Mary’s review of Shadow Walker by Allyson James
Racing her motorcycle down a lonely winter highway, Stormwalker Janet Begay feels the ground collapse beneath her feet. After tumbling two hundred feet into an underground cavern, she manages to escape with help from her sexy dragon-shifter boyfriend, Mick—but not before they disturb some dark forces.
As Janet contends with a hotel inspector intent on putting her out of business, as well as her grandmother, who’s taken up residence, Mick’s behavior becomes strange and erratic, until he is a clear danger to Janet and her friends. Janet’s drag-queen, attitude-ridden magic mirror insists that Mick has been touched by shadows, and the Stormwalker realizes that someone is out to enslave her dragon. Now she must free Mick before he kills her…
Completely drool-worthy, Mick is such a fabulous alpha male and a dragon to boot. Too bad he’s struggling with these shadows that are trying to possess and control him. After he helps out Janet and Nash escape from the skeleton-hand-filled sinkhole (holy cow, I’d have nightmares for ages if I fell into a hole and there were skeletal hands coming after me. *shudder*), Mick emerges from the sinkhole a completely different dragon, one who snaps and snarls at his lover, one who makes Janet’s Magic Mirror scream bloody murder.
The third book in the Stormwalker series, SHADOW WALKER finds Janet on the verge of losing her hotel, her sassy grandmother moving in and putting Janet in her place, and Janet with the mystery of who’s enslaving her boyfriend. On the positive side, Janet’ learning how to combine her Beneath powers with her Stormwalker powers in a way that harnesses the Beneath power so it doesn’t overwhelm her and so Mick and Coyote don’t have to make good on their promise to kill her.
Each Stormwalker book brings new characters and I’m kind of hoping there won’t be too many more added in book four. Right now, there are just enough for an interesting plot without muddying the waters too much. Too many characters can really get confusing. We got to learn a bit more back-story on some of my favorites, namely Coyote and Nash. While I wasn’t a bit fan of Nash in the first book, he really grew on me in the second and, now that I know about his PTSD and experiences in Iraq, I like him even more. And Coyote, he’s just a fabulous character. Who wouldn’t like him?
But back to Mick and Janet. At first, I thought Mick was just being pissy and showing his moody side. But the author had other plans for Mick, slowly enveloping him in shadows until he was completely enthralled to the evil witch. There’s such an amazing connection between Janet and Mick, even when one of them has turned to the dark side. And, of course, the sex between the two of them is H.O.T.
SHADOW WALKER brings the Stormwalker series to another level of awesomeness.
Rating 4.25/5.0
This book is available from Berkley. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
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