| Shadow Dance: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Julie Garwood
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  114 reviews
Sales Rank: 24576
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 0345453875
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780345453877
ASIN: 0345453875
Publication Date: December 26, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Jordan Buchanan is thrilled that her brother and best friend are tying the knot. The wedding is a lavish affair–for the marriage of Dylan Buchanan and Kate MacKenna is no ordinary occasion. It represents the joining of two family dynasties. The ceremony and reception proceed without a hitch–until a crasher appears claiming to be a MacKenna guest. The disheveled and eccentric professor of medieval history warns that there’s “bad blood” between the couple’s clans, stemming from an ancient feud that originated in Scotland, and involving the Buchanan theft of a coveted MacKenna treasure.
Jordan has always led a cautious life and has used her intelligence and reason to become a successful businesswoman. So she is intrigued but skeptical of the professor’s claims that the feud has been kept alive by the grave injustices the Buchanans have perpetrated over the centuries. But when Noah Clayborne, a close family friend and a man who has never let a good time or a pretty girl pass him by, accuses Jordan of being trapped in her comfort zone, she determines to prove him wrong and sets out on a spontaneous adventure to the small, dusty town of Serenity, Texas, to judge the professor’s research for herself.
Maneuvering through a close-knit community in which everyone knows everyone else’s business, Jordan never anticipates the danger and intrigue that lie in her path, nor the threat that will shadow her back to Boston, where even in familiar surroundings, her life is at risk.
A powerful thug who rules by fear, a man who harbors a simmering secret, and an unexpected romance that pierces all defenses–beloved author Julie Garwood weaves these dazzling elements into a brilliant novel of romantic suspense. Shadow Dance is a searing tango of passion and peril.
From the Hardcover edition.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 109 more reviews...
 What is this book about? August 14, 2008
I think this book is a romantic thriller; or maybe it's just a love story; or then again, maybe it is supposed to be a mystery? I'm confused!
The story line is that a brilliant woman computer scientist who likes her life ordered and organized, is challenged by an FBI agent who is a friend of her brother's to step outside of her comfort zone. So, she goes off on a wild goose chase to a godforsaken little town in Texas to talk to some nutty professor about an ancient feud that might affect her brother's life with his newly married wife. While in this town she ends up getting involved in three murders and is stalked by a maniacal killing machine who is assisted by all kinds of seedy characters. To the rescue comes the FBI agent who becomes the love of her life, etc. etc. etc.
The plot of this novel is as preposterous as anything I've seen. This rich and brilliant woman ends up renting a car that is a wreck? Hello! In real life she would have been an Avis/Hertz kind of person with Club memberships and would have gotten an expensive and very well maintained vehicle to drive! Also, she is out to meet with this goofy professor who researches historical Scottish clans in the middle of Texas? Since she knows computers, how come she does not know how to research people and their backgrounds on the internet?
Let's look at the FBI agent: here is a guy who never spends more than a week with any woman. So, all of a sudden he is turned on by her horn rimmed reading glasses to the point where he proposes marriage? huh? How about this plot line: the woman becomes a suspect in a murder so she calls her brother, and immediately, without any paperwork, permissions, or turf issues, both her brother and Noah (her paramour) fly off to Texas, the nearest FBI office drops everything that they are doing to help - even though the local police do NOT ask for help - and they are all involved in a simple murder case? How is that related to the real FBI and their role?
It even gets weirder - when the two FBI dudes get into town they arrest the chief of police! They immediately find out that this little town where everyone knows everyone else has a prostitution ring that has everyone sleeping with people who are not their spouses. A local town bully is a surveillance and electronics wiz-kid who also operates a blackmailing operation, and in addition he is a stupid follower of orders that clearly are intended to harm him. The two sides of town are separated by a line and the "good" restaurant is next to the "good" hotel which is on the "good" side of town while the "bad" restaurant is next to the "bad" hotel which rents rooms by the hour.
While I am not a Texan, even I found the overly broad characterization of the town to be uncomfortable and disturbing in its stereotyping. Has the author ever visited Texas?
The final kicker for me was the final scene and the resolution of the whole plot line. The killer manages to find his way to Boston to waylay the heroine and wound her. This, after he completely ignores her in his own backyard of Serenity Texas and three other people are killed there. What nonsense. To top it all off, the whole point of the plot was this supposed feud between the clans and the treasure that was lost. So, what happened with that feud? It's alluded to but never really explored.
