3,5 / 5
Bir iki mantık hatası olmasına rağmen sıkmadan okuttu kendini

Another thoroughly entertaining read from Julie Garwood. I wouldn't say it was deeply emotional but it was certainly interesting, funny and romantic enough to make it worth your while. There was great chemistry between the leads and I felt they genuinely liked each other.

My only criticism would be that I would like to have seen Jordan's family's reaction to her falling in love with Noah (one of her older brother's good mates and FBI partner - but also a world class womaniser). What the brother's thought about Noah going after their kid sister was totally brushed over.

The whole Buchanan family series is great and worth the read and this one is no exception.

Serinin altıncı kitabını okuyup bitirdim. Seri tamamen favori listemde olmasına rağmen en çok bu kitabı sevdim.tKitap Buchanan kardeşlerden Jordan Buchanan ile FBI ajanı Noah Clayborne anlatıyor. Jordan bilgisayar bağımlısı teknolojisiz yapamayan ve kendi güvenli kabuğundan çıkmayan değişikliği kabul etmeyen biriydi. Ta ki kendini bilinmeyen bir maceraya atana kadar. Dönüş yolunda bagajından çıkan cesetle artık atıldığı şeyin basit bir macera olmadığını anlıyor ve abisi Nick’in arkadaşı FBI ajanı Noah Jordan’ı güvende tutmak, gizemli cinayetlerin sebebini araştırmak için Jordan’ın bulunduğu yere Teksas’ a gider. Tehlikenin, bilinmezliğin, heyecanın olduğu yerde tutkuda son hızla kendini gösteriyor. Kitap Boston ile Teksas arasında mekik dokuyor. Severek okuduğum bir kitaptı..

n  n    Contemporary romantic suspense from long-time author Garwood (although I really miss her historical writing). The comflict between the uptight heroine and the rough edge hero makes for a charming story, combined with the intensity of the suspense plot. Taken on its own, it is a decent book, although when you look at the series as a whole, its getting hard to suspend disbelief that all these Buchanans are so perfect/smart/beautiful/charming.n  n  

n

I've now read books earlier and after this in the series, and I'd begun to doubt myself; there's no way this book could be that good. But it is, it is the best one!



This book benefits from a well populated world. Characters cross over and interact, like they would in reality. It worked when I first read it as a standalone, and now it's even more fun, it's richer.

Maybe the antagonism makes this couple work better than others. This book is dated in that the characters ask for the phone book, but the dialogue and interactions still feel true. That's perfectly acceptable to me. I wish the other books in the series lived up to this one.

Jordan Buchanan, the ultimate computer nerd, attends yet another brother's wedding and is charged to keep an eye on her sister-in-law's nineteen-year-old sister who's practically doing back flips to gain the attention of Noah Clayborne, an FBI agent with a score list longer than the Good Book. Not that he's interested, he knows the girl is too young for him, but still, it's better to be safe than sorry.

An uninvited guest crashed the party, a nutty professor that's been communicating with Isabel, the nineteen-year-old "acrobat", about her family roots leading all the way back to Scotland. The professor claims the wedding between the two families should never have taken place, since they've always been feuding.

Since he's a MacKenna, the saintly family, according to him, and the Buchanan's are the vile barbarians, Jordan feels she should defend her family from such slander, and is soon sucked into the professor's story about the family feud. And a treasure.

Intrigued, Jordan follows the professor to a small Texas town, Serenity, where everybody knows everybody, everybody is friendly and accommodating... Until professor MacKenna's dead body ends up in Jordan's trunk.

She manages to contact Noah with her predicament, before she's knocked out cold and arrested for murder.

Noah and her brother Nick come barreling into town, clear her of all the charges, get the incompetent chief of police fired, and even more tongues wagging.

Nick is called home, leaving Noah behind to get Jordan safely back to Boston. But another dead body in the trunk keeps them in town for a little while longer.



This book was an obvious improvement from  Murder List. The mystery stayed constant and the romance never got in the way of the main plot.

The setting in the small, God-forsaken town in the middle of Texas was refreshing and also served as a sometimes comedic backdrop to the humdrum of murder and mayhem.

Jordan was fun to read. A strong, yet nerdy woman who's more at ease with computers than people. Her trip to Serenity was an attempt to shake up her life, the life many called boring, while for her it was just safe and secure - her comfort zone. Soon, though, her insecurities, again about her appearance, started getting on my nerves.
Why does Ms. Garwood always portray her heroines as shallow? I've read only two of her books, yet in both the heroine was always so self-conscious about her appearance, thinking no one could be attracted to her, because of her looks.

Noah was the typical romantic suspense hero. A playboy (at the beginning) with a soft heart that always changes his way at the end, thanks to his woman.

Yet again, the romance did seem a little forced. They were friends, suddenly, cooped up in the small town, she starts seeing him in a different light. We learn he's always been attracted to her, yet refrained from acting on it, because she was his best friend's sister, so he went on romancing other women... And suddenly, after resisting so long, they just cannot anymore and fall helplessly in love with each other.
Maybe it was something they ate.

The main mystery plot was much stronger than in her previous book, yet once again she just couldn't do without the deus-ex-machina end effect.
While the mystery was driving and keeping the reader at the edge of the seat, the final explanation seemed diluted and far-fetched at best.
While the story built on mystery, the ending left much to be desired.

