[BOOK REVIEW] Shadow Game by Christine Feehan

Title:  Shadow Game

Author:  Christine Feehan

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Year Published: 2003

Number of Pages: 323 pages

Date Read: 2/28/2015

Publisher:  Jove Books

Series: Ghost Walkers #1

Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 15+  (Some Language and Intense Scenes)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

Now, I have read many paranormal romance novels by different authors, but I must admit that “Shadow Game,” the first book in Christine Feehan’s “Ghost Walker” series was the first time I had ever read any of Christine Feehan’s works!  This is really surprising to me because even though I saw like a million books written by Christine Feehan at my local library, I never once thought about picking up any of her books and now I seriously wished I had!

Peter Whitney was a renowned scientist who was able to create an experiment that would help enhance the psychic abilities of an elite squadron in the military and his equally brilliant daughter Lily Whitney would help out on his accomplishments. One tragic day however, Peter Whitney starts to notice that something was going wrong with his experiments as the subjects in question, a group of soldiers who volunteered for this experiment which among them included Captain Ryland Miller, were suddenly dying of mysterious circumstances.  When Peter Whitney discovered about who was sabotaging his experiments, he ends up being murdered before he was able to tell his daughter Lily everything about his experiments.  Luckily, since Lily is a telepath herself, her father was able to communicate with her that she needs to check out the videos of his experiments in order to right the wrongs he had done in the past before he died.  Now, Lily is determined to discover the dark secret of her father’s experiments while trying to figure out who murdered her father.  But in order to learn more about his experiments, Lily has to try to release the soldiers who were being experimented on and there she meets the strong willed Captain Ryland Miller, who she immediately begins to fall in love with.  Lily and Ryland will soon discover that there is more between them then just a telepathic attraction with each other as they discover the dark secrets of Peter Whitney’s experiments together.

Wow!  I seriously cannot believe that I had not read any of Christine Feehan’s books before this one!  Christine Feehan had done a brilliant job at writing this book as the relationships between each character felt so real and raw and I really enjoyed the bantering between the characters, especially between Ryland and Lily!  I also loved the way that Christine Feehan managed to mix romance and action into this book as I was literally sitting on the edge of my seat trying to see if Lily and Ryland discovered who murdered Peter Whitney while developing feelings for each other.  What I loved the most about this book were the characters themselves as they were interesting and fun to read about, especially Lily and Ryland!  Lily Whitney was such a fantastic heroine as she is smart and courageous and I loved the fact that she was willing to put her life on the line in order to right the wrongs of her father and protect Ryland and his men.  I also loved the fact that she has so much scientific knowledge about the experiments that her father was engaged in as it showed how she is willing to use her intelligence to help the people she cared about.  Oh man, Captain Ryland Miller, you wicked devil, you!  I have to seriously say that Captain Ryland Miller is one of my most favorite heroes ever as I loved the way that he cares about Lily and is willing to do everything in his power to protect her from harm.  I also loved his bantering with Lily as I just cannot help but giggle and feel tingly inside whenever he is being so sexy towards her.  One of my favorite quotes from this book is this:

“Your name is Lily Whitney. You are the woman I want at my side night and day. I want you to be the mother of my children someday. I want you for my lover. I want you for the person I turn to when the world gets to be too much.”

For anyone who does not like language in a book, this book does have some language, although it is not as bad as some romance novels.  Also, there are many scenes in this book where the characters are in danger of being murdered and that might be too intense for some people to handle.

Overall, “Shadow Game” is a truly fantastic read for fellow paranormal romance fans and I am definitely going to check out the rest of the “Ghost Walker” series!

 

[BOOK REVIEW] Rin-ne Volume 2 by Rumiko Takahashi

Title:  Rin-ne Volume 2


Author:  Rumiko Takahashi

Genre: Horror / Adventure / Comedy / School


Year Published: 2009


Year Read: 2015


Series: Rin-ne #2


Publisher: VIZ Media


Source:  Library


Content Rating:  Ages 8+ (Some Scary Imagery)


Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

 

After I just read the first volume of Rumiko Takahashi’s latest work “Rin-Ne,” I was dying to read the rest of this series and I managed to pick up the second volume and I enjoyed this volume as much as the first volume!

