From the Shadows by Line F. Nielsen

So I think on the whole I would say I enjoyed the book, although I didn’t enjoy all the characters or more to the point, I didn’t enjoy all the characters all of the time.

I know I’m not exactly making myself clear but what I am trying to say is that while I could get my head around the story and I thought the fact the author was willing to take on some pretty tough subject matter was to be commended, I found warming to Nikki took a little work.

There were occasions where I really wanted to almost comfort her and yet a few pages later I was shaking my head in dismay, I understood why she was the way she was but I wanted her to see that she was her own woman and worth a million times more than Mike could have ever fathomed.

She just needed time I got that but her hesitancy and self-doubt while understandable were a little detracting at times and I found myself muttering my way through the text urging support and almost imploring her to find her inner strength.

I hated what she had been through and in a way I think that was why I was so impatient with her, she had wasted so much time with Mike, suffering because of his inadequacies that I wanted her to be the star of the show and it wasn’t until Nathan that I actually thought she was going to actually get what she deserved most, a shot at being truly happy.

I liked Nathan and the support he gave to Nikki, he was the shoulder she needed, the support that she could rely on as she found herself. The interaction between the two of them was the strength of the story, the way they fed from each other.

On a human level this was a strong story about finding your way out of the circle of abuse that until you are willing to fight, will keep even the strongest spirit shackled. Nikki had that fight inside her but had buried it so deep for so long that it too a lot for her to realise that she was worth fighting for.