Lost in Shadow by Cynthia Luhrs

Genre Paranormal Romance Published 26 March 2013 Publisher Self-Published Series Shadow Walkers book one

A relaxing vacation to Scotland turns deadly when a chance encounter with a mysterious stranger leads to murder. Shocked when she witnesses a man commit murder before disappearing in front of her eyes, Emily learns she possesses an extraordinary ability allowing her to interact with ghosts.

Unwittingly drawn into shadow when she intervenes to help Colin, igniting the ancient warrior’s long-buried desires, she unleashes a terrible curse. Now with only a week to break the curse, time is running out as they are locked in a deadly fight with forces that will stop at nothing to destroy them before they succeed. Intensely romantic and thrilling, Lost in Shadow portrays the struggle between redemption, retribution and the desire to find a love that transcends time.

The Urban Book Thief Review

I found this book very hard to review. On the one hand, it had all of the paranormal elements that I typically adore. Beautiful setting (Edinburgh), tortured hero, fearless heroine and a strong system of magic. But on the other hand, there were grammatical errors galore (face palm), scenes which strangely blended into one another without any printing marks to separate them, (could just be the ARC copy I received?) and my pet peeve – inconsistent characterisation. In a nutshell, this immortal Scottish hero was written too darn American for my tastes.

I was intrigued enough with the plot to battle on. Huzzah! It’s not very often that a series features ghosts as the main romantic element, even warrior ones. In fact, this was done well, more than well, the mythology surrounding Dayne and Thorne felt a little like Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark Hunter series. Sadly, Lost in Shadow was not nearly as well executed.

I am verra, verra disappointed. Sniff.

Emily got more than she bargained for…

The book starts with Emily and Kat, best friends on their dream holiday of a lifetime to Scotland. Their panties are wet with excitement to be in Edinburgh – visiting the famous castle, drinking a pint and rubbing their hands with glee whenever they catch a glimpse of a kilted man. On one particular tour, Emily is shocked to see two man battling one another with what looks like real swords. Disturbed, she tries to stop the action, thinking at first that they must be actors. But she couldn’t be further from the truth. What she has stumbled upon is a scene all too real featuring our brooding hero Lord Colin Campbell, a Shadow Walker, fighting a Day Walker – his mortal enemy.

Steady on now ladies, Colin’s in the room

Shadow Walkers are ghosts, people who pretty much died screaming out for revenge. Colin, bless his wee ickle Scottish heart, had a lot to be angry about on his deathbed. You see, both his fiancee and his younger brother betrayed him by alerting the authorities about his terribly naughty whiskey smuggling habit (shakes angry fist in the air). The mighty Baron was brought to his knees and ended up being skewered by his brother while chained to the wall of a prison. As one could only imagine, Colin was terribly peeved with his brother and screamed out to the gods for revenge.

And his cry was answered… though he may live to regret it.

Rawlins is a Day Walker, an enemy of Colin’s back in the day when he was alive. He’s English, (of course) evil and is waiting in the wings to get his hands on our heroine Emily. But stay back foul villain, this little lady is Colin’s one true wuv and the only hope he has of breaking the Shadow Walker curse forever. But! there’s a mahoosive catch, their true wuv can either set a Shadow Walker free or damn him to an eternity to live as a wraith.

As expected, Rawlins trails the pair in typical evil enemy style chase. This is of course in-between lots of purple prose and many glowing descriptions of Colin’s naked chest – all while everyone chugs down lots and lots of whiskey.

Brrrrr.

As expected, there are a lot of tongue in cheek Scottish-isms, which if I’m being frank, I never tire of:

“Well lass, if I knew it’d only take a little bit of dirt to get you to take liberties with my body; I’d have caved in the tunnel myself when we started down the stairs. Shall I let you slide your hand under my kilt to see if I’m wearing any drawers? Satisfy your earlier question?”

But sadly, not even the mention of a sexy pirate could spur me on to read another in this series.

The Urban Book Thief has awarded Lost in Shadow a kiss factor rating of three – meh.