"tense romantic suspense"

At the wedding of her brother Dylan Buchanan to Kate McKenna, Jordon is goaded into traveling to Serenity, Texas by Noah Clayborne, who teases her that she never acts on a spontaneous notion. At the nuptials, Jorrdon meets Professor Horace McKenna, who talked about a Buchanan-McKenna feud with his supporting research in his home in Serenity. He promises to provide her a copy if she visits him there.

When she arrives her car breaks down. After getting it fixed, she goes to pick up her copy of the professor's findings, but instead finds Horace's corpse in a garage bag in her car's trunk. The sheriff's brother slaps her and the police chief breaks all the rights of a suspect by not only trying to intimidate, but taking away all her entitlements under the law except one phone call, which she makes to Dylan. He and the posse arrive to get her freed and the chief fired. They go to question the mechanic, but he is dead found in the trunk of her new car. However, thanks to the illegal actions of law enforcement a newly appointed police chief believes in her innocence. Jordan and Noah explore their feelings for one another while another death takes place and the professor's house burns to the ground. Jordan and Noah realize they love each other as they search for a killer before the culprit finishes them off.

SHADOW DANCE contains a magical romance starring two individuals from Julie Garwood's previous books. Myriad of fans have been waiting to read their story. If the author just provided a tale based on their getting it on that would be a winner. However, instead the audience obtains a great love story amidst a tense suspense thriller that keeps readers wondering if the long awaited match up between Noah and Jourdon will end tragically. This is great work from a grandmaster at the top of her game.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted December 19, 2006

Read an Excerpt

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.

Summary

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.