Shadow Fire (Shadow Riders 7) by Christine Feehan-Dual Review, Excerpt & Giveaway
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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date April 26, 2022
Shadow Rider Elie Archambault has been called many things: domineering, brash, loyal, but most of all fast. And there’s nothing faster than choosing to marry a woman you’ve never met. All he has is a signed contract and a list of his new bride’s expectations for their arranged marriage. He’s not expecting love or some happy ever after, just a partner that knows exactly what she signed up for. He’ll be faithful because he’s a man of honor, but she’ll never have his heart….
Elie knows who he is. A privileged member of the Archambault family. A skilled rider and fighter. A man who’s always had things easy for all the wrong reasons. He’s made his mistakes and lost his chance at real, true passion with his other half thanks to his own careless arrogance. Now he just wants to do his duty as a Shadow Rider and leave the past behind.
But Elie has no idea that his choice is about to spark a blaze that will burn all his carefully laid plans to the ground.
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Sandy’s Review:
SHADOW FIRE is the seventh instalment in Christine Feehan’s contemporary, adult SHADOW RIDERS erotic, paranormal, series focusing on the Ferraro Crime Family. This is Shadow Rider Elie Archambault, and Brielle Couture’s story line. SHADOW FIRE can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story lines is revealed where necessary.
WARNING: Due to the nature of the story line premise including bondage, discipline, D/s scenarios, there may be triggers for more sensitive readers.
SOME BACKGROUND: The Shadow Rider male must find his mate –a woman who is capable of riding the shadows-or at the very least with the ability to bear children with the shadow-riding gene. Within the family, the Ferraro siblings are tasked with finding a mate, fated by DNA, who is capable of continuing the family line. People with the ability to ride the shadows are few and far between, and future generations are at risk if no mates are found with the shadow-riding gene. The Ferraro’s are also part of the Chicago Underworld-a crime family linked to both legal and criminal activity.
Told from third person perspectives SHADOW FIRE focuses on the arrange marriage between Shadow Rider Elie Archambault, and Brielle Couture. As a child, Elie Archambault had been passed from family to family while training to ride the shadows in Europe, finally finding peace in America, befriended by the Ferraro family, becoming one of their own but an arranged marriage with a European shadow rider meant potentially spending his life with someone he could never love until his fantasies came true with the arrival of Brielle Couture, the woman that has starred in all of his dreams. Brielle Couture wanted nothing to do with our story line hero, having fallen victim to his verbal assaults, and emotional attacks years before, leaving her a shell of her former self. Battling between head and heart, Brielle was desperate to nullify their unwanted betrothal but when the truth is revealed, Brielle finds herself with the man meant especially for her. As every shadow rider manifested their own particular talent and skill, our heroine knows she is more than adept at computer research and discovery, and her research is about to reveal a possible connection between the take down of a human trafficking ring, and another ring succeeding back home. What ensues is the building romance and relationship between Brielle and Elie, and the potential fall out as Brielle’s discovery place her in the direct line of fire as more than one assassin is sent to take her down, along with the people she now calls family and friends.
The relationship between Brielle and Elie is an enemies to lovers; a fated but tempestuous and embattled love affair destroyed by words said in anger that leave our heroine humiliated and broken, attacking her already fragile self-esteem. Brielle’s appearance has changed in the years since Elie last saw the woman with whom he will fall in love, a change caused by the caustic and vitriol spewed by our story line hero. As Elie sets into motion a plan to seduce the woman he married, Brielle must consider if Elie is the man with whom she wants to spend the rest of her life. The $ex scenes are passionate, erotic, and intense with scenes of bondage, discipline and D/scenarios.
There is a large ensemble cast of secondary and supporting characters including most if not all of the previous story line couples, and their expanding families, as well as Valentino’s cousin and right hand man Dario. The requisite evil has many faces.
SHADOW FIRE is a story of family and relationships, betrayal and vengeance, power and control, obsession and love. The premise is gritty, emotional and captivating; the romance is fated and seductive; the characters are energetic, dynamic, powerful and captivating.
Barb’s Review:
Shadow Fire by Christine Feehan is the 7th book in her fantastic Shadow Riders series. Elie Archambault is the hero in this story, as we met him in a few previous books, being best friends with Emme, as well as part of the Ferraro Shadow Rider family. Elie is set to marry a woman he never met, being an arranged marriage, and he is shocked to see the woman he loved from the past is his new bride.
Brielle Couture, our heroine, is equally as shocked, when she discovers that Elie is the man she is marrying. We learn that a number of years ago, Elie was being pushed to marry Brielle by his Archambault family, and when he refused, he said some terrible things about her; unfortunately, Brielle overheard what he said, and has never forgotten. Elie did try to explain that he did not mean what he said to his uncle at that time, but Brielle wanted nothing to do with him. Brielle left her family and learned how to make herself a shadow rider, not to mention she was an amazing computer hacker.
