Claimed by Shadow

Claimed by Shadow (2007) Karen Chance

This book left me feeling…annoyed.

I went and checked, and here’s how I summed up Touch the Dark:

(I)t’s an interesting story with some flaws, but for a quick read it’s pretty good, and has potential to get more interesting.

Well, unfortunately, it didn’t get more interesting. I mostly found myself annoyed with Cassie, and tired of the fact the she was constantly surrounded by hunky, gorgeous guys. Please. It’s as if absolutely everything in this story related in one way or another to sex. Either Cassie thinking about sex or sizing up every guy some comes across as a potential partner for boinking. Even when she was in danger she couldn’t stop thinking about sex.

Whatever.

There were some interesting fantasy elements in this story. I particularly liked the tattoos–the idea that with magic you could create tattoos that were more than works of art–they could act as offensive or defensive weapons. But in implementation, they were inconsistent. Sometimes they seemed incredibly powerful and other times they seemed incredibly worthless. Of course that goes for Cassie’s powers as well.

Good cover though. I loved the color and use of shadow and the dress and everything.

I also found the “major” death to be unsatisfactory as well. If you’re going to kill someone off then be brave and kill of a major character–not someone you’ve brought it solely for the purpose of giving the heroine cool new toys/powers and then dying valiantly sacrificing themselves for the winsome heroine.

Even the secondary characters that I enjoyed in the first book seemed flatter and more annoying in this book.

If you read Touch the Dark, then you may want to read Claimed by Shadow, to see where the story is going. But I’d recommend picking it up used.

In fact, I know where you can get a copy.

ADDENDUM the First
I don’t think it’s just me. Michael just read Touch the Dark, and was bugging me to finish reading Claimed by Shadow so he could read the sequel when he was done. However, he didn’t even finish the first chapter of Claimed by Shadow before putting it down and moving on to something else. His reason was that Cassie was annoying him.
Rating: 5/10

• Browse the archives:
  
• Swordspoint » »
• « « Magic Bites