This is book six in the Buchanan Series, and the one I have been waiting to read since I started this series. Noah Clayborne has been a recurring character in every book so far and I have fallen more in love with him as the books progressed. So when it finally came to his HEA I couldn't be happier to see that it was with Jordan, the little sister of his partner Nick Buchanan from Heartbreaker book 1 in the series, as well as all the other Buchanan boys who know just how Noah is. I loved the romantic storyline between Noah and Jordan; I also loved how Nick and Noah stepped in and gave that gawd awful police woman what she deserved. I wasn't however a big fan of everything else, basically the Mystery, I mean yes I know it made sense and the ending with Jordan nearly broke my heart for Noah, I still felt it missed some of her the authors normal pizzazz. Now I know I may get strung up by my toes for saying so but it's just how I felt. Still though I will give this book a 5 star because even thought I had a small problem with it I would read it again and again.

Author: Julie Garwood
First published: 2007
Length: 336 pages
Setting: Small town contemporary - Serenity, Texas
Sex: Explicit towards the end. Not necessary for story... More romance less sex would have been more appropriate for the characters.
Hero: FBI
Heroine: Recently sold a computer business for millions. Computer geek.

That's it. I'm up-to-date on Garwood's Buchanan series. Read out of order but overall enjoyable. A definite change in style as the series progressed and some of the characters failed to stay in character or remember past actions. For example, the book before this one (Slow Burn ) has Jordan being sued but she'd forgotten all about it, it was a complete non-issue, by this one.

As for Shadow Dance itself, it takes to half way before they even think about a relationship. Most of first half is Jordan on her own. As a romance, it's lacking. But it has a good storyline overall.

Good storyline, disappointing relationship development, slight farcical feel.
3 stars. A comfortable read by an easy author.

Garwood's Contemporary Series:
Book 1 Heartbreaker - Laurent Madden and Nick Buchanan
Book 2 Mercy - Theo Buchanan and Dr Michelle Renard
Book 3 Killjoy - Avery Delaney and John Paul Renard
Book 4 Murder List - Alec Buchanan and Regan Hamilton Madison
Book 5 Slow Burn - Kate MacKenna and Dylan Buchanan
Book 6 Shadow Dance - Jordan Buchanan and Noah Clayborne
Book 7 Fire and Ice - Sophie Rose and Jack MacAlister
Book 8 Sizzle - Lyra Prescott and Sam Kincaid
Book 9 The Ideal Man - Dr Ellie Sullivan and Agent Max Daniels
Book 10 Sweet Talk - Olivia Mackenzie and Grayson Kincaid
Book 11 Hotshot - Peyton Lockhart and Finn MacBain
Book 12 Fast Track - Cordelia Kane and Aiden Madison
Book 13 Wired - Allison Trent and Liam Scott

References:
Author's website: http://juliegarwood.com/books/shadow-...

(ISBN 9780345453860)

-CR-

bodies in the trunk

Shadow Dance surrounds the life of a very laid-back protagonist who really hasn't done anything interesting in her life and seemingly did not intend to do so until she was provoked by her brother and his colleague. Though I find this book very interesting and somewhat funny, I also found it to be a tad bit too wacky and nonsensical. Some of the events that took place in this book were too unrealistic to properly fit the time, place and scene. As a reader, I found this somewhat irritating as I like my novels to be as close as possible to the real world and it's events. Nevertheless, I still found the story line to be intriguing though it bore extremely cliche scenarios.

I truly love the characters in the Buchanan series. Julie Garwood makes you fall in love with each one, in each book. In this adventure, you learn more about Jordan, one of the Buchanan sisters that was introduced in book five. She has learned of a a centuries long feud between her family and the family of her new sister in law. She finds herself going to a small town in Texas to learn more about the history of her family. While in Serenity, strange things begin to happen in this quiet town. Is it because of her presences? Is there really some kind of curse? Who will save her? You will have to read to find out.

This is my all time favourite of Julie Garwood's books. Here's why:

Noah is already an established character and after seeing him in nearly everyone of the previous novels in the series, those who have read those novels know him pretty well. He's a blase kind of guy, he's sexy as hell and he's a ladies man. Noah has said, on many occasions, he'd never fall in love and marry and actually calls Nick, John Paul, Alec and Theo for it and we finally see him fall in love with Jordan Buchanan. Jordan's a geek, someone I'm sure many people can relate to, but she's beautiful (finally! A geek who doesn't look hideous!). She's got an attitude with Noah and proving his theory about her wrong, she travels to Serenity and finds a dead body in her trunk.

I won't blab about the story line but I'll say that we see Nick Buchanan and his wife who are still happily married with a little girl and another on the way. We see more of Judge Buchanan and a few conversations with the elusive Michael who seems to be the quietest of the Buchanan's (story wise) and Sidney. The new characters introduced were good also particularly Angela and Jaffee.

Anyway, while the story takes a little while to get going, it's generally well paced after that. You feel the romance between the two characters, especially if you've read previous books with Noah in the series, and I honestly didn't see half of much what happened coming. It was unpredictable with fun dialogue and well worth reading.