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    Shadow Touch: A Dirk & Steele Novel
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    Shadow Touch: A Dirk & Steele Novel
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    Shadow Touch: A Dirk & Steele Novel
    Ebook437 pages6 hours

    Shadow Touch: A Dirk & Steele Novel

    By Marjorie Liu

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    “A fresh thrill for anyone in the market for an extraordinary romance.”

    —Publishers Weekly

     

    “Anyone who loves my work should love hers too”
    —New York Times bestselling author Christine Feehan

     

    Shadow Touch is the second book in New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Marjorie M. Liu’s remarkable Dirk & Steele series—stunningly inventive and breathtakingly passionate tales of shapeshifters, psychics, and extraordinary beings from one of the finest writers of paranormal romance. A story of a man with amazing abilities and a woman who can perform miracles with a touch drawn together into a terrifying conspiracy, Shadow Touch combines suspense, peril, and passion with a truly remarkable love story that will live in the heart forever.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateJun 8, 2010
    ISBN9780062013620
    Author

    Marjorie Liu

    Marjorie Liu is the New York Times bestselling author of the Monstress series, illustrated by Sana Takeda. She also writes for Marvel Comics, including Black Widow, X-23, and Astonishing X-Men. Marjorie teaches comic book writing at MIT and divides her time between Boston, Massachusetts, and Tokyo, Japan.

    Read more from Marjorie Liu

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    Reviews for Shadow Touch

    4/5

    170 ratings12 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I'm sorry I didn't read the first book in this series. I might have been able even more out of this book had I done so. In Shadow touch, Elena Baxter, one of my favorite characters can heal with a touch. Artur Loginov, can absorb the feelings of people by touching them. When they're both kidnapped by the Consortium, their lives are turned upside down. Artur is an operative of Dirk & Steele, a detective agency utilizing paranormal people to protect normal humans. The Consortium wants to exploit both of them, and of course, take over the world. It's up to Elena and Artur to rescue each other along with two shape-shifters, one a Panther and the other a Dolphin shifter from the Consortium, make their way across Russia to break up a criminal conspiracy while avoiding being gutted by the serial killing psychopath on their trail. All in a day's work. The characters were fun, but the big reval at the end which will blow you away. Jack Murphy
    • 5/5
      Second in Liu's Dirk & Steele series Shadow Touch gives us Artur's story (The enigmatic ex-Russian mobster first introduced in Tiger Eye.)The story starts off revealing Elena Baxter, a kind woman who has felt like a freak her entire life because she can actually heal people. But little does she know how un-freakish her abilities are- and how far someone will go to steal them.Working for the Dirk & Steele Agency, Artur is no stranger to the dangerous, nor the paranormal. When he's captured for information about the mysterious agency he works for, his life is turned upside down- but not by his abductors. Rather it's the angelic woman he chances upon in the hallways of his prison. With one touch she heals him and instantly forms a connection with him. Together, along with some of the other psychically gifted people imprisoned with them, they make their way to freedom- fortunately before the evil behind their capture can get the information they are after.But the big bads are not about to give up without a fight, and as Artur & Elena travel across Russia, danger follows them- along with a profound love that will change them in ways neither of them could have imagined.Shadow Touch starts off with a bang and keeps you engaged for the entire ride! Artur and Elena form an instant connection charged with emotion and heat. In the process they form a connection with the reader that takes you along with them as they learn each other and suss out the source of the danger surrounding them. I was with them on every page and couldn't put the book down till the last page!
