Shadow (New Species, Book 9) by Laurann Dohner

The first thing I’ll say about this book is that it catapulted Laurann Dohner into the top five of my favorite author lists. New Species (NS) never get’s old nor do I find myself losing interest.  I’m glad she decided to switch it up and have a NS/NS mating.  I also know I am not the only one that has been interested in getting to know more about the NS Gift women.  In a nutshell, the NS Gift women are different than the other NS women [females]. They were created to be pets, sexual slaves, to whoever had the money to afford them and as such many of the Gift women are deathly afraid of men in general and are very high strung. As a result of their treatment it is pretty much forbidden for the NS males to approach Gift women at all. Whenever a Gift woman is involved it is required to have a female NS or a human woman present to provide a calming presence.

If the reader is at all familiar with the series then they will be pleasantly surprised to find a Gift woman that deviates from the norm. Beauty is eager to put her past behind her and get on with her life.  In the process of reveling in her freedom she meets Shadow, a recently freed canine NS, and all bets are off. Stepping away from the story for one moment I think it’s important for the reader to know [remember, depending on familiarity with the series] that not all NS were subjected to the same tortures. Some were caged and considered failures, like Valiant, some were used exclusively for breeding purposes, like Shadow and Wrath, some were created for infiltration and espionage i.e. Justice , etc. In my opinion, this is one of the reasons the NS series does not get old. Each NS was created for a different purpose and as such they each have different hang ups, issues and inner battles to conquer.

What’s also awesome about this book is that it is not strictly a love story between Beauty and Shadow. There are other issues coming into play that directly and indirectly affect Beauty, Shadow, as well as NS as a whole and its allies. If sexy and possessive New Species males do it for you, Shadow will not disappoint. I personally love to see previous characters show up in the new books as well as an introduction to characters that could potentially have their own stories told. This is one series where I don’t see myself getting bored with. It could get into the double digits and I would still beg for more. I give this a high rating and recommend it to all.