Review: Lost me at the end.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 07 26, 2013
*Spoiler alert...there will be spoilers in this review!*I read Shadowed feeling a sense of enjoyment through most of it.  Even the kidnapping at the beginning didn't bother me, because Reddex at least wasn't trying to have sex with Nina (at least not at first) and his characterization and conditon was such, that he ended up depending and leaning on Nina quite a bit in the story, which I thought was nice.  Nina came across as a gentle and patient soul, and a mature one as well.  She wasn't girlish in the way that Nadiah and Lissa were in their books.  She had some life experience and wasn't afraid to be strong for Reddex. It was clear that she felt compassion and curiousity about him very early on, so the whole kidnapping thing went over as smooth as something like being thrown over the shoulder of a giant emotionally-neurotic Kindred possibly could.  Reddex was kind of refreshing simply because HE DID NOT WANT TO BE TOUCHED.  Desperate because he was supposedly inheriting Saber's job as the leader of their clan (due to Saber being in an "incestuous" relationship with Lissa), Reddex goes to an exiled swamp witch on his planet who tells him she can mute all of the emotions he feels with the blood of a woman with healing hands.  Just so happens that he's dream sharing with some Earth chick, who of course is Nina, and she's a massage therapist.  But of course they crash land on a weird planet and bond (but not BOND because Reddex can't bond a bride to him due to his condition) and then he can't give her up.  Also he discovers Nina mutes others' emotions when she's touching Reddex, and he can't feel hers, so after that, he definitely tries (a little too hard at times) to get into her pants.  Ah well, it is erotica.  Still, the sexy scenes were not as hot as they normally are and I did find myself skimming them a bit at times.  Maybe it's just that it's all getting a little old for me.And then....then I got to the last part of the book, which is basically Kat's bonding ceremony.  It was very very disappointing to me that the story and solution to the issues between Nina and Reddex, was wrapped up with yet another bonding fruit incident.  What's more, since the bonding fruit was involuntarily eaten by most of the the people at the reception, there are suddenly consent issues that come into play.  Some of what was described in passing (regarding a freaking NUN and some twin kindred, more specifically) sounded like dubious consent at best.  I'm certainly not fond of "You must have sex with me even though you don't want to because you'll die due to a health condition" kinds of scenarios.  I just can't get down with that.There will be more books coming I'm sure, especially since she sets up another couple of heroines for their stories in this one.  But I think this was the nail in the coffin for me, and I'll be passing on those.