Shadow Music: A Novel

This book grips reader from the first page to the last.A book to read over and over again

Thoroughly enjoyed this book, when I picked up couldn't put down until finished even meant 3.00am in the morning

WIFE LIKES

It started off well enough with an interesting mention of a different country, St Biel, and what happened to it when it was invaded by the English. I also enjoyed the historical references to King John and his many faults.I found the relationship between Colm and Gabrielle sadly lacking however compared to Julie Garwood’s normal offerings. They didn’t really meet for the first 40% of the book which was rather a long time, and I thought that their relationship was almost an afterthought in this story. Unlike with my favourite books by Julie Garwood, such as The Prize and The Secret, there was a disjointed feeling about Shadow Music that I couldn’t quite adjust to, with the mention of so many characters who were never really brought up again - like Henry and Malcolm etc.All in all, I figure this has to be maybe an earlier book by Julie Garwood which might explain the lack of polish? Probably won’t be rereading this one.

In this sequel of sorts to Garwood's Ransom, Princess Gabrielle of St. Biel, a daughter of an English Baron, is sent by King John to marry an older highland Laird to keep peace between the borders (??!! more on this later). Two of John's scheming Barons with their nefarious (and ridiculous) schemes get involved and Gabrielle's intended is murdered, she is disgraced as a wanton woman and disinherited and banned from England (this from one woman accusing her of entering a wounded man's bedroom??). She meets up with Laird Brodick Buchanan who is her cousin by marriage, as Brodick is married to Gillian a distant cousin of Gabrielle's father. Accompanying Brodick is the fearsome Laird MacHugh who takes her into protection after her banishment. There is also a big mystery about the search for some missing gold that is all too predictable, I figured where that was at the first mention of.... well I won't be a spoiler but trust me you'll spot that one a mile away.Sound exciting? No, it's not, it's actually quite awful and I'm having a hard time believing Garwood wrote this. Although her older historicals are not high fiction, the healthy dose of humor she throws in along with the romance usually makes for an entertaining read. Unfortunately, along with an embarrassingly bad plot Garwood forgot to throw in the humor that might have saved a story that's predictable from the first page to the last. Even worse, there is little description of the sights, sounds, clothes, etc. to give the reader a good sense of the time period. I don't think I heard mention of any Scott wearing a kilt until well towards the end of the book, Gabrielle's clothing was only noted by the color of the dress she was wearing, etc. I won't even get started on the way Brodick was ruined -- without the banter between he, Gillian, Ramsey and Ian what was an awesome hero in Ransom is reduced to nothing but mush. We don't even get a glimpse of Gillian, only occasional mentions of her being home and pregnant. And worst of all, there is absolutely no chemistry between our two main protagonists, an absolute death knell for any romance book.And finally, although I don't expect an historical romance to be historically accurate, I appreciate it when an author makes some effort to have knowledge of the period they're writing in. I wish I'd taken notes, because I'm not able to remember all the boners in this book to recount them here. Examples, and since I'm not a history major anyone may correct me if I'm wrong:* Gabrielle's native country St Biel (somewhere in Europe where the crusaders passed through), is invaded and occupied by King John !!??? John Lackland who couldn't even hold on to Normandy?* What is it with the women running around with their long hair flowing loose? No woman in medieval times, especially a noblewoman would be seen in public without a proper head covering.* Gabrielle's original marriage was to settle the border disputes between England and Scotland. Hellooooo, if I recall correctly John was too busy trying to subdue the Welsh to be bothered with Scotland. And what help does a marriage to a highland Laird have to do with any border wars? The borders are in the lowlands - you'd think a marriage to someone with closer ties to the border would make more political sense.All in all, this is pretty close to one of the worst books I've ever read - not quite but almost. Boring, predictable and downright silly. Garwood would have done much better by making her sequel to Ransom writing about the Buchanans, Ramsey and Sinclairs and putting those people together into her story. Better yet, put their grown children together into a tightly woven story with that sadly missing dose of humor and she might have had something here. As it is, this is a bad way to spend $18 US on a hardback and a serious waste of a tree. If you are dead set on reading it, get it from the library (as I did) or wait for the mass market paperback.Last complaint - what the heck is with the book cover? The man and woman in the bottom corner are in evening dress and the building with the onion dome looks like something out of the Far East, and certainly not a castle that one would find in Scotland. It's all just stupid, stupid, stupid and doesn't even deserve one star.

The average rating of Shadow Music is currently 2.5, which in my opinion is an unfair rating of the book and so i find myself having to write a review .As i said above, this isn't Julie Garwoods best novel, her best historical book by far is Ransom, but i still really enjoyed Shadow Music. Once i started reading it i couldn't put it down!I think the only issue with the book is length. I honestly think if the book was longer and went into the relationship between Colm and Gabrielle in more depth in the latter half of the book readers would have responded better to it than they have.Oh and i definately agree with whoever commented about the front cover of the book, it stumped me a little as well why the image seems to be more of a regency book than a Scottish historical, obviously whoever designed the front cover didn't even read the synopsis of the book.