Shadow Warrior
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4.3 • 63 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Danger inspires fierce passion when a serial killer threatens Chicago’s Ferraro crime family in this novel in Christine Feehan’s New York Times bestselling series.
Vittorio Ferraro is a man whose family loyalty knows no bounds. He would die for his siblings and the people they love, but what he really wants is to start a family of his own. Deep down, Vittorio has always known finding a woman who could ride shadows would be nearly impossible—let alone one who could accept his particular needs—and he never expected to find her in the middle of a kidnapping.…
Grace Murphy has always been drawn to Vittorio Ferraro—or at least to the billionaire’s public bad-boy persona. Now that she’s under his protection and the sole focus of his intense caring, she can’t help wanting to get as close to him as possible. But Grace knows her presence is putting the entire Ferraro family in danger. Her monster of a brother will never let her go, but Vittorio has no intention of losing the woman whose shadow matches his own.
Praise for Shadow Keeper
“Shadow Keeper is, in a word, a keeper! If you love hot men, sexy women, the good guys winning against the bad guys, love (both sweet and ultra steamy), and family that stands together, then this book is all that and even more.”—Fresh Fiction
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Feehan gracelessly dives back into a world filled with family, suspense, and eroticism with the overheated fourth Shadow Riders novel (after Shadow Keeper). The Ferraro family has a secret: they ride tangible shadows and dispense their own brand of vigilante justice. Vittorio Ferraro is a rich playboy, devoted brother, and broody gothic hero. Enter Grace, a good-hearted event planner who has succeeded despite her difficult upbringing in an abusive foster home. When Grace's foster brother tries to shoot Vittorio and Grace jumps in front of the bullet, Vittorio's interest is piqued, even though getting involved with her means dragging her into a brewing war with a rival family. Feehan works in a heavily glorified depiction of sensual power play, complete with Vittorio emphasizing his alpha dominance by using his "gift" of a compelling voice to manipulate Grace against her will, and focuses intensely on the couple's kinky dynamic. The suspense subplots are well-written, but completely eclipsed by the book-length sexual fantasy.
Customer Reviews
4.5 stars-imaginative and entertaining
4.5 stars--SHADOW WARRIOR is the fourth instalment in Christine Feehan’s contemporary, adult SHADOW paranormal, erotic romance series focusing on The Ferraro family- a group of ‘Shadow Riders’-who are able to ‘use and ride’ shadows, to move about in secret. This is Vittorio Ferraro, and events planner and business owner Grace Murphy’s story line. SHADOW WARRIOR can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story lines is revealed where necessary.
SOME BACKGROUND: The Shadow rider male must find his mate –a woman who is capable of riding the shadows-or at the very least with the ability to bear children with the shadow-riding gene. Within the family, the Ferraro siblings are tasked with finding a mate, fated by DNA, who is capable of continuing the family line. The Ferraro’s are also part of the Chicago Underworld-a crime family linked to both legal and criminal activity.
Told from dual third person perspectives (Vittorio and Grace) SHADOW WARRIOR follows in the wake of Grace Murphy’s abduction and her desperate attempts to protect the man with whom she would fall in love. Used as a bargaining chip for payment of a debt, Grace Murphy would find herself in a hostage situation but a gun fight at a local club owned by the Ferraro family finds our heroine placing herself in danger in order to prevent another death. Enter Vittorio Ferraro, a shadow rider and a member of the Ferraro Crime family, and the man with whom Grace would fall in love. What ensues is the building relationship and romance between Vittorio and Grace, and the potential fall-out as Grace’s past targets everyone she loves including our story line heroine.
Vittorio Ferraro knows Grace Murphy is his fated mate the instant their ‘shadows’ merge and entwine but Grace is unaware of her own family history having spent most of her life in an abusive foster care situation. Hoping to prove to Grace he is not the playboy of reputation and media stories, Vittorio plans a slow seduction of our story line heroine, a seduction that is hindered by family secrets, his mother’s attitude, and Grace’s need to recover and heal. The $ex scenes are intimate, erotic and intense, without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text. Unlike many of the author’s other series, this story line does not focus primarily on the $ex-in fact, our couple do not make love or engage in $ex until the 61% mark of the story.
Once again, there is a large ensemble cast of secondary and supporting characters including all of Vittorio’s siblings-Emmanuelle, Taviano, Stafano (Francesa), Giovanni (Sasha), Ricco (Marika) and their mother Eoisa Ferraro, as well as a number of cousins, all of whom are shadow riders, working as security, assassins, and business specialists. The requisite evil has many faces including Grace’s foster brother Haydon Phillips, and the Saldis crime family, who may or may not declare war against the Ferraro family.
SHADOW WARRIOR is a story of family, loyalty, secrets, power and control. The premise is intriguing, imaginative and entertaining; the characters are intelligent, energetic and colorful; the romance is spicy and hot. There were some issues of repetition but such is the style of Christine Feehan, repetition that she uses to reiterate some facts and information.