Paranormal Romance Review: Shadows of the Past by Carmen Stefanescu

When Anne and Neil leave on a one-week holiday hoping to reconcile after a two-year separation, little do they know that destiny has other plans for them. Their discovery of human bones and a bejeweled cross in the hollow of a tree open the door to the supernatural realm and the anguished life of Genevieve, a nun from medieval England.

Can Anne save her relationship and help Genevieve her eternal rest?

The twists and turns in this paranormal tale keep the reader guessing up to the end and weave themselves together into a quest to rekindle love.

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Carmen was born in Romania, the native country of the infamous vampire Count Dracula.

She graduated the Bucharest University, the Germanic Languages Faculty.Teacher of English and German in her native country and mother of two daughters, Carmen Stefanescu survived the grim years of communist oppression, by escaping in a parallel world, that of the books.

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I really enjoyed this book.  I loved the originality of the story and the plot twists and turns.  I loved the parallel storytelling and the paranormal aspect of the book.  I liked the beautifully painted world and the intricate detail the author goes in to to create the characters and their surroundings.  The mystery was very well written with a huge bombshell of an ending (which was awesome!).  But not everything was great.  

The development of the characters and the pacing of the story left something to be desired for me.   I wanted to love Anne and Genevieve, and at first, their characters had tremendous promise.  But no matter how far into the story I read, I couldn't find myself emotionally connected to these characters.  The introduction of them - perfect.  Their growth - just not enough.  I wanted to watch them develop so much more, and felt like the story would have benefited from it.  And their lack of growth, stunted the pacing as well.  

That being said, however, it didn't stop me from liking the book.  There were so many elements that went in to this book, and so many of them made it easy for me to move beyond the character development and get lost in the world the author created.  She is a very talented author, and I would love to read more from her in the future.  

Rating: 4 stars 

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.  All conclusions reached are my own.