They Own the Night
Title: Shadow Game (Ghost Walkers, Book 1)
Author: Christine Feehan
Genre: Paranormal Romance (Romantic Suspense/Telepathic)
Synopsis:
A classified military experiment goes terribly wrong when the volunteers start to die under questionable circumstances. An elite special ops unit (The Ghost Walkers) undergoes a series of treatments designed to enhance psychic abilities making them extremely valuable as military weapons. Held captive in underground cells, the men soon come to realize that they are prisoners as well as study subjects. When the program creator is murdered, the men suspect foul play...and Captain Ryland Miller has a feeling he will be next.
Dr. Lily Whitney is the brilliant daughter of the program's creator. Also gifted with psychic abilities, she knows that Captain Miller's suspicions are more than justified. After telepathically experiencing her father's murder, Lily feels obligated to honor her father's dying wish for her to "make it right." Her father's murderer would do anything to get his hands on her father's research. Lily must find a way to locate it before the murderer does, but Lily also discovers that her father's research may reveal things about her that she'd rather not know.
As a fan of paranormal stories, this series is a nice break from the vampires, shapeshifters, and wizards...(OH MY!) I like the way it kind of felt like I was reading a thriller like "Patriot Games" with liberal amounts of sexual healing mixed in. To be sure, much of romance is cheeze whiz, but when the author tries to have an actual *story* in there, the experience is that much more gratifying. This one fit the bill for me.
The Good:
- The Ghost Walkers are a decent multicultural mix of heros and for me where there is generally little to no POC in this genre, a little bit goes a long way.
- Feehan did a beautiful job of not making the reader wait too long for the hero and heroine to fall into each other, but it was still within the confines of what we call "romance" as opposed to "erotica" where there are no emotional/romantic connections established prior to the "getting busy" part. I like the slow burn pace of this novel and the effect was rather enjoyable and rewarding.
- The bathroom scene. Good Lord. Captain Ryland's got mad game.
- Captain Ryland Miller can cook...and he's a great dancer. (Clearly this should be classified as a "fantasy" novel!!)
- Lily has the same body issues as most women which helped me warm up to her sometimes stiff personality.
- Captain Ryland Miller is a dreamwalker, meaning just like another beloved romance novel hero, he can get at you in a dream. ::thud:: The pisces in me is screaming with delight at this ability. There is NOTHING more erotic than that.
- I have read the complaints that claim this author tends to fall into fits of purple prose from time to time. Though her writing at times was a little on the "flowery" side, I didn't find it to be distracting or annoying.
- There were a couple of passages where the dialogue and descriptions got a tad repetitious which tends to make me a little panicky especially when I'm enjoying the story. I start to worry that she's run out of good ideas and there is nowhere to go but down. I hope that's not the case.
- Brilliant and grown ass Dr. Lily reading books to learn about sex? Faaaaailure!!!
- The promotional trailer for this book is nothing short of a large stinking pile of yagottabefukkinkiddinme! I'm not gonna hold that against the book, but please do yourself a favor. If you feel you must check it out on Feehan's website, read the book first. I swear I would have run so far away from this book had I viewed that thing first. It totally killed the sexy that was going on in my head.
- The Ghost Walkers are a nice twist on the whole "Band of Brothers" sort of story. A military team trained to blend into shadows while armed with telepathic abilities and the power of persuasion...you can do a lot with that... and you'll never see them coming. (pun somewhat intented)
- While reading this novel, I noticed shades of some of the other paranormal romances I've read recently. Noting that this book was originally published back in 2003, I wonder if some authors borrowed from this series or is it just only so many ways you can spin this stuff and duplication is bound to occur?
- I really loved the telepathic communication between the hero and heroine in this novel. The dreamy soul in me just gobbled up that whole "reaching out through the distance to share the pain" aspect of the story. This book found my soft spot and exploited it. I ain't mad about it though.
- Although it worked for this novel, I'm kinda getting over the cold, intelligent, non emotional, virginal, sexually frosty female shero, just laying in wait for superlover to come along and melt the ice away.
- Feehan writes very nice erotic scenes. Yep. That's all I have to say about that.
Given the depths of which I really enjoyed this book, I am actually surprised I don't have more to say about it. It's one of those paranormal romances that doesn't necessarily come off as all that "paranormally" if that makes any sense. These men aren't otherworldly...just exceptional...and I kinda like that. It gives me hope that I might someday find my own Captain Miller.
It could happen, right?
Overall Rating: A
Song Dedication: "At Last" - Etta James
Quote: "Am I tempting you, Lily?"