When Brielle tries to back away from marrying Elie, she learns some truths about her family, who lied to her, and with help from Stefano, she agrees to through with the marriage. Privately, Brielle always had feelings for Elie, as he did her; but Elie will need to convince Brielle that she has always been the one for him. Over a short period of time, their Elie and Brielle relationship will heat up, and their sizzling chemistry was off the wall. Brielle’s life is in danger, as someone is targeting her; with Elie and the Ferraro/Saldi family trying to protect her, as well as find out why. We learn how good Brielle is in her computer hacking skills, which is part of the reason someone is trying to eliminate her; she becomes a very big asset to the family, with her ability to go beyond discovering hidden secrets.
Shadow Fire was an exciting, tense, heart pounding, nonstop edge of your seat action, from start to finish. Their romance was very steamy and I did love Elie and Brielle together. I loved seeing all the Ferraro family again, as they all played a big part in this story line. I did get a kick out of Dario, who has become a fantastic addition; it should be fun to see if he finds a woman that could handle him.
Christine Feehan once again gives us a fabulous story, which was a great read, and very well written. I will note there were a lots of sex scenes. If you have not read this series, you need to start with the first book. If you have read them all, you will love this one.
Copies provided by the publisher
NOTE: The excerpt is intended for mature readers due to the strong language and content
“Yes.” Elie’s reply was clipped, indicating he didn’t want to continue the discussion.
Dario sighed. “Since I can’t talk you out of it, at least come to the club tonight. It’s your last night of freedom before you’re stuck with some woman who might have a fucking headache every night.”
“Dario.” Emmanuelle sat up straight, glaring at him in protest.
“Some men have certain needs, Emme,” Dario said, shrugging. “I’m not going to pretend I don’t, and I won’t apologize for who I am. Arranged marriages for business or otherwise rarely work for someone like me because the woman isn’t going to like who they get. I’m just being honest.”
“You’re suggesting that Elie go out to a kink club the night before he marries. Is that very honorable?” Emmanuelle demanded.
“It’s a moot point,” Elie interrupted the argument.
Emmanuelle was the tie that bound the two men together. Elie regarded her as a sister. He had grown up an only child, moving from one household to another in his native France. Elie and Emme had clicked some years earlier and everyone expected them to marry when he’d come to the United States. Emmanuelle’s heart was already taken by Valentino Saldi, Dario’s cousin. Elie loved Emme but there had only ever been a sibling relationship between them.
Dario had come to love her through his relationship with Valentino. Who couldn’t love Emmanuelle? Dario wasn’t an easy man to be around. He had served as Valentino’s bodyguard for years. He rarely talked to anyone outside the circle of people he accepted as family. Elie felt lucky to be included. The Ferraros had a way of taking over those they chose to bring into their inner circle and Dario, like Elie, had found his way in when Emmanuelle had married Val.
“A moot point?” Emme repeated, raising an eyebrow suspiciously.
Elie held up his left hand, where a ring circled his finger. “Technically, I’m already married. The lawyers took care of the paperwork and we were married by proxie yesterday. I signed here. She signed in France. So, no kink club, but thank you for the offer, Dario. It was considerate. I don’t cheat on my wife.”
“What does she look like?” Dario asked.
Elie shrugged. “I have no idea. The lawyers took care of it. I didn’t even look at the papers. I signed on the dotted line and walked away. I presume she did the same. She’ll be here tomorrow and we’ll have a very brief private ceremony just for the sake of photos and formality, but the paperwork is already done.”
Emmanuelle brushed her hand down his arm. “Congratulations, Elie. I hope she makes you very happy. I know you believe you can make this work.”
Dario’s dark brows drew together. “Won’t understand you in a million years, Elie. This complete stranger comes into your life. You don’t know a thing about her and you expect your marriage to work. Emme is one in a million. Maybe one in a billion. Odds could be even higher than that. Val is so fuckin’ lucky, he doesn’t even know how lucky he is.”
He stated his opinion without looking at Emmanuelle and he spoke in a flat, matter-of-fact tone. “I’m aware a man like me is never going to find a woman who can put up with my . . . proclivities.” He shrugged. “But then I don’t trust anyone enough to have more than an hour encounter with them and only on my terms, especially now that Valentino forced me to take over this idiotic role in the family. He’s only made my suspicious nature worse.”
“Your point being?” Elie said.
“You’re like me.”
Elie couldn’t deny it. Maybe he wasn’t exactly like Dario. He wasn’t nearly as dark. He didn’t know too many people who were. Dario had demons. Elie liked his way and he knew how to get it. He already knew he intended for his bride to learn that lesson about him very quickly. He’d been honest in every answer he’d given to the questions asked of him when filling out the pages and pages of very explicit material needed for his arranged marriage. He had her answers and she had his. She should know that about him and what he expected of her.Excerpted from Shadow Fire by Christine Feehan Copyright © 2022 by Christine Feehan. Excerpted by permission of Berkley. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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