Shadows Along the Battery
*I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*
Title: Shadows Along the Battery
Author: Stacy Clearman
Genre: Young Adult
Publishing: February 6, 2026
Format: Ebook (ARC via NetGalley)
Cover image via Amazon.
This review will not include spoilers about the book.
My Thoughts about the Book:
The first thing that drew me to this book was the book’s title. I thought it sounded mysterious and it made me want to learn more about the story. I was also intrigued by the book’s premise, especially since the description mentioned that dhampirs would be a large focus of the story. I have only read one other series where some of the characters were dhampirs, so I was excited to see how this story would bring them to life. I was also interested in how the author would blend the supernatural and romance elements of the story, since I know some authors tend to focus more on the romance side and others use the romance element as a small piece.
One thing that stayed with me about this story was the way that it discussed grief. The characters felt real in the way that they handled their grief. I liked how one of the characters brought up a delicate situation by saying that they were there for another character, but not pressuring them to talk. I enjoyed seeing how therapy and counseling wasn’t viewed as just a mandatory thing that needed to be done, but something that the main male character wanted to do for themself and found benefit from it. Even though these scenes did help move the story forward, I liked that they weren’t there just for that reason.
I really enjoyed the romance in this story between the two main characters and I appreciated that while it was clear that both protagonists had a crush on each other from the very beginning, it didn’t feel like an insta-love relationship. I liked that the story had them interacting with one another at different places. This helped me feel like I could see how these characters would want to be together instead of just putting them together after one interaction. The main leads are strong characters on their own and it was nice to see that they had commonalities that helped lead them to each other.
While I was reading the story, the location of the book as described-in the book’s description-felt a bit misleading since I thought of the book’s setting as more of a small town rather than a city by the water. I did like that the story was based in South Carolina since it was more unique than other locations of supernatural books that I’ve read. Even though I appreciate the fact that the pacing of the story didn’t drag on, I thought that some of the writing in this story felt disjointed and some of the transitions felt abrupt.
Would I recommend this book?
Yes! This was an enjoyable and easy book to read. I liked that the author took some of the well-known supernatural creatures and themes and gave them a different twist. I would recommend this to anyone who likes reading books with supernatural themes, especially vampires and those who enjoy romance as well. I do think that people who enjoy YA novels would have a fun time reading this book too!
