Title: King Of Fools
Series: The Shadow Games #2
Author: Amanda Foody
genre: YA
Pub date:April 30,2019
Pages: 384
Indulge your vices in the City of Sin, where a sinister street war is brewing and fame is the deadliest killer of them all...

On the quest to find her missing mother, prim and proper Enne Salta became reluctant allies with Levi Glaisyer, the city’s most famous con man. Saving his life in the Shadow Game forced Enne to assume the identity of Seance, a mysterious underworld figure. Now, with the Chancellor of the Republic dead and bounties on both their heads, she and Levi must play a dangerous game of crime and politics…with the very fate of New Reynes at stake.

Thirsting for his freedom and the chance to build an empire, Levi enters an unlikely partnership with Vianca Augustine’s estranged son. Meanwhile, Enne remains trapped by the mafia donna’s binding oath, playing the roles of both darling lady and cunning street lord, unsure which side of herself reflects the truth.

As Enne and Levi walk a path of unimaginable wealth and opportunity, new relationships and deadly secrets could quickly lead them into ruin. And when unforeseen players enter the game, they must each make an impossible choice: To sacrifice everything they’ve earned in order to survive...

Or die as legends.

My thoughts:
rating: 4.5
Would I recommend it? yes
Would I recommend the series? yes
Would I read anything else from this author? yes
Wow this was so much better then book 1 , and the characters seem more real then they did in the first book as well,other thing I liked about this one was while Ace OF Shades was slow and it was hard to get into this one I didn't have that problem with at all, it was so easy to get lost in the story that there was times I didn't want to put it down.
 the more I read the more I grew to like Enne as well as Levi, and now i can't wait for book 3 to come out if there is one to see what happens to Enne and Levi, with that said I want to think Netgalley for letting me read and review it exchange for my honest opinion.

Reread/Buddy Read With Lacy (Read in May/June 2016)

My sister and I decided to do a buddy read because I have been talking incessantly about this series for years and I wanted my sister to share the joy of the GhostWalkers. I ended up finishing long before Lacy has (she's still reading it.). So here are my thoughts. I will add questions to/from Lacy when she finishes the book.

I had forgotten some facts about the series to my great surprise. And I have to say I love this book even more each time I read it. I appreciate the more subtler nuances of the characters (Lily, Ryland, Team One GWs). Ryland is such an awesome hero. He's alpha and possessive, but also tender and gentle. No overcompensating with him. He loves Lily as is. It's nice to see Kadan before he became Crazy Kadan (who I love dearly), and as always, I loved the friendship/bromance between the GhostWalkers. In short, I think this is still a fantastic start to a fantastic series.

*****Reread May 3-7, 2012****
My Thoughts:

This series remains one of my all-time favorites. I love this concept and the characters. The suspense/action elements are easily as strong as the romance, and it satisfied my multi-faceted reading nature with both.

Ryland--

Ryland is one of those sneaky alphas who acts like a beta towards his woman. He was adorable at how in love he was with Lily. But don't be fooled. He is a lethal, fierce man. Very droolworthy. Even though I love some of the GhostWalker men more, it's a relative thing, because I realize on reread how much I love Ryland. I think for a nine (soon to be ten) book run, having only mildly disliked one hero (Mack) and loved all of the others, that's saying something.

Lily--

Lily is a multi-faceted heroine who I love and admire. She is wicked intelligent, with a highly cerebral scientific nature balanced by a fiercely loyal, caring, passionate and loving heart. I liked her in this book a lot, and it's great to see what a lynchpin she is for the GhostWalkers in the later books.


Together, their chemistry is sighworthy and hot! If you like plenty of love scenes, Feehan won't let you down.

Team One--

I adore all these guys. I love their strong bonds and their loyalty to each other. Not to mention their soldier bad*ssedness! They know how to joke around, but they also know how to take down the bad guys. It's great to see each one with their women. Going back and rereading this makes me even more excited for Sam's book. (big smile)

Final Thoughts--

I never find Christine Feehan a quick read, but I love her books all the same, particularly this GhostWalkers series. I am glad I did a reread and was able to dive deeper and appreciate things I may have missed the first time around, or just to immerse myself in this book world I love so much.
Mind Game is next and I am so looking forward to it! Glad to get GhostWalker fix. I an a stone cold addict for this series.

Check out my GhostWalkers pinboard!




