I like The Shadow Reader. 
 I expected this to be in par with Karen Marie Moning's Fever series... but, no. I'm 100% sure even Pink Mac can whip McKenzie's ass in a flash. 
 Kyol - I like. Aren - I really like. 
 (McKenzie - dumbass.) 
 The cover is very misleading, I kid you not. She is not a sword-wielding chick! What a disappointment. The Shadow Reader is my typical UF - human caught up in a world she doesn't want to be in. Poor McKenzie. Although that did not stop her from nurturing an unrequited love towards Kyol. 
 Should I change my rating to a 2?... Because McKenzie is a not as developed as a character I thought she would be. A string of bad, bad decisions seemed to be her specialty. Ding ding! I cannot help rolling my eyes, and smirking about her idiotic thoughts that led to her idiotic decisions. 
 Kyol reminded me of Chaol of Throne of Glass, only because they are both captains and seemed to take their jobs very seriously. Aren, I like... until he became this obnoxious guy because of his supposed "claim" for McKenzie. Really man, I'd go for Team Kyol, if you will always this immature. 
 The constant itch I had while I'm reading The Shadow Reader is that Fae are too human in behavior. Vindictive, yes. Selfish, yes. And yet, if I try to compare Fae here to Fae in the Iron Fey series, the former lot are so inferior. Fae are more wicked and more wicked in Julie Kagawa's books, and that's YA. 
 If ever the next installment shifts to Kyol, I'm going to curse someone to be stuck in the In-Between.