Review: The Book Of Blood And Shadow By: Robin Wasserman

Title: The Book Of Blood And Shadow

Author: Robin Wasserman

Published: April 10th, 2012

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Goodreads Summary: 

It was like a nightmare, but there was no waking up. When the night began, Nora had two best friends and an embarrassingly storybook one true love. When it ended, she had nothing but blood on her hands and an echoing scream that stopped only when the tranquilizers pierced her veins and left her in the merciful dark.

But the next morning, it was all still true: Chris was dead. His girlfriend Adriane, Nora’s best friend, was catatonic. And Max, Nora’s sweet, smart, soft-spoken Prince Charming, was gone. He was also—according to the police, according to her parents, according to everyone—a murderer.

Desperate to prove his innocence, Nora follows the trail of blood, no matter where it leads. It ultimately brings her to the ancient streets of Prague, where she is drawn into a dark web of secret societies and shadowy conspirators, all driven by a mad desire to possess something that might not even exist. For buried in a centuries-old manuscript is the secret to ultimate knowledge and communion with the divine; it is said that he who controls the Lumen Dei controls the world. Unbeknownst to her, Nora now holds the crucial key to unlocking its secrets. Her night of blood is just one piece in a puzzle that spans continents and centuries. Solving it may be the only way she can save her own life.

My Thoughts:

As I am sure many of you have heard this book is the Da Vinci Code for YA books and although I have only seen the movie I definitely agree! This book was full of mystery, suspense, and adventures spanning across the world. For me, it started off a little slow but, the action then picked up and I couldn't put the book down.

We first meet Nora, and her two best friends Adriane and Chris. You get to know Nora more personally considering she is the main character but, you get to see her friends through her eyes and how important and how much they mean to her. The mystery begins with Nora, Chris, and Chris's roommate being research assistants for a college professor who is deciphering a centuries old code to find its meaning and  solve the mystery of something called the Lumus Dei. I don't want to say too much because I don't want to ruin the mystery of it all for you guys. But needless to say I was very interested in it, although sometimes it got to be a little confusing.

When Nora's best friend Chris is murdered, everyone involved begins to realize that what they were researching was much more important to some people then they ever thought possible. This was where the adventure really started and twisting all the way around the world to Prague ( which is somewhere I have always wanted to visit) There was a few surprises in store for the reader even, some that I wasn't expecting that really kept me reading and interested in the story.

Overall, I really liked this book and there was only one thing that really bothered me about it and that was how easily finding some of the clues seemed to be for them, it almost seemed too easy and sometimes I was saying to myself "Really, that's all it took for you to figure it out" But, despite that aspect I enjoyed the book. It had a few surprise characters in it and was definitely a suspenseful read. I recommend this book to anyone who obviously liked The Da Vinci Code and anybody who enjoys a suspenseful mystery full of history, religion, and a little bit of romance thrown in there. 

Happy Reading!

Kristin