didn’t leave her, he left her world to return to his own.

The Shadowlands are a mirror of the world Carys knows. Every human in her world also exists in this one with one key difference—magic.

Humans aren’t supposed to be able to wield the magic of the Shadowlands, but when Carys learns she can talk to dragons, she’s drawn deeper into a complicated world that would as soon kill her as keep her. And if magic and murder weren’t enough to overcome, she must navigate complicated feelings for two identical men from vastly different worlds.

USA Today best-selling author Elizabeth Hunter weaves an enchanting adventure, full of mythology and romance, in the first installment of a brand new romantic portal fantasy!

©2024 Recurve Press, LLC (P)2025 Recurve Press, LLC

First Light

Elizabeth Hunter out done her self with this tale. Great world building, characters you can fall in love with instantly. This story has a in my opinion, a great who done it. Strong female characters, but not overly in your face kind of strong. Can't wait till the next book.

Superb narration

The story was terrific as all this author’s are. I read the book first and a few months later listened to the audiobook. The audio brought the story alive. Can’t wait to jump into the next one.

Excellent story excellent narration!!!

I already loved this series! I must say that getting to listen to this audiobook enhanced the experience so much. It brought this amazing book to life. I felt like I was in the Shadowlands with Cary’s, Cadell, Duncan and Lachlan. I always like to read the story first and then go back and listen to the audiobook. It’s a completely different experience. I highly recommend it! I loved loved loved the story and the narration…both of them excellently done.

Absolutely loved it!

What a pleasant surprise. This was definitely my week for some great fantasy books, both in Epic/High Fantasy, and this, which I guess would be considered Romantasy....maybe?

We get a whole new world from Ms. Hunter who has already gained my appreciation with everything else she has written - specifically the Elemental World Series, and The Irin Chronicles, to name a couple.

Welcome to the world of the Shadowlands. Ms. Hunter introduces us to the Brightlands (which is the world as we currently know it) and the Shadowlands - which can only be accessed through Fae Gates but is actually a mirror image to the world on our side. EXCEPT...in the Shadowlands there is magic. And all of the things we have been taught are fairytales actually exist in the shadowlands- Light Fae, Dark Fae, Dragons, Wolf Shifters, Mages, Sprites....getting the idea? Basically every and all magical creatures.

What is unusual is that there is also a duplicate person for each person in both the Shadowlands and the Brightlands. They are different and unique people, just with the same face - and of course, one has magic and the other is just human.

Okay, let me try this differently. We meet our twenty-nine-year-old FMC Carys Morgan (who lives in California so she would be considered from the Brightlands) She travels to Scotland to look for her missing boyfriend and discovers that MMC Lachlan (the missing boyfriend) was actually a Prince from the Shadowlands who traveled to the Brightlands to find Carys because.......she was the Brightland twin of his deceased wife Seren. Crazy, right?

So, that is how things start. Things begin to get crazy because for some reason, Carys is able to bond with Seren's dragon Cadell - who has been grieving the loss of his bonded - and that is something that no one can explain.

Add to that the fact that Lachlan also has a Brightland twin - a Scot named Duncan and things begin to get complicated for Carys.

I LOVED this book. It is different and unique and just all around wonderful. I alternated listening to the audio version and reading the print version and it was fun to hear all of the different accents in audio.

This book ends, of course, in a cliffhanger but as cliffhangers go, this one wasn't so bad. Needless to say, I ran to get book 2 and started it immediately. I was EXTREMELY bummed that there was not yet an audio version out but wasn't patient enough to wait. THAT is the definition of a great series!

Living in fantasy

Oh man, I’m typically not a fantasy reader but this had me hooked from the start! And listening to it made it so hard to stop. This sets up for so much more and that ending!!! Jumping into book 2 and I can’t wait to listen to it!