More Reviews at Readers In Wonderland 
 I wanted to love this so much. It has such a great premise, and it could have been so much more. Wasserman's other novels were awesome and I expected this one to be the same but it fell short. I kept reading it because I had high hopes it would become better-many reviews had said it was slow in the beginning but would pick up. 
 THE BOOK OF BLOOD AND SHADOW even looks like such a great book, the mysterious cover, the title; if you flip through the novel there are pages of Latin, and the city of Prague silhouetted in Nora's eyes on the cover. I couldn't wait to start it. 
 In the beginning, there are so many flashbacks and useless information that we have already learned from just reading the synopsis. In between these hefty paragraphs is actual relative information, how she started her translating project in the first place. 
 Reading a book with so little dialogue as this one had was time consuming and a bit dull, I don't want the whole novel to be dialogue but enough that it gives you a break from the huge paragraphs on page after page. 
 The protagonist, Nora, is a pretty weak, ordinary character. I actually liked her "rival" Adriane better, at least she had some spunk. Nora wasn't easy to relate to and that left her somewhat unlikeable. 
 Three stars because I liked the mysteries and secrets, the betrayals and conflicts, and the overall story. The ending was good, it kind of left things open and let you imagine what might happen next. But the character development was next to none, I left feeling like Nora didn't learn anything or grow as an individual. 
 I suggest reading a few other reviews if you are undecided about this, there are many mixed ones out there. If you don't liked a slow paced story, this one is quite difficult to get through. 
 Not one of Wasserman's best, but I do highly recommend her SKINNED trilogy.