Shadow Reaper

Honestly if you read Feehan you already know her plot twists, you know the ups and downs. I thought that with this series she was moving on with her mind altering repetition. I was wrong. Every single one of her heroes is exactly the same. Type: rich controlling stoic dominant who's "gentle" to the people they care about. Lead female: quiet, stay at home type that LOVES to cook and clean and wants to have many children ASAP. Sometimes the female lead can fight. fyi Feehan has this thing about woman being actively abused by her partner or has been viciously/sexually abused in the past. In this particular book she kept saying "wasnt uncomfortable" when describing the roping... which only made me think, would it be uncomfortable if i tried it? Which in turn made the sex scenes just plain not sexy. Maybe one of her worst works yet? At least with the leopard series the underlying plot makes every repetitive chatacter not so bad. This series is like if she tried to combine her carpithian novels and the leopard novels into one. Its not working. What kills me is that shes on this looks and acts like an evil man, engrossed in crime and drugs, but is actually a saint/misunderstood/amazing human being kick that im soo over already. Maybe this book will be good for new Feehan readers. For those that cant recongize the signs of misogyny (in all her books: the lack of female voice [speaking out only in private because its not her place to have an opinion]; the controlling of person, he tells her what to wear, who to talk to, what to feel, what to say; the severe inequality in all things sexual. The female is almost always a virgin, if shes not shes been raped while the man has ALWAYS has A LOT of woman and those woman never meant ANYTHING. Never one serious relationship. I mean im just gonna stop here.

I absolutely loved the first book in the series so I was very excited to read SHADOW REAPER. While I liked the story, I didn't really like Ricco and Mariko. I felt that their relationship developed too fast and was missing something. I had a difficult time liking them. They weren't written badly, I think it boils down to the phrase: "It's not them, it's me." I did enjoy the storyline very much and I am hoping against hope that Emme's (the only Ferraro sister) book is next! She has a complicated past with one of the characters in this, and the previous book. A sort of Romeo & Juliet/West Side Story kind of vibe that I'm DYING to find out more about! I definitely think readers will enjoy the book. Please don't let my nit-picky hangups about Ricco and Mariko stop you from taking a chance on this exceptional and exciting book! SHADOW REAPER can be read as a standalone but I'd recommend you check out book 1, SHADOW RIDER, first. Stefano is super dreamy! ***I voluntarily read a Net Galley copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and feelings are my own***

a promising premise with a disappointing conclusion. it's been said before that this story has a troubling lack of morally good japanese characters, but feehan also includes one of her few (if not only) gay characters ever, but with a narrative that isn't any better (worse, actually). i'm a longtime fan and this book was a blow for me – mostly for those two reasons. i hope her future books leave a better impression. narratives and good representation are important.