Shadow Game (GhostWalkers, #1) - Christine Feehan

323 pages

Blurb: The classified experiment is the brainchild of renowned scientist Peter Whitney and his brilliant daughter. Lily. Created to enhance the psychic abilities of an elite squadron, it can transform their natural mental powers into a unique military weapon. But something has gone wrong. In the isolated underground labs, the men have been dying--victims of bizarre accidents. Captain Ryland Miller knows he is next. When Dr. Whitney himself is murdered, Ryland has only one person left to trust: the beautiful Lily. Possessed of an uncanny sixth sense herself, Lily shares Ryland's every new fear every betrayal, every growing suspicion, and every passionate beat of the heart. Together, they will be drawn deeper into the labyrinth of her father's past...and closer to a secret that someone would kill to keep hidden


My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've always wondered how your breath can slam out of your lungs. After reading some 20+ books by Feehan, this is still a question that remains unanswered for me. I tried being surprised or excited and no breath slamming out of lungs happened. I even thought of asking The Boyfriend if this happens to him but he already looks at me funny after my last similar experimental question. So this regular feature in Feehan's books where the girl/guy kisses the guy/girl and "His breath slammed out of his lungs" - still unexplained phenomenon.

That mystery aside, this book was very entertaining to me. It helped while away a boring Wednesday at work, and it was short enough that I went home and finished it right before another episode of CSI Miami. While this does fall into the paranormal category thanks to all the psychic fun going on, this was more a comedy for me. I laughed a lot. I don't think that was what Feehan intended. But more on that later.

Some good stuff first. There's a lot of scientific mumbo jumbo in this book. I say mumbo jumbo cause despite all my crime/paranormal TV education and that stuff they tried to teach me in college, not all of it made sense to me. But fascinating it most certainly was. See the blurb for more info. A scientist who manages to expand your mental powers into the psychic realm, and a daughter who serves as his inspiration and herself is an expert in the field. Aah Lily. As a woman you were mostly silly. As a scientist, you were awesome. This fact alone made me read the book faster than usual.

What Peter Whitney, Lily's father and scientist extraordinaire does may be morally wrong, but it made real good reading. He is experimenting on a bunch of special forces men to make them the ultimate military team, but things seem to be going awry (I could have said wrong, but I wanted to use awry. No one uses that word anymore). So he calls Lily for a second opinion. And thus her life changes - she's insanely attracted to the leader of the special forces team (who is kept in a cage, btw), she psychically sees her father being murdered, and other forces are at play who wants the secrets that her father died for. Oh and she herself is psychic.

Now a lil on the Hero of the hour, and this is the comedy part people. Explain to me who on earth talks like this in this day and age. A lot of the book had him speaking like this - either to himself or to her. I cannot picture this man being a ruthless killer with the special forces:

"I'm losing my sanity, Lily. I burn for you, day and night." The words were whispered against her open mouth. "It's not comfortable or pleasant, it hurts like hell. Put me out of my misery, honey. Help me, Lily. I can't think with wanting you."

The man is a leader of men and well, I don't think they knit scarves in the special forces. Yet all his mind was centered on was how she was way out of his class (Physically and financially. This thought came one page after he meets her for the first time and kept popping up for a while), whether she had something going on with Roger the guard, if he could hold her in his arms, if she had underwear on - most of this during what would otherwise be called life and death situations. Well, yeah, he was sweet as hell, and really good in bed, and a pretty good leader - you know all round alpha. But all this stupidity in his head was too funny for me.

All my silliness in this review aside, this was a real neat book. I liked all the scientific stuff, the H/H only wanted to get in each others pants but they were cute together, I liked their conversations, the supporting characters were developed enough that I could picture each of them and I'm eagerly waiting to read the next books on Kaden and Nico. You'll love Lily's extended family of Arly, Rosa and John. You'll also love the villains - in that they play their roles right and you want to slap them as all villains are intended to make you feel. There isn't much of a mystery in this book, you can tell from the beginning who's gonna be in the good and bad guy camps, but it makes fun reading anyway. Oh, also - the psychic stuff these guys can do is pretty neat too. I think I was supposed to mention that in the beginning. But I got sidetracked. I'm giving this one 4/5 for the entertainment it provided.

You know, I don’t think this review is gonna help anyone. But I typed it, so I'll post it