Sakura Mamiya and Rinne Rokudo continue to go on even more adventures that deal with the afterlife, including trying to help an Ochimusha Ghost find his lost love and helping the ghost of a school girl that drowned in the swimming pool move on to the afterlife.  Later on, however, Sakura and Rinne end up meeting a young man who is a devil named Masato who is plotting his vengeance on Rinne by stealing the soul of a comatose teenage boy and sending him to debt hell!

Can Rinne rescue the boy’s soul before it is too late?

Read this volume to find out!

Wow! This volume was just as hilarious and exciting as the first volume!  I just loved the way that Rumiko Takahashi is able to combine humor, drama and horror into this series so far, as it makes the storytelling even more interesting and unique to read and I just love the way that each character is being written.  I love the fact that Rinne and Sakura’s relationship is not as aggressive as Rumiko Takahashi’s other works like “Inuyasha” and “Ranma ½” as  it made them really stand out from Rumiko Takahashi’s other couples and I enjoy seeing Rinne and Sakura working together to get the ghosts back to the afterlife while trying to learn more about each other.  What I really loved about this volume is that we are finally getting some kind of story arc in this series as the story line that involved Masato seems to implicate that there will be more trouble for Rinne and Sakura up ahead and that Masato might be one of the first threats that Rinne has to face in his adventures and I am curious to see how that will play out in future volumes.  Rumiko Takahashi’s artwork continues to be gorgeous and creative as the scenes of Debt Hell are amusing to look at as Hell in this volume is depicted as a casino rather than a terrifying place where demons and monsters run rampant in a fiery pit.

Even though there are not as much scary images in this volume as in the last volume, the fact that this series has some scenes of the afterlife might disturb some readers who might find some of the demons in this book a bit disturbing to look at.  

Overall, “Rin-Ne Volume Two” is a fantastic follow up to the first volume of this intriguing series and I definitely cannot wait to check out the rest of the volumes in this series!

Feature and Follow Friday #3: Making a Recovery

The Feature and Follow Friday Meme is hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read and basically what this meme is all about is that you get to gain new followers and make new friends with the Book Blogging Community by following each blogger!  All you have to do is leave your name and your blog name on the post on the main Feature and Follow Friday Meme page and then create your own post on Feature and Follow Friday and link back to the main page and then you visit as many blogs as you want and you tell the other bloggers "hi!" in their comments (on the post that has the Feature and Follow Friday Image). You follow that blogger and they follow you back!  Just make sure to follow back if that blogger follows you back!

Finally! I'm making a full recovery after my cold last week!  So, if you were wondering about why I hadn't posted anything last Friday, it was because I was out with a head cold and I couldn't even finish half of the books I was reading last week.  So, now I'm catching up on some books I didn't finish reading last week and I'm hoping to make a full recovery this week!

Question of the Week: Your house is burning down and you have time to select three books you own to take with you. What three books? - Suggested by Alison Can Read

Oh boy, this is a tough question!   I have a lot of books that I would like to take with me if my house burns down, but since this question is asking to take only three books, I'll narrow it down to just three books.

1. The Fool and the Flying Ship: by Eric Metaxas:  This has always been my most favorite children's book of all time and since I take it everywhere I go anyway, I would definitely try to take this book with me if my house burns down.

2. Astonishing X-Men: Unstoppable by Joss Whedon:  To be honest, I want to take all of the volumes in Joss Whedon's run of "Astonishing X-Men."  But since I can only take three books, I chose the final volume of this series "Unstoppable" since I enjoyed this volume the most out of the whole series (even though "Gifted" comes in a close second).

3. Klutz by Henrik Drescher:  Another children's book that I really enjoyed and I would definitely take this with me if my house burns down.

How about you? What three books would you take if your house burns down?

Please feel free to comment!