Review: Shadowlight by Lynn Viehl
A young heiress to an historic Savannah mansion arrives for her first day at a new job. Before the day ends, she'll be in the hospital, in critical condition after being shot by the deranged former employee who killed her new boss and her boyfriend. Minerva disappears from the hospital three days later and assumes a new identity to hide from those who want to find out why she healed so quickly and why she has the ability to see the deepest, darkest secrets of any person she touches. When those people, who seek to profit from her abilities, find and begin pursuing her, she must rely on a mysterious stranger who kidnaps her — for her own protection, he says — who's keeping his own secrets.
Shadowlight is set to release in October, the first (I believe) novel in a planned series of novels about the “Kyndred” — orphans with mysterious backgrounds who've developed unusual gifts that they hide from those around them. It carries forward some of the characters from Viehl's popular Darkyn novels (stories about vampires and those who hunt them) and their storylines, and is written in much the same style as those books. Like her previous books, Shadowlight includes vivid characterization, a suspenseful plotline, eternal love, and . . . a warning for my conservative Christian friends . . . graphic sex scenes. For me, the book would be better without the latter, but Viehl fans probably expect this component.
With that warning, I recommend this well written, engaging book to readers who enjoy paranormal romantic suspense. It's the sort of story that will keep you up turning pages long after you should have gone to bed.
