Marked By Books: Shadow Play Book Tour: Review & GIVEAWAY

Welcome to our stop of Christie Palmers's Shadow Play book tour! This tour is hosted by The Virtual Book Tour Cafe'. I was able to read the book a few weeks ago, so I'm going to share my thoughts on it with you and share an excerpt of the novel from about halfway through. And then because you will obviously still be interested by then, you'll be given a chance to win the book and a bunch of other cool stuff!

My Review

I really enjoyed reading this book. The storyline always kept me interested and each of the characters were developed enough in their own right to feel like their own person instead of cookie-cutter scraps of words on a page. Or pixels on a screen, in my case.

The part that interested me the most was all of the well formed mythology. Every species of paranormal creature in this novel had its own history and customs, even though I had only heard of a few of them. And there were so many to choose from. I'm really glad that Christie Palmer didn't just come up with a few of her own and leave it at that, but was willing to include so many different kinds of characters to make up this well formed world. The culture of the Elements intrigued me with everything it offered, and I was heartbroken at the story of the Trackers and what they had to go through in order to survive.

The characters themselves, in their own rights, were absolutely wonderful as well. Marlee was your typical smart-mouthed, kick-butt, catsuit wearing (you'll understand the irony of that once you meet her) bombshell, but there is so much more to her than that. Simon's unbreakable devotion was both adorable and heartbreaking, especially because of the future it held for him.

And then Eric (probably my favorite character even though we don't really meet him until the very end) and his relationship with Kyra is just filled with so much pure awesomeness I can barely stand it. Everybody should have an Eric in their lives for when they're running tragically low on chocolate and Looney Toons themed pillows.

It looks like this book is part of a series, and I'm very glad for that even though I don't have the slightest idea where it might be going next. Kyra's and Ryder's story seems to have wrapped itself up pretty well, so maybe we'll be hearing the tale of another one of the characters. Either way, I can't wait to see what comes next.

Rating: 4 stars

The Excerpt

"Ryder followed the scent that was uniquely Kyra. Screams echoed through the dark, and after several minutes, her smell changed. Tinged with iron, she was bleeding. Anger perfuse him in a way he couldn’t understand. He ended up at several dead ends. Kyra was stumbling blindly through the caves. But he felt he was getting closer; her scent stronger.

He halted when he finally entered a large cavern. And froze, trying to take everything in. Then he saw her, her blue eyes sparkling in the dark of the cavern. He didn’t move as her eyes darted around, panicked.

'Kyra?'

Her head swung in his direction but he knew she couldn’t see as well in the dark as he could. 'It smells like death,' she whispered. 'It’s choking me.' She clawed at her throat, causing small scratches that started to bleed.

'Kyra, are you hurt?' he asked, stepping toward her slowly. He wasn’t sure what had prompted her to take off like she had, or why she was now curled up in a ball.

She shook her head no, and he could see tears streaking down her cheeks. 'Did you know that air holds memories?' she said frantically. 'Holds pictures, visions, life, and death, stories of what has come and gone. Lives it has touched.'

Ryder hadn’t known that. He couldn’t imagine hearing and seeing what could be trapped in the air. As a Tracker, he knew the air held many things, things he explored as a Tracker. But as an Air Element, the air did something completely different to Kyra. And at the moment, it looked like it was killing her.

'The air,' she looked around the dark cavern, 'is trapped with the souls and lives of what happened here.' Her body stiffened and then convulsed. Ryder rushed over to her. Once the convulsion stopped, she looked at him. Her bright blue eyes glowed in the dark, beautiful as ever. 'Terrible things have happened here,' she whispered in pain.

Kyra clutched at the front of his shirt. 'There isn’t any air down here, Ryder. I’m an Air Element and this air is dead' She shook her head, struggling to take a full breath. 'I can’t breathe down here.' Tears ran down her face and he brushed them away.

'Then let’s get out of here.' He offered her his hand.

Kyra closed her eyes and leaned her head back. 'There isn’t any air down here and something horrible is going on. Look around! The souls are trapped. The screams held in the air are desperate to be heard. But they aren’t because there isn’t any air!' she bellowed.

Ryder stood and looked around. Several tables sat littered with things you would find in a laboratory—microscopes and incubators. A generator rested in one corner. 'What is this?' Metal fridges hung open, the contents spilled all over the floor.

Kyra grabbed his pant leg. 'Someone is doing something very, very wrong. Creating things, living and dead.' She looked around frantically as if someone would stop her next words. 'Mostly dead, and they hurt,' she cried. 'They hurt so badly.'

More screams pierced the darkness, and Ryder thanked the Gods they weren’t from Kyra. He sent up a prayer for the poor soul. Kyra wrapped her arms around her head, as if that would stop the sound. Kyra was right—something horrible was taking place in this mountain. And they needed to find out exactly what it was. But at that moment, his main concern was Kyra.

'Make it stop,' she moaned. 'Something very, very bad is happening down here,' she said again."

About the Book

A small town in the mountains of Marshall, Montana is being plagued by an unknown entity and it is mutilating and killing the women of the town. At his wits end the Sheriff of Marshall has nowhere to turn but to a friend. A friend, with the abilities to track and kill any prey.

Ryder doesn’t normally do mortal issues. However, he can’t turn his back on a friend. Besides he is the best at what he does. After all he is a Tracker, an ancient race with unparalleled abilities to track down any prey. With one of the three essential elements: Taste, Touch or Smell. Heartless and cold, Ryder knows what needs to be done and performs his duty without feeling.

Kyra, an Air Element and the only female Elemental Enforcer, is sent on a fact finding mission to Marshall, by the Druid Council. She needs to find out exactly what is happening in Montana before the Tribunal goes in and kills everyone.

The last thing she expects to find is a Tracker, and is even more surprised to find out that he is on her side. But can they get past their initial feelings upon meeting and the sexual tension? Or will the evil that is living in the mountain kill them both.

Ryder and Kyra must learn to work together to destroy the shadow and save Kyra from a fate worse than death. When pure evil is involved is love enough?

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About the Author

Christie was born and raised in a suburb of Salt Lake City, Ut. She lives less than a mile from the home she grew up in. World traveler she is not. But what she lacked in travel she more than made up for in her imagination. Within her vivid imagination she has traveled the world over as well as different worlds and different times.

She works a full time day job to pay the bills but looses herself in books and her writing whenever possible.

She is a loving mother of two wonderful children that she admits she is obsessed with. She has been married for 18 years to a very tolerant man that is grounded in reality in order for her to fly to the heights of her own imagination.

She started writing when she was a teenager after reading a book that she didn't like the ending too. Took a hiatus to raise her wonderful children but has dedicated herself to becoming a published writer for the last several years.