"Ms. Spangler is a phenomenal writer!"
Shadow Crossing opens up with Celie Cameron on a
standard delivery of medial supplies to a new client on a
planet she has not delivered to before. Everything is
routine and fairly unexciting until she meets her contact,
Rurick and Max. One is an android the other human. But both
look alike with the exception of their eyes and some parts
of their personality. Not wanting to stick around and
debate this Celie would rather complete her transaction and
be on her way, for she has other problems to deal with. Her
good friend's adopted daughter Raven, a Shielder, has
stowed away on her ship and she needs to get her home ASAP.
Rurick and Max lead Celie and Raven to the landing bay
where they meet up with some rebel faction trying to get at
the crown prince. Ultimately their safest bet is to
narrowly escape on the royal star craft with Max and Rurick
and leave Celie's ship and life behind, to hopefully
retrieve later. Ms. Spangler does an excellent job of building the
characters in her book, as we learn Celie is a woman from
an abusive home where in order to save herself she had to
kill her father. This event has left a significant scar
that haunts her and keeps her at arms length with all men.
Raven is 19 and personifies the characteristics of teen
almost adult like mentality, and as such is starting to
take a serious look at the opposite sex. And to make
matters truly interesting Celie has been mislead to believe
that Rurick is an android. And figuring she has nothing to
lose Celie decides to experiment with intimacy on what she
believes to be a safe pseudo-man, because if he is not
human then there is no risk of attachment. All these
dynamics explode as the book unfolds and the plot thickens
as Celie is forced to confront her inner demons and a very
sexy Prince Rurick. Catherine Spangler writes a fabulous sci/fi romance
filled with action and intrigue. Shadow Crossing is apart
of the Shielder Series. Now I have not read these books in
order so I think it is safe to say that this book could
stand-alone. But considering this book takes place in a
rather expansive galaxy with dynamics and situations in all
corners, it wouldn't hurt to just grab the whole series and
read it in order. Either way you won't be disappointed as
Ms. Spangler is a phenomenal writer.
Reviewed by Mindy Lobaugh
Posted October 30, 2006
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