Shadow Storm by Christine Feehan – Review & Excerpt
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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date May 25, 2021
Description:
A long-simmering feud between two families comes to a head in this gripping novel in Christine Feehan’s New York Times bestselling Shadow Riders series.
As the youngest member of the Ferraro family, Emmanuelle has watched each of her brothers find happiness in love while her own heart was shattered by a lover’s betrayal. For two years she’s stayed as far away from Valentino Saldi as possible—until she learns that he’s been shot during a hostile takeover of his family’s territory.
Emme’s first instinct is to call her brother Stefano for help, and soon the entire Ferraro clan arrives to bring Val back from the brink of death and protect the Saldis from further attack. With one choice Emme has re-exposed herself to Val’s intoxicating pull and dragged her family into the Saldis’ private war.
A deadly storm is brewing, and only time will tell who survives…
Barb’s Review:: Shadow Storm by Christine Feehan is the 6th book in her fantastic Shadow Rider series. I have waited for Emme’s story, and Shadow Storm was so good, I just pray Feehan continues this series; as this has become my favorite. This entire series has been great so far, and Emmanuelle and Valentino’s story is the best one yet.
Emme has been a major character throughout every book, as she is a fabulous heroine, and after seeing all her brothers find their mates, she is determined to allow herself to enter an arranged marriage. But she has not gotten over her love of Val Saldi, the forbidden love; a man who helps run the Saldi crime family. When Emme receives a desperation phone call that Val has been shot, and they need her help, she immediately drops everything to go to his rescue; but she smartly alerts her brother Stefano, and the entire Ferraro family will meet Emme, and help the Saldi’s against a hostile attack within the Saldi family. Emme has not seen Val for two years, and she is immediately drawn back to him.
The hostile attack is stopped, and Val slowly recovers from his injuries, hell bent on winning Emme back into his life. It is here that Emme will explain to her family, how when she was younger, she saw strange things like ropes all around her shadow. Stefano and Ricco question Val, who claims he knows about the binding, but did not know much else, except what he researched from the old days of rumors.
The Ferraro’s know Emme loves Val, and they will support her, as well as make a deal with Saldi to help stop the hostile takeover from another family member of the Saldi family. Val loves Emme, and does not plan to allow her to run away again, he wants her to marry him. Will the Ferraro’s allow Emme to marry their old enemy and make her happy?
I loved how the Ferraro’s began to work closely with Val, Dario to find the culprits in the family, as well as discover who is behind the horrible trafficking ring selling very young children. This was an emotional story on many levels; the mob war, the child porn ring, as well as the sizzling romance between Val and Emme. He wasn’t happy that she wanted to remain a shadow rider, and she was determined to do what she was trained to do. Over time she will not only work with her family, but at the same time use her ability to be in the shadows to help Val and Dario find the enemies within.
Shadow Storm was an exciting, tense, heart pounding, nonstop edge of your seat action, from start to finish. Their romance was steamy and I did love them together. I loved seeing all the Ferraro’s again, as they were such a great family (not the mother Eloisa, who was horrible). Dario turned out to be a great character, and I would love for him to find a woman that could handle him. ? I also would like a story on Elie, who was also great, and Emme’s best friend.
Christine Feehan once again gives us a fabulous story, which as noted was the best one yet. Shadow Storm was a great read, and so very well written by Feehan. If you have not read this series, you need to start with the first book. If you have read them all, you will love this one.
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Sandy’s Review: SHADOW STORM is the sixth instalment in Christine Feehan’s contemporary, adult SHADOW RIDER erotic, paranormal romance series series focusing on the Ferraro family. This is Emmanuelle Ferraro and Valentino Saldi’s story line. SHADOW STORM can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story lines is revealed where necessary.
SOME BACKGROUND: The Shadow Rider male must find his mate –a woman who is capable of riding the shadows-or at the very least with the ability to bear children with the shadow-riding gene. Within the family, the Ferraro siblings are tasked with finding a mate, fated by DNA, who is capable of continuing the family line. People with the ability to ride the shadows are few and far between, and future generations are at risk if no mates are found with the shadow-riding gene. The Ferraro’s are also part of the Chicago Underworld-a crime family linked to both legal and criminal activity.
NOTE: Due to the nature of the story line premise, there may be some triggers for more sensitive readers.
Told from dual third person perspectives (Emmanuelle and Valentino) SHADOW STORM focuses on the forbidden relationship between Emmanuelle Ferraro and Valentino Saldi. The Saldi and Ferraro family have been at war for as long as anyone can remember . Both are a powerful members of the criminal underworld, and in this, are in direct competition with one another but Emmanuelle’s attraction and need for Valentino has not gone unnoticed-there is something about their shadows that cannot be contained. Valentino Saldi has known Emmanuelle Ferraro is his fated mate the day his shadow reached out and started to intertwine with Emmanuelle’s shadow but the Saldi’s are not Shadow Riders, and in this, their shadows are something else, something ‘other’. An attack against the Saldi’s at their exclusive and heavily armed compound points a heavy finger at an inside job revealing a dark and dangerous secret of human trafficking. With the help of the Ferraro family, Valentino takes control of the Saldi crime family, cleaning house at all costs but someone has targeted our story line heroine, and Valentino is taking no prisoners in his fight to protect the woman he loves.
