Sweet Shadows continues the story of the powerful twins Gretchen Sharpe and Grace Whitfield, descendants of Medusa, tasked with guarding the mortal world from monsters. Here is the unavoidable spoiler, which I refrained from disclosing in my review of the previous volume, Sweet Venom: Gretchen and Grace are not twins. Along with Greer Morgenthal, they are actually triplets, separated at birth, but reunited now, at age sixteen. Although they are beginning to learn to work together, they face a number of problems: monsters are escaping from “the abyss” in unprecedented numbers, Gretchen’s mentor Ursula—who happens to be the immortal Gorgon Euryale—is missing, most likely being held prisoner; and Grace’s parents are upset with her for regularly missing dinner. Added to these issues are boy problems, including the absence of Grace’s taciturn (also adopted) older brother Thane, who has gone searching for something or someone he refuses to specify; Grace’s nascent romance with Thane’s friend Milo, whom she keeps inadvertently pushing away as emergency monster-attack situations arise; and the mysterious identity of Nick, who showed up to Gretchen’s school one day and has been following her ever since. When the girls witness multiple people disappearing into the abyss, they realize that they have the responsibility to enter the abyss and confront the next steps in their destiny as huntresses. Like the previous volume, Sweet Shadows ends with more questions unanswered than answered. Just like Grace, when her parents learn of her true identity, the final volume of the trilogy has a lot of explaining to do.

Sweet Shadows is not as tightly written as Sweet Venom, and the circumstances of the brewing battle are a little unclear, but the characters continue to capture our attention and affection. Greer is an exceedingly wealthy society lady-in-training whose parents have no time for her, but impose a legion of expectations that she has always met to perfection. Her mean-girl persona evolves (or dissolves) throughout this book, giving her the most dramatic character development of the triplets. Some of the monsters are also given voice in this volume, and several turn out to be benevolent. One of the monsters, a monkey-like character, is cute and mischievous, and he speaks with a charming childlike dialect that almost resembles the speech of a Muppet. The humor he provides is a nice comic release as the supernatural stakes become serious and frightening. Clearly the final volume of the series will contain a cataclysmic battle, and this reader wonders which of the familiar characters of mythology will play a role.

--Nava Cohen