(Cover picture courtesy of Nomi’s Paranormal Palace.)

A relaxing vacation to Scotland turns deadly when a chance encounter with a mysterious stranger leads to murder. Shocked when she witnesses a man commit murder before disappearing in front of her eyes, Emily learns she possesses an extraordinary ability allowing her to interact with ghosts.

Unwittingly drawn into shadow when she intervenes to help Colin, igniting the ancient warrior’s long-buried desires, she unleashes a terrible curse. Now with only a week to break the curse, time is running out as they are locked in a deadly fight with forces that will stop at nothing to destroy them before they succeed. Intensely romantic and thrilling, Lost in Shadow portrays the struggle between redemption, retribution and the desire to find a love that transcends time.

[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]

The whole unavenged ghost thing was really starting to wear on me before I read Lost in Shadow.  Not because I had read many books about it, but because it seemed in pop culture there were no really new, unique takes on it.  Pretty much every story sounded the same.  That was until I read Lost in Shadow, of course.

Colin is now one of my new favourite love interests, not only because of that Scottish accent I seem so attracted to, but because he actually has a believable backstory for becoming a Shadow Walker.  Despite his terrible past he’s also never that typical bad boy who needs to be shown the fun side of life by the heroine.  It’s actually quite a refreshing change, especially when you consider how easily Cynthia Luhrs could have fallen into the cliché trap with the whole Scottish warrior/modern American girl dynamic.

At first Emily seems like a typical romance heroine in that she’s gone to Scotland to recover from a failed relationship and stumbles onto a great guy with a mysterious past.  But what I loved about Lost in Shadow is that Emily is allowed to grow out of this two dimensional role and becomes a strong heroine in her own right.  She doesn’t always just stand by waiting to be saved but at the same time she’s not one of these instant action girls that kicks butt constantly.  Her past combined with Colin’s makes for an interesting relationship dynamic to be sure, but that added layer of the Shadow Walker curse makes it even more interesting.

I love how Cynthia Luhrs could have written a typical romance novel with very little world-building but didn’t.  The Shadow Walker and Day Walker conflict is fascinating and we even get to see how the two types of ‘ghosts’ came into being.  Throw in a mysterious way for Shadow Walkers to break their curse/gift and you’ve got the makings of a great fantasy novel as well.  The romance between Colin and Emily is obviously still the main focus but despite my general distaste for romance novels, it didn’t bother me at all.  In fact, the romance in this novel actually contributed to both the plot and the character development.  It was a refreshing change.

I saw the ending coming a mile away, but I guess every once in a while you have to have endings like the one in Lost in Shadow, right?

I give this book 5/5 stars.

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