Thursday, July 4, 2019

Review: Shadow Warrior by Christine Feehan (@AuthorCFeehan, @BerkleyRomance)

Shadow Warrior
Release Date: June 4, 2019
Publisher: Berkley
Shadow Riders Book #4
ISBN:  1984803522
ISBN13: 9781984803528
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Review Copy Source: NetGalley

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.

I love learning more about the Ferraro family and SHADOW WARRIOR lets us dive deeper into Virrorio's life.

As with the previous books, SHADOW WARRIOR was heavy on romance and relationship development. The chemistry between Vittorio and Grace was there. There was a lot of BDSM and other adult scenes. I felt the whole "You must obey me in everything" theme was a bit much. I understand that was the way Vittorio was, but the way it was explained at like every single turn made it seem forced and uncomfortable. If it hadn't been overly explained, reasoned and talked about in every single moment of the book it would have read better.

The plot outside of the romance was a bit lacking. It's there, but totally in the background and I don't feel like it was as strong as previous books. Not a lot of action and mystery involved. It felt more like an afterthought.

I have seen many reviews for this series mention that these books can be read as stand-alone. While I guess that is true, I don't see why you would want to. We meet and get to know different parts of the Ferraro family with each book and knowing them and the overall continuous background storyline makes each book more enjoyable. Do yourself a favor and start from book one.

I gave it 3/5 stars

* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.