| Shadow Dance: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Julie Garwood
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  117 reviews
Sales Rank: 19499
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
Condition: Help save a tree. Buy all your used books from Green Earth Books. Read -> Recycle -> Reuse!
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| Customer Reviews:
 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!!!
 Jordan moves from anti NCGC to President of NCGC April 26, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
NCGC - Noah Claybourne Groupie Club
Noah finally gets his own story. Of course I liked it, but it gets four stars for 1- not a smooth transition on Noah's part to go from lady's man to one woman man and 2- I think things were not addressed in the book as I thought they should be. You still need to read the book if you love the Buchanan family as I do, now Julie Garwood who is Next, Sidney or Zachary Buchanan?
Um.... even established writers have editors, right? April 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Ok, am I the only person who noticed that the grand and mysterious centuries-old feud that supposedly brought Jordan to Texas in the first place was not only left unexplored, but was NEVER explained and NEVER even discussed by ANYONE except as war-themed pre-sex bedtime stories? I also must agree with the other reviews that state the flatness of the characters and the unexplained "sudden" attraction between Noah and Jordan. It's kind of sad when the most interesting character in a novel is the local diner owner.
This book was just so disappointing on every level. I have been reading Julie Garwood for years. She has written some of my favorite books. But Shadow Dance falls far short of her usual standard of excellent writing. Noah did no law enforcement other than call the local FBI guys. Jordan did no computer wizardry other than reboot the occasional out-dated model in the small TX town. Only once did they even brainstorm on theories of who the killer could be, were proved wrong in their conclusions on the next 3 pages, and never talked about other possibilities after that. I just kept thinking the suspense would build, the plot would "thicken", and the mystery would become more compelling. None of those things happened. Even after the so-called secrets were all revealed there was no excitement to it. And when Jordan tells Noah that she figured out the secret of the feud I couldn't help but think "WTH? There is a feud? Why wasn't I told about this?!?!"
Meh... if you are a die-hard Julie Garwood fan you will buy Shadow Dance, read it, and love it. If you aren't, don't waste the time or money.
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