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A review by rissau
Shadow Game by Christine Feehan
2.0
Not the worst I’ve ever read, but quite far from the best. The plot of Shadow Game is everything that I’ve been looking for, albeit with an extremely clumsy writing style and choppy pacing. I loved Lily and her backstory and development. But my biggest issue and the reason for the low rating was undoubtedly the romance.
I hate hate HATE the romance in this book. The “instant connection” stuff was such a cop-out. Plus, I absolutely cannot stand when casual sexism is painted as charming. Ryland straight up creeped me tf out at times. I could look past it initially because their first meeting was so compelling, but Ryland and Lily together became unbearable. You can skim over the sex scenes because they are dumb and terrible. Stop saying generous breasts. STOP IT.
Ryland was so very poorly written. Somehow overbearing yet completely useless. It’s painfully clear he has absolutely no respect for Lily. The parts where he was supposed to be heroic and charming came off as just a bundle of red flags.
There are lots of plot holes. Make your peace with that right now. The timeline was totally unclear. And the characters had little to no development or layers. Arly particularly got on my last damn nerve.
It bothers me that she was essentially born with these abilities, yet he somehow knows more about them despite seemingly having just gotten them. Why did you have such a cool smart main character and do nothing with her????
Unfortunately, the series concept might be interesting enough for me to check out a couple more titles, but I’m going to have to take a break to stop being mad about this book first.
P.S.
If anyone has any recommendations for books with a similar plot with romance that doesn’t make me cringe to death, feel free to drop them in the comments. I’d be crazy grateful.
I hate hate HATE the romance in this book. The “instant connection” stuff was such a cop-out. Plus, I absolutely cannot stand when casual sexism is painted as charming. Ryland straight up creeped me tf out at times. I could look past it initially because their first meeting was so compelling, but Ryland and Lily together became unbearable. You can skim over the sex scenes because they are dumb and terrible. Stop saying generous breasts. STOP IT.
Ryland was so very poorly written. Somehow overbearing yet completely useless. It’s painfully clear he has absolutely no respect for Lily. The parts where he was supposed to be heroic and charming came off as just a bundle of red flags.
There are lots of plot holes. Make your peace with that right now. The timeline was totally unclear. And the characters had little to no development or layers. Arly particularly got on my last damn nerve.
It bothers me that she was essentially born with these abilities, yet he somehow knows more about them despite seemingly having just gotten them. Why did you have such a cool smart main character and do nothing with her????
Unfortunately, the series concept might be interesting enough for me to check out a couple more titles, but I’m going to have to take a break to stop being mad about this book first.
P.S.
If anyone has any recommendations for books with a similar plot with romance that doesn’t make me cringe to death, feel free to drop them in the comments. I’d be crazy grateful.