The relationship between Emmanuelle and Valentino is one of the forbidden; a Romeo and Juliet style of relationship where the potential for war is always close at hand but Emmanuelle struggles with the realization that something else plays a large part in the attraction between our leading couple, something of which Emmanuelle was never in control. The $ex scenes are intimate, passionate and aggressive.
There is a large ensemble cast of colorful, energetic and powerful secondary and supporting characters including all of the previous story line couples, as well as several cousins and members of the extended Ferraro family, and the Ferraro matriarch Eloise and her significant other Henry. We are introduced Valentino’s cousin and right hand man Dario, and Valentino’s father Giuseppe. The requisite evil has many faces.
SHADOW STORM is a story of betrayal and vengeance; power and control; horrific crimes against children and women. Christine Feehan’s stories have become increasingly more violent and graphic with references to child trafficking, slavery and abuse, killings and rape, and most of it directed at the female characters, therefore, a warning of potential triggers is definitely a must. The premise is raw and gritty; the romance is fated and impassioned; the characters are animated, forceful and captivating. SHADOW STORM is a dark, emotional and heart breaking story of about the abuse of power, and the twisted world of human trafficking.
Emmanuelle nodded slowly, the hurt ripping through her every bit as physical as it was emotional. She stood in the shadows, in his bedroom. She hadn’t been able to hold out any longer, and she’d gone to him, ready to commit to their relationship.
“I was going to tell him I loved him. I would have given up shadow riding for him. Being a Ferraro. Everything I am, to be with him. I went to him, and he was with another woman. In his bedroom. She asked about me, told him she’d heard he was with me. He kind of snickered and said I was just business. He’d been ordered to make me fall in love with him and was fucking me to get me to spill the Ferraro secrets. Did he really want to be with a spoiled baby who didn’t know jack about sex? That’s why Vittorio beat the shit out of him at the hotel that day. I inadvertently said something. I had before, but no one was really listening to what I said, I guess.”
Elie groaned. “For fuck’s sake, Emme. I practically said the same thing about Brielle. How can you even look at me?”
“Clearly, you aren’t Valentino Saldi,” Emme said. “You hate what you did to Brielle and tried to apologize. She just didn’t give you the chance.”
Elie was silent for a long time. He swirled his straw and then looked up at her, his dark eyes pure velvet. “Has Val ever tried to explain to you what he said and did?”
She felt the color drain from her face. Her body went stiff with shock. “Yes. Many times. I can’t listen to him. I don’t dare let myself.” She whispered the confession like a terrified child.
“Why, Emme? You’re a Ferraro. A Shadow Rider. Why are you so afraid of Valentino Saldi? It shouldn’t matter how sexually attracted you are to him or how emotionally attached. You can hear lies. You can hear them. You know if he speaks the truth. Brielle could have heard the truth if she wanted to hear it. She didn’t. She chose to live with that hurt, and she condemned me and someone else to an arranged marriage because she didn’t have the courage to at least let me explain. Yeah, what I did was wrong. It was so fucked up it wasn’t funny, but she’s not without blame, either, because she didn’t even once let me try to explain in all the times I reached out to her.”
Emmanuelle wanted to put her hands over her ears and drown him out. “Sometimes the cut is so deep, Elie, you can’t bear to ever go there again.”
“Maybe you’re right, Emme. But think about the poor bastard you’re condemning to living with you who will never have real love from you. Your loyalty, yes, but never your love, and he’ll know it. He’ll feel it every damn day of his life.”
“That’s not fair and you know it. You can hardly compare Valentino Saldi, a criminal, with your situation. That’s what you’re doing.”
“Technically, Emme,” Elie said, complacent as always, “we’re criminals. We’re assassins. We kill people, any way we look at it. You don’t know what Val does or doesn’t do. Even Stefano isn’t certain of Val. I know because I asked him.”
Emmanuelle’s phone vibrated, and she pulled it out of her pocket with a little sigh, grateful for the respite. She didn’t want to talk about Valentino Saldi anymore. She didn’t want to think about him. She hadn’t slept in months. She’d cried so many tears she was pretty certain she could have filled a lake. Still, there was an emptiness in her, a pain that just wouldn’t go away. There was no way to explain that to Elie. He’d said hurtful things to a woman, but he didn’t know her. She’d spent time with Valentino for years. He’d made love to her. He’d taken her rough, gentle, slow, fast, looking into her eyes.
She was not going to cry right there in the pizzeria. She clutched her phone like a lifeline and looked down at the message. For a moment she didn’t actually comprehend what she was seeing. Not who it was from or what it meant. Dario. Val’s bodyguard and lieutenant. She thought she’d purged every number. Blocked them all. Why would he reach out to her of all people, even if there was an emergency? This made no sense. Her heart began to pound in alarm.
911. Tell no 1 or he’s dead. Hurry. Place you met last.
