Shadow by Marie James

I love an MC Story, absolutely love something that is so primal, so set in brotherhood and steeped in “family” in the true sense of the word because real life, blood and bone family isn’t always all it should be. Misty Bowen knows this first hand, daughter to religiously contrite parents, her childhood was lived structured and determined by the confines of her family’s religious beliefs but those boundaries were ones that she was ready to test.

Misty was the quintessential good girl, attending school and working in a school, is just the sort of girl that someone like Shadow (aka Morrison Griggs to give him his full name) would typically avoid at all cost, although on second thoughts perhaps I am doing him a disservice because Shadow isn’t one to discriminate, he’ll mess about with anyone, after all he has no intentions of ever keeping any of the women he sleeps with.

They had shared a night previously while he was in Denver on assignment but now he was back and bumping into her sets off a chain reaction in his brain almost, he has thought about her since the last time, guilty about the way he just walked away but never really feeling the need to scratch that particular itch, so to speak but now he can get her out of his system for good or so he thinks because this time he will learn that walking away might just not be an option.

Facing up to her situation was almost a doddle compared to telling her parents what was going on, their righteousness knows no bounds and they held nothing back in voicing and showing her just how disappointed they were in her, cast out and alone she was facing a future full of very uncertain choices and a path that was leading her in one direction…The Cerberus MC Club House.
I liked the fact that over time we got to see that this mere slip of a girl had been able to wheedle her way under his skin but true to form Shadow refused to change, the guys around him might have settled down but Shadow, nope he was never heading down that road…well you keep telling yourself that my man!

Because your emotional nemesis was heading your way and you were about to get handed you’re a$$. Now, I felt sorry for Misty I really did but my heart was in my mouth as she hitched up her big girl pants and prepared to face Shadow, not only had he to deal with her situation but I was more concerned about how he would react learning of her lies, I was concerned that he was going to struggle to see past her deception.
This might have been set within the confined of an MC but make no mistakes about it this is an out and out romance, this is a love story of the very highest order and it is beautifully written.
I liked the fact that the MC played such a prominent role in the story but I also loved the fact that their activities were intimated rather than defined, we are all able to draw out own imagery of what the club does and how, it isn’t necessary to have every detail enunciated and as such I think the way the author brought the club to life was creatively astute.
It isn’t easy to declare your setting, elaborate your cast of characters and then shroud them so successfully without really hiding them at all, she played their lives out in full force but she did it with discretion.
A superb series, written with immaculate precision and honest charm.
My only problem: I just have to say it or I won't rest- I didn't like the cover, sorry!