Basically a waste of time.
 Typical romantic suspense... August 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Jordan Buchanan has always lived her life on the safe side. A successful software designer and computer programmer, her laptop and cell phone are her lifeline, and every aspect of her existence has always centered on technology. That is until the day Noah Claybourne, FBI agent and long-time friend of her brother, points this out to her. Maybe he's right. After all, the last of her friends is getting married. She's still single and hasn't taken risks that hadn't been calculated to death. And that is why she takes on the challenge to research a feud between the MacKennas and the Buchanans that began back during Medieval Scotland. An eccentric and somewhat creepy professor insists that the Buchanans had always antagonized the MacKennas and Jordan wants to prove him wrong. Well... that and she'd like to find a treasure the professor spoke about. Jordan travels from Boston to the small town of Serenity, Texas to retrieve the research papers. Serenity isn't so serene anymore when the professor's body is found inside Jordan's rented cark trunk. Things get all the worse when another body is found days later in her trunk? Who's trying to frame her for murder? Noah and Jordan's brother Nick take over the case. It seems someone wants to cover his tracks, and would do just about anything to keep his identity a secret.
This is obviously part of a series. I don't think I'll bother looking into the other books. You've read one romantic suspense novel starring a tough and gorgeous FBI agent and a damsel in distress and you've read them all. I only read this because I want to read Shadow Music, which is the prequel to this story, set in Medieval Scotland. I read The Bride and thought it was a fun and romantic read and have wanted to read more medieval-set romances by Julie Garwood ever since. This novel is okay, nothing special or innovative for this genre. The few times the heroine focuses on her family history are entertaining, but the rest is pretty straightforward. The suspense isn't quite so suspenseful. I kind of figured out who the killer was long before the author revealed it. All in all, Shadow Dance is an average read. I hope Shadow Music is better.
Meh July 10, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I will admit up front that I don't read a lot of romance. However, I'd heard a lot of good things about Julie Garwood's books, so when I saw this in the bookstore, I thought I'd give it a try.
Maybe I was at a disadvantage because I hadn't read any of the other Buchanan books. However, at least my lack of knowledge of the rest of the series allowed me to look at this one from a fairly objective angle, one not colored by previous experience with the author's work.
Unfortunately, I found the characters to be flat, the romance perfunctory (it almost felt as if they got together because the author felt they had to, not because of any real chemistry between them), the secondary characters cartoonish. Also, several plot threads were basically left dangling (I've noticed that I'm not the only reviewer who went "bwuh?" when the whole issue about the Buchanan/MacKenna feud was pretty much summarily dropped). Also (this is a pet peeve of mine), there was so much head-hopping (abrupt shifts in point of view) that I had to keep pausing to remind myself who was thinking what. That's just sloppy writing, as far as I'm concerned.
I didn't give this book one star because I did manage to finish it, as Ms. Garwood at least made me remotely interested as to how it would all turn out. But otherwise, I think the "meh" pretty much sums it up.
 No June 3, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
SHADOW DANCE started off with an ancient mystery concerning a Buchanan and MacKenna family feud. That's enough for me. I got comfortable and readied myself for a good read. Ms Garwood had my attention...but then lost it. Somehow the plot skidded all over the place and never came together. Once the professor, who informed the main character about the feud, died, so did any follow up to this story line. The pacing was very slow, which surprised me since the back cover promoted this book as a suspense. I expected cliff hanger chapters and edge-of-my-seat reading. Instead, I tried to get through this book on several occasions but ended up flipping the pages, hoping to find more information about the mystery. What I found were pages that dragged and never captured my attention.
Disgusting to anyone who lives in Texas. May 20, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Yet another author who apparently uses her idea of what Texas must be like instead of actually spending a significant amount of time there to do research.
The Texans were all almost exclusively stupid, corrupt, immoral, gossip-mongers or criminals. Even the friendly folks had skeletons in their closets or were vamps in disguise. Really over the top stupid.
The plot might have stood a chance otherwise.... despite the fact that the main character had an arms-length of people in high positions to save her. The heroine was a 'computer geek' so of course that meant she knew absolutely everything about everyone in the technology industry's job- from programming software to hardware installation to building processors! Oh brother!!!
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