Artur, one of Dirk & Steele's investigators, is kidnapped from his home and taken to a secret location to be studied like a lab rat. His captors belong to a shadowy criminal organization, named the Consortium, headed by a powerful psychic named Beatrix.

The Consortium is collecting people with special psychic abilities to study, to recruit and to control. But they have special interest in Artur. He holds a secret that no one else knows, one that the Consortium will do what's necessary to get out of him.

Artur soon discovers others with similar special abilities and even shape shifters in the secret location he's being held. During his stay, he crosses paths with a beautiful woman who is also a captive. Elena has a powerful ability to heal people. Like Artur, the Consortium has a special interest in her. When Artur and Elena meet in the hallway, she heals his wounds and inadvertently establishes an unbreakable psychic link with him that helps join their psychic strengths as they fight their captors.

Artur and Elena eventually escape their captors with the help of a mysterious character who refuses to reveal who or what he is. It's not long after their escape that they discover Beatrix's evil plans. She is greedy for power and her plan is to use mind control to unite the mafia organizations in each country under her control.

With the help of other Dirk & Steele investigators, Artur and Elena try to thwart Beatrix's plans, but their attempts go awry when Artur is captured once again and the Consortium uses him as bait to lure Elena back into their clutches.

This was an exciting read; full of adventure and romance. I couldn't put it down. If, however, I had to compare it to another Dirk & Steele book, like The Tiger Eye, I'd say that it pales a bit in comparison. Despite that, I highly recommend it.

SHADOW TOUCH, a paranormal romance by Marjorie M. Liu, is engaging and interesting. I also found it a much better read, prose-wise, than its prequel, TIGER EYE, which very much reminded me of the writing of overly descriptive, overly poetic students in a creative writing class.

Liu's writing is more in control with SHADOW TOUCH, and it is both compelling and fresh in tone. Put another way, I didn't find myself skipping over endless paragraph after paragraph of writing for the sake of writing, like in the first book.

Plot-wise, SHADOW TOUCH is the story of ex-Russian mobster, Artur Loginov, who is kidnapped for his special (or cursed) ability to see other people's memories by touching them. While imprisoned, he meets up with Elena Baxter, a hospital volunteer who was kidnapped for her abilities to heal. Together, they join forces with two shape-shifters to escape their prison and help rid the world of an evil magical being.

Artur and Elena fall in love, and it quite the original love story, indeed. The way Liu merged their two abilities into a meeting of the heart and souls was fascinating and new, and you can actually "see" the two of them fall in love. This is not a lust-at-first-sight story. This is a bond between soul mates, and Liu does a fantastic job describing it.

Being that this is a descriptive book and it revolves around torture and violence, there are some moments that are disturbing to read about. One Amazon reviewer mentioned that there was a ghastly rape scene in the introduction, which actually kept me from reading this book right away, as I didn't want to deal with something so traumatic. However, the rape does not happen to a main character, nor is it ever written about in detail, so it is not as horrible as the reviewer described. I was more disturbed by the animal cruelty in this book, which thankfully was kept brief. However, if you are sensitive to gore, cruelty, and violence, I'd advise you consider reading another book. This one may be too overwhelming.

I'd also advise you to read the first book, TIGER EYE. There are more than a few references to events or characters from TIGER EYE, so reading it beforehand will help you understand the magic-filled world Liu has created. TIGER EYE also provided an intriguing introduction to Artur, who I found to be the most fascinating character in the book. I'm glad he got his own story in SHADOW TOUCH, which was satisfying emotionally. His heroine, Elena, is a great match for him, and both are characters I'd love to meet in real life.

I'm looking forward to the next book in the series. I wonder who it will be about. Rik? Dean? Rictor? Too bad I'm not a mind reader....

I love this author. The story was great, but there were a couple of parts where I felt like I was caught up in a whirlwind of action and I wasn't exactly sure what happened. I liked the way the author made something so fantastical seem realistic for present day without any of the corny dialogue many authors tend to use in this genre. The main reason I wouldn't give this book a 5 was because the climax of the book fell a little flat for me. There was so much action going on throughout the book that when it came I felt like...that's it? Another thing that kind of annoyed me were all the cliffhangers throughout the story. I guess that's how they setup for the next book, but I wish they could have explained more about some of the characters. I look forward to Liu's next book.

This is a great book that will stand alone even if you haven't read the first book. The author particularly does a great job of creating individuals blessed with unusual powers/abilities but sets them and the story in present day Russia. This adds such an inventive and almost--realistic touch to the conflicts the characters face because--as we all know--an intractible bureaucrat with lots of power and no supervision is truly the embodiment of hell's powers on Earth. The romance between the lead characters is especially sweet because they cannot help but touch each other on levels beyond the usual senses because of their psi abilities. This also increases their need for integrity in dealing with each other and the rest of the team. Effective plot tension and the use of a good old fashioned train instead of a demon portal/warp/split/blinking in and out kind of transport provides a sense of rhythm underneath the story that adds another level of enjoyment.

This dark, action packed, paranormal romance adventure can be summed up in one word: M O R E