Shadow Warrior

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.

Hot Alpha Male, Strong women, steamy sex, intrigue and suspense describes Shadow Warrior (Shadow 4). It is a fine line to have an Alpha controlling male,one who wants to protect you, not become controlling as to leave you with no choices, no life other than him, no friends. This was not the direction that Christine Feehan went, this is just a comment that it is a very fine line. Just as I was starting to think, nope too far, Christine Feehan shows the other side, the rest of the story and I sit back in my chair to continue this adventure. The creepy "brother" had me checking everywhere as I read this book. I thought maybe this was an evil shadow walker because he was soooo good at not getting caught, and hiding, not being seen. He truly perpetuates evil where ever he went. Graphic for some people. The sex, was the staple Christine Feehan (Erotic) and rated X (not plain jane mom and pops). I was getting a little lost with the Mob portion but when I reread it I so see the ground work for a coming book. Some twists down the road perhaps. The awesomeness of this book is really the staple in all Christine Feehans books, family. The love, the support through the bad, the evil, the twisted. Thank you for the arc! All thoughts an opinions are my own and were unsolicited.

I really enjoy this series! I love the entire Ferraro clan—except Eloisa, for obvious reasons. Book 4 is Vittorio’s and he’s ready for his own happily ever after. He finds his possible future in the lovely Grace. Vittorio stumbled upon the botched kidnapping of Grace and she is injured trying to protect him. Vittorio brings Grace home to take care of as she convalesces, despite her many protests. Close quarters help develop chemistry and soon sparks are flying! The Ferraro clan rally around Grace to protect her just as burgeoning tensions with an enemy family come to a head. Danger lurks around every corner but it’s business as usual for The Ferraros. The story is fast-paced and exciting with those uber-sexy Ferraro men! They can sure wear those dangerously tailored pin-striped suits, can’t they? What I really like about the series is that it’s full of tough women. Grace is strong and refuses to be rolled over by Vittorio’s overbearing alpha-male protectiveness without giving as good as she gets. The couple paired well together. My favorite character is the only Ferraro sister, Emmanuelle. She’s in love with the son of the enemy family. Years earlier, he broke Emmanuelle’s heart and her trust. I really hope her story is next! Another exciting read from Christine Feehan! ***I voluntarily read and reviewed a Net Galley copy of the book provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review***