Genre: Nordic Thriller

Setting: Sweden

Swedish Title: Skugga

English Translation: Steven T. Murray (2008)

POV: 3rd Person

Sensuality: Subtle

Violence: Yes, but it all occurs off page

Format: Digital

My Grade: D

Shadow by Karin Alvtegen, is a book of family secrets, murder and betrayal.

When elderly Gerda Persson is found dead in her apartment, she has no family and no known friends. Marianne Folkesson is the social worker is assigned to sort through her things and arrange her funeral. At first, it appears that Gerda led a very ordinary life. But when Marianne opens Gerda’s freezer, she finds stacks of books, all by Axel Rangerfeldt, an award-winning Swedish author, and all containing personal dedications to Gerda.

When Marianne contacts the Rangerfeldt family for information about their connection to Gerda, she has no idea the course of events she has set in motion. They revolve around the mysterious abandonment of a little boy in an amusement park a thirty years previously…

I finished reading Shadow last night. I absolutely hated it. Not because it’s a bad book. It’s well-written (or well-translated if you want to nitpick). The plot is interesting (or had the potential to be). My problem is with the characters. I disliked all of them. I love reading about flawed individuals, but they have to have some redeeming features to make me care about them. The characters in Shadow ranged from pathetic to heinous. By the end of the book, I didn’t care who killed whom.

My other criticism of the book is its total lack of humour. I can read bleak and depressing stories, but there has to be some element of comic relief in there to lighten the mood. Shadow has none. I debated giving it an F but I couldn’t justify it as there is nothing wrong with the writing or the construction of the book. Nevertheless, it’s not one I can recommend.

Karin Alvtegen gets great reviews for her books, and Shadow seems to be particularly popular. If you like relentlessly depressing stories, it might work better for you than it did for me. Meanwhile, I’m off to find a book that will make me laugh.

I’ve mentioned that Susan Mallery’s books are guilty pleasure reads for me. Under Her Skin may well have cured me of my addiction.

Lexi is the eldest of the three Titan sisters. Their father, Jed, is a wealthy Texan businessman,  who uses his money to control his daughters. Jed tells them that only one will inherit his fortune. Therefore, they have to prove which of them is the most deserving. (How, exactly, they are supposed to prove this is all rather vague.) The doormat middle sister, Skye, acts as Jed’s unofficial hostess and runs a charity; the slutty younger sister, Izzy, is an underwater welder on an oil rig; Lexi runs a luxurious day spa.

When Lexi started her business, she ran into some financial difficulties. Loath to ask her father for help, she agreed to a $2 million loan from an anonymous investor. The catch: the loan was callable at any time and with only three week’s notice. At the start of the book, Lexi’s bank manager has just informed her that the loan has been called. She has to come up with the money fast or lose everything.

Cruz Rodriguez was Lexi’s first love. He’s a self-made billionaire with stalker tendencies. Having not seen Lexi in over a decade, he shows up unexpectedly at a charity event hosted by her sister, Skye. After overhearing a conversation between Lexi and her banker, Cruz offers her an indecent proposal: a six-month sham engagement in exchange for $2 million. For reasons known only to herself, Lexi agrees to the scheme. Cruz proceeds to railroad his way into her life and into her bed.

This book was so bad it was – almost – amusing. It was sort of like the very worst of Harlequin Presents meets Dallas, complete with vindictive long-lost relatives, secret babies, domineering males, and TSTL heroines. One sex scene contains the classic line:

“Liquid heat poured through her.” page 124

Has Susan Mallery been using ‘The Romance Writers’ Phrase Book’ for inspiration?

Lexi has to be one of the dumbest female protagonists in romance fiction. Nothing she did made much sense. Here are just a few examples of her latent stupidity: talking a loan from an anonymous investor when she could have asked her rich sister for help; agreeing to be engaged to and sleep with Cruz within five minutes of meeting him at the party; not kicking Cruz’s ass when she found out about his daughter; confronting a potential villain on her own. But the crowning glory has to be the following line:

“When she’d first moved in with Cruz, she’d gone off her birth control pills so she would get her period and have an excuse not to sleep with him.” page 260

Aargh! Couldn’t she have just lied? Or simply told him to fuck off? Sheesh. And then she’s surprised when she gets pregnant…

Despite her idiocy, Lexi didn’t annoy me a fraction as much as Cruz. He is beyond doubt the most obnoxious alpha male hero I’ve ever encountered. The guy has no redeeming features. He’s an arrogant social climber with no value system. He has a daughter from a previous relationship whom he ignores. He sees nothing wrong with this behavior as he pays for her education. He manipulates and bullies Lexi, ostensibly for her own good. When he finds out Lexi is pregnant with his child, he storms out, later to be caught kissing an ex-girlfriend. His excuse?

“I was trying to clear my head.”   page 312

Needless to say, Cruz and Lexi get their Happy Ever After. As they are both such unworthy creatures, they probably deserve each other.

This is the first book in a new quartet. Having endured the horror that is Under Her Skin, I don’t feel the need to subject myself to the rest.     Grade: D