    • 4/5
      I jumped right into the second installment of this series not having read the first book, but as each book relates different adventures of various characters it didn’t matter. Marjorie Liu’s Dirk and Steele sci-fi romance series involves a clever and unique atmosphere of an American detective agency full of male and female agents all with interesting paranormal abilities. Shadow Touch portrays the life of Elena, a Wisconsin farm girl who works as a hospital volunteer secretly healing dying patients with her hands on ability to cure wounds and terminal patients. Hospital members don’t question the mysterious miracles working around them and chalk it up to the will of God. While in the process of healing a cancer patient she is shockingly kidnapped and brought to a frightening remote Russian facility of scientists who are collecting people around the globe who have shown to have special inhuman capabilities. They experiment, torture, and brainwash their captives to extract knowledge of their supernatural phenomena, planning to use these special people for their own quests of power to control the world. While imprisoned, Elena meets Artur, a Russian agent of Dirk and Steele who has the power of clairvoyance and the talent to see people’s histories with just one touch. He can read minds, thought speak, and track down killers with a simple touch to anything they have handled. He too has been abducted to this arena of mad scientists called the Consortium, and uncovers that they are an organization out to wipe out Dirk and Steele, rounding up all paranormals to be used for global domination. Corrupt, evil, and dangerous, the Consortium becomes Dirk and Steele’s new mission for elimination. Elena and Artur fight for their lives as they struggle to break out, joining forces with two other prisoners they manage to free. Amiri is an African shape-shifter cheetah, and Rik is another shifter who’s animal form is a dolphin. The four blend their talents to find freedom, and the chase is on as they run for their lives across Russia being hunted down. Amidst this chaos Elena and Artur find love, a beautiful romance ensues as they learn to trust one another and feel a peace each has never found in another human being. Both grew up rejected and discarded by parents thinking them freaks, and this new solace to find another with the same background, fears and abilities is newfound ecstasy to them both. Although more fantasy thriller than a romance novel, Shadow Touch is extremely well written in a literary style, has great substance and a well threaded complex series plot intermingling from episode to episode, and injects sweet and gentle romance with enhancing sex scenes. I haven’t encountered a romance novel this accomplished in years and give Marjorie Liu two thumbs up and high praise. Both men and women will enjoy this innovative series.
    • 5/5
      Awesome! action, intrigue, adventure and Love. I loved the romance between Elena and Artur, a roller coaster of emotions.
    • 4/5
      I think this author has balls of steel. She broaches subjects, areas, and different um...plot points you might not normally find in a romance novel and she makes them fit. She somehow makes torture and mind control perfectly normal in this book. The characters in this story are what really makes it unique. I wanted to get to know Artur more after the first book, Tiger Eye, but Ms. Liu teases us by only giving us a little bit. I was so happy his book was next. I instantly adored Elena, she is strong, smart, and does what needs to be done when she needs to. I love characters who know themselves.

