Magda is a camp follower that hides more than anyone can ever imagine.  Captain Tyric is a soldier in the army of Asdurah with a past that he runs from but soon won’t be able to deny.  Liam is an elf that with a group of fellow warriors shadows the camp where Magda and Tyric are living in for reasons that only Magda can explain.  Sadiah is a healer in Tyric’s camp and his favored companion but she is much more than she seems or even she suspects.  All of them are more than they appear but soon the disguises will need to be shed and they will all have to work together if they want to save the kingdom of Asdurah and solve the murder of the king.

A Dance of Shadows has a very interesting plot and all its characters are appealing.  Magda is an interesting woman with unsuspected strength and power.  Tyric and Liam are very striking with their Alpha male traits and their attraction for each other.  All the while, Sadiah remains a mystery for the large part but her revelations at the end while not unexpected are arresting.  All in all, A Dance of Shadows is interesting and Edda Hawkins did a good job with it.  However, the plot of this book was a little too complicated for the length.  It felt like it was missing a lot of the background information that would have explained the world, the events occurring in it and how the characters fit into the events.  Also, the flow in the action wasn’t smooth – it seemed to skip the details that would have lead to an outcome that could be clearly understood and the myriad of seemingly unrelated sub-plots were confusing until the very last when they are connected.  In the end, I felt I was unable to get completely involved in the story because I had to go back and forth in the narrative to be clear what was happening and the emotions of the characters and their encounters felt shallow.  Still, Edda Hawkins does a good job of creating an interesting world and characters that I would have liked to see further explored.  All the same, I look forward to reading future works by Edda Hawkins as this author shows a lot of promise with her debut book.  A Dance of Shadows is a good fantasy read for a lazy rainy day.