The Shadowing (Candleglow) [Mass Market Paperback]

But then the author leaves too many loose ends hanging. Like why the heroine has a sense of de-ja vu on approaching the castle at the very beginning. Or why she "knows" the lay out of some of the rooms before she has even seen them. And the possible connection between the hero and heroine having identical sexual dreams over and over.

I feel that Joan Overfield's poor characterisation lets the novel down. Human beings are multi-faceted and have depths. The characters in this book are too flat, one sided, and each seem to have only one trait to define them: Anne's father is only ever irritable. Anne is only ever good; she doesn't even question whether to leave a spooky castle inhabited by a half-mad Laird after her father dies, like any sane girl would. And the hero is only ever tortured.
As far as the love story goes, there just isn't enough conflict between the hero and heroine. It seems as though the death of the heroine's father, early on in the book, is the only turning point for her feelings switching from wary dislike to hopelessly devoted, despite the fact that her beau is unpredictable and violent....

I was frustrated by the fact that it takes Anne three quarters of the novel to discover what the Shadowing actually is, despite the fact that the reader is told in the prologue. It makes for tedious reading when the heroine spends chapter upon chapter thrashing about looking for answers that the reader knows all along.
Once having discovered what is ailing her bad-tempered, tormented lover, she sets about finding a solution to the 4 century old curse that has sent generations of Ruaird's male line to madness and an early death - and the way she saves the day hardly taxes the imagination. I couldn't help thinking that if solving the situation was that easy, all of the hero's ancestors were all simpletons for not thinking of it first and deserved their fate!

And the language that the characters use was so sickly, it often made me break into a smile. For example, Ruairdh says to Anne:
"Sweetest. And you are my sweet, my love. Like a fresh peach, soft and full of the sweetest juice. I adore tasting you."
Being a great lover of books in this genre, I really did give this book a chance and read it right to the end, but although the plot had great potential, a shaky conclusion and bad writing made the characters feel so unreal I couldn't identify with them or care what happened to them in the slightest. For me, it was a novel with more than just a few flaws. Read more ›