I received this book for free from Jove in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Shadow Reaper by Christine FeehanAlso in this series: Shadow Rider, Shadow Keeper , Shadow Warrior , Shadow Flight
Series: Shadow Riders #2
Published by Jove on May 30 2017
Genres: Paranormal Romance
Pages: 480
Format: eARC
Source: Jove
#1 New York Times bestselling author Christine Feehan continues her sexy new series, as the Ferraros—a Chicago crime family—use their power as shadow riders to protect their empire and the ones they love…
Billionaire playboy Ricco Ferraro knows no other life. Being a shadow rider is in his blood - but so is a haunting desperation stemming from the secrets of his dark past. His recklessness puts not only his life at risk, but also the future of his entire family. To save them all, he must find a woman who can meet his every desire with a heat all her own...
Just when Ricco has given up hope, he meets her - a mysterious woman whose shadow connects with his. She's someone looking for a safe haven from the danger that has stalked her over the last several months. In Ricco's embrace, she finds one. But the darkness in which they so often find sanctuary can also consume them...
What a wild ride this book was and NOT what I was expecting. I really wasn’t sure how this one would compare with book one which I fell in love with. In Shadow Reaper, we have Ricco’s book. Ricco is a bit of a mystery, so I was pleased to see that this was his book. At the beginning of this book, Ricco is in big trouble with his siblings. He ends up in a car accident and almost dies from it. So he is slowly recovering from it, but Ricco is also struggling with his past from his training he had to go to in Japan, when he was only 14 years old. And he goes through some life changing events, events that leads him haunted and threatens the life of himself and his family. Our heroine of the story is a fellow rider. Mariko Majo, was lied to growing up and even though she was trained as a rider, she was made to feel by her adopted family weak and incompetent. When her brother is kidnapped, and she it told to kill Ricco to get her brother back, she goes to investigate Ricco. But posing as a rope model for him, she realizes what a good man Ricco is, and she can’t trade his life for her brothers ,especially when she doesn’t know if killing Ricco would mean getting her brother back.
What I truly liked about this story was seeing a more backstory to the characters. Both Ricco and Mariko, have a strong bond to each other and its just not in the present. They have an important past together, and even though this story was a bit more slow going than book one, I still had a blast with this book and seeing these characters come together. And we get some plenty of fun action between the family members here. We get a bit of a teaser between the sister and Val (I have a feeling that will be a whopper of a read when we get it) and I did love seeing Stefan and Francesca again. And the way they welcome Mariko into the family, despite her not so honorable intentions from the beginning. And I do feel that this book was more exciting in some of the action scenes that are written. I felt as if I was on a roller coaster, and it was very thrilling. The dynamics of the story overall is what really kept me intrigued. It was so wonderful to see this book come together, with the family drama and intrigues, the more complex and depth of characters and the spicy romance. Now I do feel that the romance could have used a bit more juice to it. There was plenty of sex scenes, but I really wanted more of the emotional intimacy between these two, it felt a bit less than book one. Of course, there was quite a bit going on in this book and if you enjoyed book one, I do think you need to pick this one up and fall in love with this fun and thrilling family and I can’t wait to see which sibling will be book three. Overall I found Shadow Reaper to be a thrilling adventure of rich Japanese culture, thrills and chills to keep you on the edge and a epic filled romance to give you all the feels!!
Oh I am so glad you like this!! I just got a copy in the mail and am excited to dive in!
Wow, their backstories and situation doe make for a strong action suspense plot. Neat that they are both Shadows already so you don’t need the explanations and can just get into things.
I have wanted to try books by Christine Feehan forever! This series sounds like a good place to start. It sounds really interesting. I almost always want to see more of emotional intimacy in books than physical, so I feel you! Great review!
Can you believe that I’ve never read anything by Feehan before??!! I do have a few of her books though.
For What It’s Worth
I just recently read the first book to her Dark Carpathian series and while I found it enjoyable, I just didn’t find it enjoyable enough to commit to the series. This one might be worth checking out , though.
I’ve really got to try her. I’m glad you enjoyed this one even if it was a bit of a surprise from what you expected. It sounds pretty neat!
Yay I enjoyed this one as well 🙂
Hmm, that’s interesting. I have this in my review pile and I really need to get to it because I’ve been curious about Ricco since I read the first book. Thanks for the review!
Glad you really liked this one! I can’t wait to start it and see Ricco and Mariko’s backstory. I love the world Feehan created for this series and so far she’s done a great job with the characters. 🙂
I have this series on my to be read list, so I am glad to see you are enjoying it. 🙂
Great review.