17 July 2010

Review: Shadowlight by Lynn Viehl


Title: Shadowlight
Author: Lynn Viehl
Series: Kyndred #1 , Darkyn #8
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Release Date: October 9, 2009
Edition: Paperback
Blurb:
With just one touch, Jessa Bellamy can see anyone's darkest secret's, thanks to whoever tampered with her genes. What she doesn't know is that a biotech company called GeneHance has discovered her talent, and intends to kill her and harvest her DNA, When GeneHance is poised to strike, Gaven Matthias is forced to take action. After months of tracking Jessa, he abducts her himself so he can protect her in his underground fortress. Matthias tries to explain what she is and how she can protect others like her, but Jessa has a hard time believing the one man whose secrets she cannot read. She senses he's hiding a terrible truth, and yet his touch ignites a passion she's never known. As a monstrous assassin closes in and forces them on the run, Jessa will have to find another way to discover whether Matthais is her greatest ally.... or her deadliest enemy.



This is the first book I read from this author, and I think that I didn't enjoy it as much as I though I would because I didn't read any of her Darkyn books beforehand.

I was a little lost since the beginning. The narrators of the book kept changing through the novel. There were so many points of view that I ended up closing the book so I could sort out the characters and situations. There were some parts that weren't necessary for the story, and only made it slow. Some characters shouldn't even had have parts of the book told from their point of view, and I skiped a lot of those pages. Also, the articles at the beginning of the parts of the book weren't very interesting, and I had to force myself to read them.
That said, I did found the plot to be very interesting and I wanted to know more about the experiments GeneHance did as well as getting to know better the villian of the plot arc.

This book was catalogated as a Paranormal Romance, but I don't think that's an appropriate category for it. While the romance was focused on Jessa and Matthias, there wasn't a lot of development on that front, and they didn't had as much screen time as I expected. There was a lot of secrecy between them, but instead of asking questions, Jessa goes exploring around so she can get away, instead of stopping and thinking of the consequences of her actions as well as the danger she was placing everybody in.

My favourite character was, without a doubt, Rowan. She's independent, sarcastic and she broke my heart a little in some parts of the book. I wasn't really sure if I was going to keep reading this series, but Rowan is the heroine of the next one, so I'll give it a try just to see her have a happy ending.

In conclusion, this was an interesting book but it had a few flaws that didn't let me get into it.


Memorable Lines:

Rowan left her bike under a tree by the pretty fountain in Price Park, and scanned the area. A couple of people with dogs were walking on the other side of the grounds, but she saw no one else. She checked her watch, and saw it was two minutes to noon.

“You’d better show, Drew,” she muttered, “or I’m going to be pissed at you forever.”

“What else is new?” a voice said from above.

Rowan tilted her head back and saw a man standing in the tree over her bike. “What are you doing up there, you idiot?”

“Maintaining cover, smartass.” He jumped, dropping down twelve feet before landing neatly beside her. “Were you followed?”

“Am I six years old?” she countered.

“No.” He looked her over. “Sixteen, maybe.”


Next Book:
Dreamveil - Kyndred #2 , Darkyn #9


Rating:

2 comments:

Liz @ Cleverly Inked said...

I like steamy book but, it's hard to get past a few things. Great review

Michelle Greathouse said...

Spav,

I love the Darkyn series and have them all on the keeper shelf.

But I did not enjoy Shadowlight. It is so completely different from the Darkyn series.

I was wondering if I didn't give it a chance - if I compared it too much to the Darkyn series - because this is supposed to be a whole new series unto itself. But whatever the reason - it didn't do it for me. LOL

If you get the chance - try the Darkyn series - I think you may like it better.

M