      Now, plot, half of this book is positioned in a human (or not so human) experimentation facility and both the characters are physically and mentally abused in this place. I was in shock and awe when I was reading...kept saying..."Are they really...no...holy cow...they did." then I would wiggle around in my seat some and dive back in the story. Ms. Liu takes her story seriously and has no qualms about running her people through the ringer, and then a cheese grater.

      I adore this series so far and I can't wait to dig deeper and learn more about the other people who work for Dirk and Steele. I want to know more about Riktor and I need to know more about Koni...those are the guys on my radar now that Artur is happily settled.
    • 5/5
      There are people who might look at you when you read a romance book and say, "Oh, a romance book." Somehow you feel as if you have to defend yourself as an intelligent human being.

      For those people who I would suggest read a romance book for the first time, I would sent them to any Marjorie M. Liu series of Dirk and Steele, and this book specifically.

      Ms. Liu is a brilliant author, period. No matter what genre. I loved how she can continue the entire series's plot line and theme, and yet give our Hero and Heroine their own story. I love the darkness in Artur and much he is in need of some light and forgiveness.

      Elena, on the other hand is a sassy, but sweet woman who is just the person to bring Artur back into the living.


      Read this book, you will not be disappointed.

    • 4/5
      I liked this one even better than TIGER EYE, it was just so sweet to read Artur and Elena finding each other. The scene on the train was hot, hot, if only because of the people involved, and I thought the action was very well paced throughout. Can't wait to read my next Dirk & Steele!
    • 5/5
      Once again Liu has delivered a fantastically paced paranormal romance with enough of a mystery intertwined in the book that I can't help but be desperate to read the next in the series.
    • 4/5
      Dirk & Steele agent Artur Loginov is an empath who can sense a person's emotions and memories by touching them or an object they have touched. He is a very damaged man with a dark, ugly past as a former member of the Russian mob and is now using his talents to help rather than harm others.Elena is a psychic healer who can get inside the minds of injured or sick patients to help them use their own mental powers to heal themselves.Both Elena and Arthur come to the attention of an evil organization called The Consortium that intends to use people with these special skills for their own dastardly purposes. So Elena and Arthur are drugged and kidnapped (separately) and taken to an underground prison to be brainwashed into using their skills for evil.The story was riveting and I finished it in one sitting. I'm a bit squeamish about blood and torture and I didn't care for some of the torture that was described. I also thought the prison scenes which went on until about the midway point took up too much of the book. During this time the reader doesn't knows were they are being held and I kept wondering 'where the hell are they?' And the identity of their jailers was also kept from the reader. All was revealed very slowly and made for a captivating and sometimes frustrating read. Artur and Elena meet in the hallway of their prison and make a psychic connection. Eventually they escape together with the help of some shapeshifters and that's when the action intensifies. Unfortunately, the suspense and intrigue overwhelm the romance which took a back burner, but it was still enjoyable with some hot sexual tension and steamy love scenes. (Grade: B)
    • 5/5
      This is the second book in the series that started with Tiger Eye. It took me a while to connect the two, because they're very different stories, and in fact I didn't remember the Dirk & Steele Agency from the first book, which is how they're connected. Give me a break--it was almost a year ago.Shadow Touch begins with two investigators from Dirk & Steele at a murder scene. Artur Loginov is a touch sensitive, and he's using his gift to try to find the killer, who's strangely invisible to Artur's senses. It's painful for Artur, but he sees the pain as penance for his previous life as a Russian mobster, and pushes himself, even when those around him are urging him to stop.Elena Baxter, on the other hand, believes she's alone in the world. She has a healing gift, which she puts to use working in a hospital, though she's cautious to keep her gift a secret.Then both of them are kidnapped and find themselves in a research facility. I thought of Dark Angel, but there are plenty of creepy research facilities in movies and TV to choose from.From then on, Artur and Elena have to figure out who has them and why, withstand the torture and experiments, try to escape and rescue a couple of shapeshifters, try to stop the evil mastermind, and deal with their personal demons.And oh, yeah. They fall in love. Look at the spine of the book--you knew that was coming. This romance was done quite nicely, and there's no question of whether they're actually in love with who the other person is.There are quite a few intriguing developments and characters I'll be hoping to see in the future. I've put the next book on my to-buy list.
    • 4/5
      In the big-picture view, the story is about a goodly paranormal investigation agency, Dirk and Steele, vs. a less-moralistic up-and-coming rival agency. On a character-level, there is a love story between Artur, a psychometrist, and Elena, a psychic healer. In between, there are interesting heroes and villians, murders, mysteries, kidnappings, and social and political machinations, all in a well-written, tightly-wrapped plot. Don't judge this book by its cover; it's much more than just another romance novel.
    • 4/5
      Elena Baxter has magic hands, she can heal with them. She works as an unpaid volunteer in a hospital helping those who are very ill, getting no praise other than for her patience and dedication to her cause. She doesn't understand what she does and feels lost.Artur Loginov can see what has happened, making him useful on crime scenes. He works for Dirk & Steele helping with cases.The two of them are kidnapped by the Consortium, to be tested and broken for their cause or to die while being experimented on. The Consortium don't care about their people except as tools and don't want thinking from their staff, they just want obedience.It's an interesting read and the two main characters are well drawn. I look forward to more stories to learn more about this world.