Reviewer: Rowena Shadow Woman by Linda Howard
Publisher: Ballantine
Publication Date: December 26, 2012
Format: eBook
Source: NetGalley
Point-of-View: Alternating Third
Genres: Romantic Suspense
Pages: 352
Add It: Goodreads
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
From Linda Howard comes a thrilling and sensual new novel of romance, suspense, intrigue . . . and memories that can kill. SHADOW WOMAN Lizette Henry wakes up one morning and makes a terrifying discovery: She doesn’t recognize the face she sees in the mirror. She remembers what she looks like, but her reflection is someone else’s. To add to the shock, two years seem to have disappeared from her life. Someone has gone to great and inexplicable lengths to keep those missing years hidden forever. But the past always finds a way to return. Strange memories soon begin to surface and, along with them, some unusual skills and talents that Lizette hasn’t a clue about acquiring. Sensing that she’s being monitored, Lizette suddenly knows how to search for bugs in her house and tracking devices in her car. What’s more, she can elude surveillance—like a trained agent. Enter a mysterious and seductive stranger named Xavier, who claims he wants to help—but who triggers disturbing images of an unspeakable crime of which Lizette may or may not be the perpetrator. With memories returning, she suddenly becomes a target of anonymous assassins. On the run with nowhere to hide, Lizette has no choice but to rely on Xavier, a strong and magnetic man she doesn’t trust, with a powerful attraction she cannot resist. As murky waters become clear, Lizette confronts a conspiracy that is treacherous and far-reaching and a truth that, once revealed, may silence her and Xavier once and for all.
BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from Linda Howard's Running Wild.
Praise for Shadow Woman “Dazzling . . . From the opening line, [Shadow Woman] will grab readers and take them on an exhilarating and terrifying adventure!”—RT Book Reviews “Fast-paced, intricately detailed romantic suspense . . . Readers won’t want to put it down until the extraordinary conclusion. . . . Highly recommended.”—Fresh Fiction “An intriguing plot and captivating characters [with] lots of drama, tension, intrigue and suspense.”—The Star-Ledger
It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book by Linda Howard. I don’t even remember the last book that I read by Howard but whatever it was, I read it a while ago. I was kind of wary going into this read because I read online that a chunk of readers were disappointed in this book and I also read that the hero and heroine don’t even come together (like talk to each other) until more than halfway through the book. So yeah, I was scared to start this one.
Having read it from cover to cover now, I can say that the readers were right that the hero and heroine talk to each other (as love interests) for the first time at about the 70% mark on my Kindle copy. But I wasn’t too mad about that, I was actually very interested in what was going on in the story that I didn’t mind too much.
This story takes place in DC and follows Lizette Henry as she tries to remember the life that brought her to where she is today. She wakes up one morning and doesn’t recognize the face that is looking back at her in the mirror. Things aren’t adding up to what she knows and she starts to remember how to do things that she can’t remember learning so a huge chunk of this book is trying to find out what happened to Lizette that brought her here and so on and so forth.
Lizette is known as Subject C to the people that are monitoring her. Her entire life is bugged. There isn’t a part of her life that isn’t carefully monitored and Lizette doesn’t have any idea why. When flashbacks start coming in, Lizette starts relying on old habits that she doesn’t remember but knows how to do anyway. When the bullets start flying, Liz is on her own until the guy that she’s been dreaming about, X shows up and at first she doesn’t trust him because he shows up with guns and he’s chasing her and blah blah blah but that changes after they finally talk.
I enjoyed this story but I will admit that it was really slow in the beginning. It took me a while to really get into the story but by about the fifth or sixth chapter, things picked up and things got interesting. I enjoyed the characters and I enjoyed the putting the puzzle pieces together. This book was kind of like The Hangover, the Secret Service edition. Lots of action, not a lot of romance but still an enjoyable read. I would have liked to get to know Xavier a bit more but aside from that, this was a good read.
Rating: 3 out of 5.
