• Paperback: 368 pages
• List Price: $6.99
• Publisher: Zebra (September 6, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 142011896X
• ISBN-13: 978-1420118964
• Erin Kellison’s Website
• Segue Website

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Ghosts

They haunt the halls of the Segue Institute, terrifying the living, refusing to cross over. But one soul is driven by a very different force.

Love

It survives even death. And Kathleen O’Brien swore she would return to those she was forced to leave too soon.

Shadowman

He broke every rule to have her in life; now he will defy the angels to find her in death.

The Gate

Forging it is his single hope of being reunited with his beloved, but through it an abomination enters the world. Leaving a trail of blood and violence, the devil hunts her too. Pursued through realms of bright fantasy and dark reality, Kathleen is about to be taken…

“I’ve searched the whole of your life for you. Been burned by divine light. Breached Hell even.” His shadows grumbled within him. “And now that I have you, I’m not letting go. Our time is just beginning.”

Pg. 155

Like all of my reviews, I am going to try to make this one as spoiler-free as possible, but in this case I am assuming you have read the previous books in the series. Otherwise, a few of my comments may spoil a few things from previous books for you.

Shadowman is the epic, impossible-love story that the Shadow Series has been building up to for the past two books. Shadowman is a dark fae lord, the Grim Reaper, to be precise. Decades before this story takes place, he fell in love with a mortal woman, Kathleen. He was drawn to her because as close as she was to death, she spent every day of her life fighting for her existence. So, he crossed the boundary between the fae lands of Twilight and the mortal realm to be with Kathleen, a joining that reintroduced magic into the world with some disastrous consequences.

Kathleen had a daughter by Shadowman, but her illness was too much for her to survive and she passed into the afterlife as her child was born. Shadowman, who as a generally capricious fae had never loved before, cannot give up his search for Kathleen in the afterlife. And Kathleen didn’t stop fighting either. In Shadowman, they are reunited, but he remains an immortal fae, and she a mortal woman near the end of her life’s thread. It seems that history is repeating itself, and again there is no way for their love to withstand fate.

I devoured this book. I could not put it down…but once I finished, I had to take time to digest or my review would’ve consisted of: “Wow! Oh My Gosh! Holy Cow! Awesomesauce!!!”

What I can now, intelligently say about Shadowman is that it is an excellent continuation in a series that introduces new magic, new challenges, and new realms of possibility with every book. Some authors will begin a series with three to five books that are relatively similar in what the characters can access and deal with, then around the forth-or-so book, they will introduce a new element that changes the game. Not so with Erin Kellison. Every book introduces a brand new challenge. New magic is revealed, but in a way that is so seamless that it seems obvious that it always existed in her world (instead of just coming along as a plot device, as can happen in some series).

I am a HUGE fan of Erin’s, and Shadowman did not disappoint. It is filled with nearly non-stop action from page one. I am not ashamed to admit I teared up a few times. If a book can make me so invested in the story and characters that I start to cry, it’s a great book. However, Shadowman took it a step beyond that. Usually, if I’m crying during a book, it’s because it seems like someone is dying, or giving up everything they want for someone else, at the end of the book. I was only about half-way through Shadowman the first time I got teary. And it wasn’t because someone was dying, it was because someone had said something so incredibly, heart-achingly sweet.

There are tons of quotes I could give you from this book, but they would lose their power outside of the context of the book, so I’ll leave them for you to discover on your own.

Erin has a wonderful, fresh, and unique voice. I have not seen her story ideas from anyone else, even though she uses fae, which are not unheard of in paranormal or fantasy romance. All of her plot elements are her own, and HOLY COW! (Okay, sorry, but at least one was going to slip out in this review.) Shadowman has so many twists that as soon as I thought I knew what would happen, something else came along and changed the game. I LOVE not being able to guess where a book is going! Since it’s a romance, I knew to expect a HEA, but I could not for the life of me figure out how it would happen. It’s a credit to Erin’s fresh and creative writing that she was able to keep me guessing through the final few pages.

“A mortal can summon a devil at the crossroads to make a deal, usually to sell his soul”

A deal with the devil? “And the crossroads are in Jersey?”

Pg. 334

Another thing I love about Erin’s writing is her voice. Without being over flowery, she can still give incredibly poetic images and metaphors. There is a scene in Shadowman within a desolate winter Twilight that made my heart ache with its symbolism.

People who don’t think romance can be a high form of literature need to read Erin Kellison. She reminds me a bit of Marjorie M. Liu in her poetic imagery. I could picture everything in this book. Even more, I could feel everything in this book!

So, while I could go on gushing forever about Erin Kellsion and Shadowman, here’s the rundown…

What I Liked:

• Erin has definitely grown with each book, and continues to take huge and fantastic steps forward with this third book in the series.
• The plot kept me guessing. Every time I started to think I had it, something came along and made me rethink all of my ideas.
• This love story is EPIC! Even after death, Kathleen returns to find Shadowman and her daughter, Talia.
• Custo. I love Custo! He plays a sizeable part in this book, as do Adam and Talia Thorne, and it’s good to see them again after their books. (In fact, I wouldn’t mind another book, or at least short story, on Custo and what he’s up to now…*hint* *hint* *Erin* *HINT!*

What I Didn’t Like:

• There was nothing about this book that I didn’t like. It totally hit all spots for me, and I can’t wait for more from Erin!

I give Shadowman five out of five stars, with Awesomesauce poured on top, since Nat doesn’t have a graphic for anything more amazing than five stars.

Shadow Series:

1. Shadow Bound
2. Shadow Fall
3. Shadowman

*Shadow Touch – a spinoff series