Shadow Rider by Christine Feehan

Shadow Rider by Christine Feehan
Buy Shadow Rider by Christine Feehan at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Paranormal
Reviewer: Emma Mitchell
Summary: A powerful family with a dark secret, Shadow Rider brings an intense, sexually charged story about family ties, love, loyalty and the lengths people will go to protect what is theirs.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 480	Date: June 2016
Publisher: Piatkus
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-0349410357
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Stefano Ferraro is the head of Italian family-run mega business. From hotels to racing cars, the Ferraros seem to have their fingers in many pies, and not all of them are legal. Splashed across the gossip columns of every newspaper and magazine in America the 4 brothers and their sister are a group of gorgeous beings to be reckoned with. The family have a secret though; they are Shadow Riders. They have supernatural powers which allow them to travel, unseen, through the shadows; a power which they use to serve justice when the legal system fails, allowing them to protect their neighbourhood from the criminal underworld.

The shadow riders are a new breed of supernatural power, nothing like I have seen before (I even googled to make sure!) so I must start this review by praising the author for such a unique and daring book. I was however disappointed that we don't get enough of a background or description on the shadow riders. It wasn't until the end of the book that I started to actually understand what they actually do.

We meet Stefano who is the ultimate alpha-male, strong, brooding, chauvinistic and utterly fearsome. Francesca Copella is a very typical heroine, weak and afraid of her past, she is on the run from her own dark secrets. When their paths accidentally cross, Stefano is shocked to see that their shadows connect and discovers that Francesca is a rider too, although she has no idea. From this moment on, Stefano decides that she is now his; he claims her as his own and she is now seen as a form of royalty within his family and their neighbourhood.

The story continues with the struggle Francesca has in entering this world of money, status and power and most of all, the possessive manner in which Stefano tries to seduce her. At times I found it rather uncomfortable that she was so indecisive with her feelings; one minute she acts like she wants to rebel against Stefano and his all controlling nature but the next she is practically throwing herself at him.

It's at this point that the story takes on a very Fifty Shades feel with ample amounts of gratuitous sex that just doesn't seem have a place in the story; of course there is a passionate intensity around Stefano and Francesca however, I felt that it went slightly overboard and found myself skipping through these pages. I also found that the repetitive nature of the descriptive dialogue was rather tedious, we are told the same things about the same characters over and over again which was particularly distracting during the conversations between characters. I would much rather fewer pages and less repetition than having to skip over things we already know.

That being said, I found that I really, really enjoyed this book. My experience of paranormal romance is limited to The Vampire Diaries, Twilight and the various vampire/werewolf movies from mainstream entertainment, so the Shadow Rider is a breath of fresh air and I must again give praise to the author for a fantastic new breed of superhumans and a new slant on the paranormal. There is so much scope for these well written characters to grow and develop into a fearsome family of vigilantes and I am genuinely looking forward to seeing where the author takes them on their next journey. With less repetitive narrative and more action, I am certain that the Shadow Riders will become a firm favourite within the paranormal romance genre.

I really struggled to find something to recommend as further reading having not much experience in the genre, however, I have scoured the reviews made by my fellow Bookbaggers and decided that Darkness Rising: The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong looks decidedly brilliant and is now top of my personal to read pile!

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You can read more book reviews or buy Shadow Rider by Christine Feehan at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Shadow Rider by Christine Feehan at Amazon.com.

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