Original Review


I gave this book five stars because I enjoyed it so much. I have heard that it is not the best of the series. I am happy to say that if this is not the best, then it will be a pleasure to read the rest of the books. Right from the start, I knew I would like Ryland, the hero. He came off as a principled, caring person, although with a dangerous edge (which I like in a hero). I liked his immediate attraction to Lily, and how he saw the beauty in her although she never thought she was beautiful. Lily is a good heroine with some qualities that make her stand out from other cookie-cutter heroines. I like that she has the tendency to be a nerd/brainiac type and is very cerebral. She can get sucked into her research and be cranky at times. It's refreshing to read about heroines who aren't goody-goody all the time, although they are good people all the same. It is clear that despite being a very scientific person, she also cares about people and about doing the right thing. I definitely saw the chemistry between Lily and Ryland and hoped that they would get together. I loved that they had a psychic bond that helped each other, when either was feeling pain or anguish. By the time the love scenes came, there was already a deep emotional connection that made the love scenes that much better.

I also liked the premise of the story. It's cool to read a paranormal with humans who happen to have enhanced mental powers. I loved how the Ghost Walkers could tell someone to look away and not see them, and persuade them to do things, yet they never used these powers in a cruel way. I thought the science was plausible, although clearly Feehan made an effort not to bog the reader down with it. The romance and the relationships were the strong focus, yet set in a world that is very exciting and interesting.

I also liked Ryland and Lily's relationships with the other Ghost Walker men and also with Lily's family of employees that have been with her since she was a small girl. I would say that Feehan has a skill at writing about relationships and the intricacies of those interrelations with people. She shows the turmoil that Lily had about her father and her discovering that her father did do some less than ethical experimentation on her and other young girls in his quest to develop psychic powers in human subjects. All the characters in this book were interesting, and I had quite a few good laughs as they joked with each other.

The action scenes were exciting and well-written, showing that this was another area that Feehan is good at. I love reading about tough people who can kick butt, and this book has this in spades. Also I liked seeing the Ghost Walkers and Lily use their powers when they got into fights and went on missions. It reminded me of the X-Men movies, comics, and tv show.

I can heartily say that this book was enjoyable and I am adding it to my keeper shelf. I am eager to read all the books in the series.

Please let this be better than Dark Prince. I hated that book so much. Thus far, it's nothing special. It actually seems like the typical overdone "super soldier" story. But I'm giving it a chance.

Tomorrow is tattoo day! Yay!

On a side note, this week has been rough. For 2 days, I was under the impression my Lap Band surgery had been denied. It finally got fixed and I'm getting the procedure on March 2nd. Then I was informed our tax money was going to be late, so how was I paying for my tattoo? Ugh. But tomorrow I'm getting inked and eating Mexican. Lots of Mexican.

BTW, I have lost 23 pounds. Just by being a good girl when I eat.

Shadow Game -- Christine Feehan

Book 1 of GhostWalkers series

2003 Release -- Jove Books

Paranormal Romance, Romantic Suspense, Military

The story concept was what had gotten my attention in the first place--that, and I’d seen a lot of praise for Christine Feehan via reviews in the reading community. Unfortunately, what seemed to work for everyone else in Ms. Feehan’s books didn’t seem to work well for me in Shadow Game; which is a sore disappointment because I was looking forward to diving into this long-running paranormal series about a psychically enhanced elite of Military Special Forces.

I figured there would be a lot of potential and a lot of good stories you could dabble with using that premise.

Unfortunately, my biggest take away from Shadow Game was how Lily Whitney and Ryland Miller are so meant to be that we need to be subject to flowery prose and tacky dialogue for 80% of the book, and also how Lily has very “generous breasts” (what does that even mean?)--there are repetitive conversations about their romance and how much they love each other and all the detail about how they're lusting after each other.

Apparently, “the ground moved” when these two meet for the first time, they cannot stop thinking about each other, they knew they were “meant to be together forever” at first sight, they can’t stop lusting after each other, and Lily has very feminine curves, and generous breasts. Did I mention that Lily Whitney has very “generous breasts”?

You know, it’s enough to mention it once--that Lily Whitney has a bit of a cynical complex and is extremely modest about her looks despite the fact that she admits to having more feminine curves (wide hips and big boobs), even if she doesn’t look like a supermodel. I can handle her being humble about her own physical appearance and being cynical about men falling for her.

But I don’t need to be reminded time and time again that she has very “generous breasts”. These same two words just keep popping up: when she’s putting her clothes on, when she’s examining her own body, when she’s doing the horizontal with Captain Miller, when she’s sleeping in the nude, when she’s covering her body with a lab coat, when Ryland is feeling her up… Apparently it’s extremely important to the author that her readers know that Lily has very “generous breasts”.

At least a different description for big boobs would have been appreciated.

