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| The Scent of Shadows (Sign of the Zodiac, Book 1) | 
 enlarge | Author: Vicki Pettersson
Publisher: Eos
Category: Book
List Price: $6.99
Buy New: $0.04
You Save: $6.95 (99%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (76 reviews)
Sales Rank: 30424
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 464
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.3
ISBN: 0060898917
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780060898915
ASIN: 0060898917
Publication Date: March 1, 2007
Release Date: February 27, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
When she was sixteen, Joanna Archer was brutally assaulted and left to die in the Nevada desert. By rights, she should be dead. Now a photographer by day, she prowls a different Las Vegas after sunset?a grim, secret Sin City where Light battles Shadow?seeking answers to whom or what she really is . . . and revenge for the horrors she was forced to endure. But the nightmare is just beginning?for the demons are hunting Joanna, and the powerful shadows want her for their own . . .
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| Customer Reviews: Read 71 more reviews...
 Imaginative but falls way short. August 9, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Sagittarius, or the Archer, in the Zodiac is a symbol of individual prowess, fire as well as uncivilized behavior and temper. And encompasses a dual relation between things, especially being both Light and Shadow, and not becoming consumed by either. This fits Joanna Archer to a tee. And it should, since that is not only her Sign, but her birthright. Born to a mother of the Light and a father, the Tulpa, who is the hellfire leader of the Shadow Zodiac side, Joanna isn't just special: she's destiny and fate itself. And choosing the Light side isn't all that it's cracked up to be. Not when she's expected to kill the Tulpa, while trying to wrestle with her abandonment issues about her mother who's still alive and hiding, and of course, save the world one kick and punch at a time.
With a troubled past of rape in the cool sands near Las Vegas continue to haunt her, and the listless questioning existence following the brutal attack, Joanna is left wondering what her purpose is in life as her 25th birthday comes looming after her. It isn't the only thing after her either. For Shadow agents (of comic cheesiness) have scented her out, and want nothing but to destroy the sign and portent that could destroy the Shadow Zodiac side entirely.
But it's not going to be that easy. For Joanna or the Light side. Because Joanna is a tough chick who doesn't take crap from anyone and lets nothing get to her. Huh-huh.
Is Scent of Shadows creative and different? Yeah, I'd say so. But that's where the positives end. Joanna's heartbreaking entry into the 'dark' and self-immolation is cliched and dragged out unnecessarily, and fights the actual premise of the story as she resists her fate as well as glossing over the important things in her life as she is morphed into someting else entirley. She more or less leaves her old life behind, without much consideration or emotional repercussions. I didn't buy it, at all.
Her romance with her one and only flame, Ben Traina, while at one point was very sweet and tender, never came off as important or dramatic as it was touted to be. Maybe it gets important later in the series...Here, it fell pretty flat, pretty darn quick. This is the same with all the relationships in this book, mostly mechanical, standardized character arches and dull interactions that show no personality and little development. There is no emotional hook, and considering a major element to the book centers on Joanna impersonating her dead sister to get to dear old dad, it was left wanting.
The writing is meandering and marginally okay, the character's are awkward and forgettable, the plot choppy, and not very consistent. And it's all very noticeable--in about 500 pages. The buildup is slow, parts of it painfully boring, punctured with a few bits of action that was just oaky. There was so much introspection, it makes you want to throw the book across the room in frustration, because the story, the plot, the characters go nowhere, with scenes the author thought was 'cool'--hence the comic book element done bad. I had to FORCE myself to read the whole thing because the idea was different and a nice change from the other cliched fantasy/urban/sci-fi/supernatural books out there. Instead, by the halfway mark, you'll wonder: why, oh why, are you torturing yourself?
And by the end. I just sighed and shook my head. What a waste of my time. But this book seems to have gotten a lot of positive reviews, so maybe I missed something, that magic that just wasn't there for me at all. But no, I think not. I'm not even enticed to read the second one, to see if it's better or if it'll get better. But to each their own, and may the force be with you. God knows, you'll need it.
A new Series, The Zodiac Series July 25, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I started this book and I couldn't put it down. I had to keep reading it, a lot happens in this first book. Joanna was raped at 15 and beaten and left for dead. Now on the eve of her 25th birthday, she finds out that she is not her Father's true Daughter, goes out on a blind date and gets attacked by a weird creepy guy that tries to kill her and meets back up with her teenage boyfriend, Ben. They go out to dinner and she leaves him to go and meet her sister Olivia afterwards and they get attacked in her sisters penthouse and her sister is murdered. Joanna learns she is the Archer, the first sign of the Zodiac and is made over to look like her sister Oliva and has to bury her sister Oliva who was made over to look like her.
Joanna/Oliva finds out that she is part light, part shadow and has a hard time being accepted by all the other light agents. This book is one roller coaster ride, but it is one fun ride. What happened to the daughter that Joanna gave birth to when she was 16? Is she also an agent of the Light/Shadow since Joanna discovers that she was raped by a Shadow Agent.
I loved this book, a great start to a new series and I already have The Taste of Night, the second sign of the Zodiac. I am looking forward to reading it.
Threateningly Good July 5, 2008
This book, a first in a series, takes a whole knew look and style on the urban fantasy field. A real rare treat. The book takes a look in super hero view.
The main character is haunted by her past. And losing the life she hated, she realized how much she loved it, and how much she was never really living. She was the one killing her self and not the man who ended her happiness. All while having to live in her body, surgically altered to look like her sister. Who she watched plummet to her death.
With that little taste, the whole book is like that. Rich and deep. Every page a refreshing break from boring plot, to major mystery. This book just delivers. Delivers characters you can't miss, a plot that is just to good, and so much more.
The whole book is dark and gloomy. And that includes the humor, which has you giggling when you should be solemn.
Light and dark fighting. Their powers coming from the Zodiac, a good and a dark one. If that isn't different enough for you, there is more.
**** Take a chance with this new and DIFFERENT type of Urban Fantasy. Especially if you have ever loved a good hero movie. If urban fantasy meets super hero doesn't empress you. Then there is much more awaiting.
Stole this out from under my husband's nose! June 17, 2008
My husband bought this book for himself and I was intrigued, he'd never read this sort of book before, and although I've read some fantasty in the past this series was not on my radar.
I've spent the last three or four nights reading this after he's gone to sleep, it is hard to put down!
I like the heroine, I like the plot, and I like the characters. I like that the author takes her time in telling the story, instead of rushing one though it. The plot is suspenseful and satisfying. This book, though the first in a series, did not leave me with a let - down, it finished the arc of the storyline completely, while successfully setting up the potential for a new story in the series.
 Surprising May 17, 2008
I had given this book quite a thought because I didn't know if that book would be of my likeness or not. First I decided I didn't want to buy it, and afterwards I decided against it after having read some pages. And I'm glad I did because I found this book fascinating. I like the idea of two sides of the zodiac, one light and another shadows, and that they have to work for the balabce. Is like the topic of good and evil but with some new twist added on the middle. I also liked the fact that the main character, Joanna, is a little of both sides, and she can choose in what side to be. I liked it, because the other ones where born to be light or to be shadow, without being able to chose.
All in all, is a nice book to read, and I enjioyed the fact that Joanna has to accept who she is now before asking for acceptance between her comrades. Right now I'm reading the second one, and I'm also enjoying it.
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