Gazelle in the Shadows|Review

Gazelle in the Shadows by Michelle Peach                                                                                                Source:Recieved from author in exchange for an honest review
Pages:316
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In the mid 90s, Elizabeth Booth is a young British college student studying Arabic at Durham University. With some travel and work already under her belt, she excels at her studies and is sent to Damascus to immerse herself in the language. Taken aback by the generosity and kindness of the people there, she easy slips into a life in the ancient city. She has friends, her studies, and even a handsome boyfriend. But things aren’t always what they seem. Soon, in a world where mistrust and disloyalty are commonplace, Elizabeth finds herself navigating a web of lies, betrayals, and even murder involving MI6, deadly terrorist factions, and the shadowy Syrian secret police.

My review

*Thank you to the author and book publicity services for my review copy. All opinions are my own*

This story follows Elizabeth who is from England as she goes to a university in Syria to complete her year abroad. At the start of the story we know she is kidnapped and the story all leads up to how exactly she got kidnapped.

By already knowing she was going to get kidnapped, I was suspicious of everyone and what they’re motives were . I was right to be suspicious of some people but didn’t guess exactly why. It was still a mystery. I liked knowing what was going to happen at the start because I was more analytical and read between the lines.

I found Elizabeth to be quite frustrating at times because she was quite simple,and at one point tells a stranger exactly who she was and what she was doing.I felt she should have been more careful knowing she was alone and in a foreign country without people she already knew.She was the only person who went to Syria but normally 2 or more students would go. I also found her choice of who she was living with not very good. I won’t reveal why because of spoilers.

This book frustrated me a lot because of the love interest as I didn’t like him but it got less frustrating as more things were revealed and I fully understood the story. I liked that a lot of research was done and the author’s background was showing. It was interesting to learn about Syria in the 90s and what was done then. I found the setting to be beautiful and loved learning more about it.

Overall, I really enjoyed the story and learning about Syria in the 90s. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about Syria and anyone who likes mysteries.

4/5

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Have you read this book? What did you think?