I really enjoyed Shadow Fox. The characters were amazing & always kept you guessing as to their pasts. It is a great combination of today & an unknown realm. I look forward to more in the series. ( )

There are moments in Ashley Barnard’s romance Shadow Fox that are positively gripping and then there are times when the story goes stale and lacks any genuine sentiment. Shadow Fox contains two romances in one book. The first one hundred and forty pages concentrate on the relationship of master swordsman Jared Bruin and singer-songwriter Tarika Jordan who hires Jared to train her in the art of fencing. Their relationship lacks luster and any genuine feeling to keep them together. However, the romance that is revealed around page one hundred and forty and unfolds in the remaining one hundred and fifty pages of the book holds the reader in rapt attention.

This romance found deeper in the pages is the crux and true gem of the story. It’s the love between Jared’s parents, Maelkin Dunefaellen and Princess Marishka who are from another realm reminiscent to medieval Scotland. At this stage the story shows a time travel continuum where a gateway between this medieval realm and the present day Earth plane is located in one Queeny Park in St. Louis, Missouri.

Jared, who was born in this other realm, was taken through this gateway to Earth where his parents believed he would be safe. Tarika too and her mother Olivia, who is a Seer of the High Priestess at Anhinga Temple in this other realm, were also taken through this gateway to be saved. It takes a long time to understand this part of the story at the expense of losing the reader. The complications drag out the story stuffing it with material that gives the book an artificial quality.

The strongest part of the story with the most cohesiveness is the love between Marishka and Maelkin. Their’s is a forbidden love as Marishka’s mother, the Queen of Rydar is working with King Nicar of Drayton for him to marry Marishka and save the kingdoms from an invasion by the armed forces of Danarsa. Maelkin is the captain of Nicar’s Royal Guards and afflicted with the Demon as they call it. Meaning, he has episodes of crazed madness when he turns into a wild beast. Knowing this, Marishka still loves Maelkin and has his child Jared. Maelkin reveals everything to his son in a journal which is given to Jared’s Earth plane surrogate mother Julia Jordan.

Personally, the story could have maintained its gripping edge if Marishka and Maelkin had used the gateway to come to the Earth plane and modern medicine help Maelkin with his affliction. Jared inherits the affliction but in his ignorance uses heroin to control the outbursts which doesn’t really work. Though Jared and Tarika return to this other realm in an effort to stimulate the story, it has the reverse effect.

Perhaps I’m the only one who has this opinion of Shadow Fox. I‘ll admit there are pieces that fodder the reader’s imagination and make the story memorable, but there are other parts that fall flat. Shadow Fox has potential to be an international l hit with some reworking. ( )