Shadow Game was all about the romance and the sex. The entire psychic military forces and unethical human experimentation conflict got overshadowed. And the writing style was very much “Tell” instead of “Show.” I felt like the author wanted us to understand exactly what point she was trying to hammer home about her characters and it was a little annoying.


Anyway…

The Story:
Dr. Peter Whitney has been conducting experiments on volunteer military personnel to create an elite force of silent fighting machines, the strongest group of soldiers anyone has ever seen. Captain Ryland Miller, in an effort to help with this research that is supposed to help their country, volunteeers himself and some of his men to enhance psychic abilities that they may already naturally have.

But even before Dr. Whitney dies, Captain Miller notices that something strange and much more sinister is happening with the experiment and his men. At least three of the soldiers have died as a probable side effect of the experiments, and no matter what Ryland says, no one is doing anything to help them.

Lily Whitney is brought onboard the project by her father, but not long afterward, telepathically witnesses her father’s murder. Before he dies, Peter Whitney warns her to be careful--that someone is messing around with his project, that the soldier’s lives are in danger, and that she needs to “find the others” and undo what he did that was wrong.

Not long after that, Lily discovers that she had been part of a similar project her father conducted years ago, as a child bought by him who showed signs of natural psychic ability. And along with her, there were several other little girls who had also been a part of Dr. Whitney’s experiments to enhance psychic abilities. And now these girls are scattered throughout the country because Peter Whitney couldn’t deal with the terrible consequences of his careless experiments.

So basically Lily must help the soldiers learn how to use their abilities and shield against excess noise and she must find the other girls and help them as well.

Some of My Thoughts:
As I stated, the premise to this book was an intriguing one. And when I found out about the other girls and the psychic enhancements Lily had been a part of when she was a child, I got a little excited. It would be interesting to read about our military men, also dubbed the GhostWalkers, go in search of the rest of the girls while fighting crime or going on military missions. I was thinking, “Ooh, there are others out there, like Lily, with psychic enchancements who had been trained as a child.”

That sounds even more interesting than a simple psi-ops story with military men being the psychically enchanced GhostWalkers. It doesn’t hurt to add some girl power to these stories.

But if the rest of the books are going to be anything like Shadow Game... I don’t know how much disappointment I can take. I kept waiting for the book to start bringing up other plot points and connecting all the dots, but Shadow Game was determined to be all about the “Lily Whitney and Ryland Miller” romance that moves mountains and shatters ground and has mind-blowing sex.

And the romance wasn’t even all that inspiring. They meet, they develop instalove that will live on forever and ever, all time eternal. And Lily is the typical innocent virgin who has never been with a man before and is a Mother Theresa type. Ryland Miller is the typical alpha that I hate reading about (yes, there are alpha males I like reading about and Captain Miller does not meet the requirements). For one thing, he comes off as kind of an asshole; he likes to manhandle, he likes to get possessive and territorial, and the next time a man tells a woman to quit her day job because she’s a woman can meet my fist, even if it IS for her safety and even if she CAN live off of the inheritance her father left for her.

On top of that, I think he might have a problem with listening because he gets all angry and upset listening to Lily go on about her father’s experiments before he even actually hears what she’s trying to tell him. He jumps to conclusions too quickly and really just needs to take a chill pill and calm the heck down.

The most exciting parts of the book were when the group starts planning their escape from the research lab facilities and whenever there was talk about Peter Whitney’s experiments.. I was hopeful that things would start getting relevant and exciting when something other than romance and sex happened… but then Lily and Ryland get together again and we continue the romance route from there.

And every few random scenes we’d bring up the experiments or the conspiracies or something else that was non-romance related. But those are sparse and far and few and ultimately veer back into the romance anyway.

If there was a bit more tactful humor and more likable characters, maybe I’d be more inclined to get into the next book, just to see if things pick up a little bit better. A first book in a series is sometimes a little shaky; maybe the author is testing new ground and hasn’t gotten her ideas solidly built yet.

But the characters were merely “meh” and so I made the decision to set this series aside and come back to it some other time.


Final Thoughts: With an excellently intriguing idea, I had really hoped for more from this book than simply a romance based on a paranormal premise. GhostWalkers has a lot of potential for some really great story lines, being a long-running series and all. And with eleven installments, I’m sure it managed to find some footing somewhere and I’m sure there are plenty of people who are in love with the series.

Unfortunately, while the book wasn't completely terrible, I’m just not sure it’s the right book for me. I can only wonder about the rest of the series and whether or not it could be right for me some other time.

***

This book is a pre-chosen participant in the following Reading Challenge(s):

• 2015 Reading Assignment Challenge hosted by Because Reading and Fantasy is More Fun